Russian Seminarian in Qom: ‎

Russian Muslims became ensnared in the trap of Wahhabism after collapse of USSR

asa – Dmitriy Kustov (Ismail) said that Wahhabism became popular among the Muslims of ‎‎Russia because of the lack of familiarity and knowledge in regard to pure Islam and they ‎‎became ensnared in the trap of Wahhabism and extremism due to the lack of sufficient ‎‎resources to study Islam correctly. ‎

News ID: 441615

Date: 21 November 2018 - 14:08

RNA – In an exclusive interview with Rasa News Agency, Dmitriy Kustov (now called Ismail), ‎‎a Russian seminarian studying at al-Mustafa International University in Qom discussed ‎‎various issues such as the impact of the Islamic Revolution and the words of the late Imam ‎‎Khomeyni in regard to the spread of Islam in other parts of the world‏.‏

At the beginning of the interview, Ismail spoke about his journey to Islam‏.‏‎ He was a history ‎‎student in Russia and, after a careful study of the early history of Islam, he directly chose ‎‎the Shi’ah school of thought‏.‏

Referring to the 1989 letter of Imam Khomeyni to Mikhail Gorbachev, the former General ‎‎Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, wherein he said “It is clear to ‎‎everybody that from now on communism will only have to be found in the museums of ‎‎world political history, for Marxism cannot meet any of the real needs of mankind,” Ismail ‎‎said, “Imam Khomeyni wrote in a letter to Gorbachev that said that the place of communism ‎‎is in the history museums. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Russian youth ‎‎discovered the opportunity to freely investigate religion and the first religion they examined ‎‎was the religion of their ancestors – Russian Orthodox Christianity.” ‎

In response to a question about the spread of extremism among a large number of Muslims ‎‎in Russia, this seminarian said, “After the collapse of the Soviet Union, in areas such as ‎‎Tatarstan and Dagestan, where the ancestral religion of the people was Islam, the youth had ‎‎the opportunity to learn more and to investigate about this religion but since their religion ‎‎was Sunni Islam, the grounds of influence were provided by Wahhabi and Saudi missionaries. ‎‎Takfiri extremists began to carry out terrorist attacks in different parts of Russia after ‎‎converting to Wahhabism, including the kidnapping and killing of 334 people, including ‎‎156 ‎children at a school [in the city of Beslan in 2004].”‎

After the Soviet Union collapsed due to the weakness of the central government, the ‎‎Chechen people sought independence from Russia and in the midst of the battles, the Saudis ‎‎saw an opportunity for them to spread their influence through the use of Wahhabi ‎‎missionaries but the question arises as to why the people of the Caucasus, Tatarstan, ‎‎Chechnya and other Muslim regions of the vast country (who were originally Sunni Muslims) ‎‎were attracted to Wahhabism and how generally Wahhabism was attractive to these people.‎

In response to this question, Ismail said that Wahhabism became popular among them ‎‎because of the lack of familiarity and knowledge among the youth of the Caucasus region in ‎‎regard to pure Islam. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, they were given the opportunity ‎‎to return to the religion of their ancestors, namely, Islam and they wanted to gain spirituality ‎‎but they became ensnared in the trap of Wahhabism and extremism due to the lack of ‎‎sufficient resources to study Islam correctly. ‎

He continued, saying that at that time, there were no programs and classes to learn about ‎‎Islam. Hence, the Wahhabis, by using translations and interpretations of the Quran, were ‎‎able to find an opening among the Muslims of Russia.‎‏ ‏The Muslims of Russia, who had been ‎‎deprived of Islam for many years and were thirsty for Islamic education, had gained access ‎‎to Islamic sources (at least in appearance) through the Wahhabi muftis. ‎

In response to the question “how can a person who considers himself a Muslim massacre ‎‎innocent people?” Ismail said that after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Chechen ‎‎people initially had a nationalistic approach and only fought for independence from Russia ‎‎and their hostile and violent acts were for the establishment of an autonomous region or an ‎‎independent country‏ ‏but with the arrival of Saudi-Wahhabi missionaries as well as the ‎‎terrorist forces from Saudi Arabia, these actions found a religious and ideological approach‏.‏

Rasa News Agency

112/971‎