DAGESTANI SECURITY SERVICES CLAIM KUWAIT FINANCES "WAHHABIS."

Dagestani authorities say their investigation into last December’s raid on a Russian army post in Buinaksk has revealed that Kuwait is coordinating a Wahhabi center in Dagestan and financing it through front organizations in Azerbaijan. Until now, the Dagestani authorities had said the Buinaksk raid was carried out by Dagestani Wahhabis with the support of Jordanian-born Chechen field commander Emir Khattab. According to Izvestia, the main ideologist of the "Kavkaz" center is the mullah of the Kizilyurt mosque, Bagaudin Muhammad. In January, he called for Dagestan to secede from the Russian Federation and for the creation of an Islamic state there. (Izvestia, February 26)

Although the radical wing of the Dagestani "Wahhabis" publicly supported the action in Buinaksk, Izvestia’s account should be taken with a grain of salt. It cannot be ruled out that the Dagestani authorities are fabricating a criminal case and plan to present local "Wahhabis" as paid agents of foreign Islamic organizations. This would create a negative image of the "Wahhabis" in the eyes of the population and serve as a pretext for repressing them.

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