Kosovo war rallies Muslims in Russia
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Subject: Kosovo war rallies Muslims in Russia
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Kosovo war rallies Muslims in Russia
Kosovo war rallies Muslims in Russia
Islamic men in Tatarstan sign up to fight, but officials oppose it
Judith Matloff
Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
Kazan, Russia
Way back in the 17th century, so the legend goes, the Russian czar
wanted to marry Syuyumbike, queen of the Tatar people. She agreed, but
only on condition that a tall tower be built.
And the tower was erected, dutifully. But as her wedding day
approached, Syuyumbike couldn't face being the wife of the Russian
Slavic king who had subjugated her people, the Muslim descendants of
Genghis Khan. So she climbed to the top of the tower and leapt to her
death.
Three centuries later, the slender watchtower with its gold crescent
moon is the most revered monument in what is now the semiautonomous
region of western Russia known as the Republic of Tatarstan. The Tatar
people are still chafing against Moscow's yoke - and its policies in
the Balkans.
In the same spirit of self-sacrifice as Syuyumbike, scores of young
men here have volunteered to fight for their Muslim brothers in
Kosovo. Such gestures contradict the Russian federal government's
condemnation of NATO attacks on Yugoslavia and its determination to
remain neutral in the conflict.
"We did not invite them to sign up. They just appeared after we
published newspaper ads in favor of NATO," says Nabi Nureyev, who mans
the desk at the Tatar Public Center.
He says more than 100 men have stopped by to offer their services for
Kosovo since NATO's Balkans campaign began.
Hard Times: A man registers at an unemployment office in the Russian
republic of Tatarstan. Many Tatars identify with Kosovo Albanians as
fellow Muslims living under Slavic domination.
Oleg Nikishin/AP
As far as he knows, it is mainly a show of solidarity and none have
actually gone.
A former officer in the Russian Army, the elderly Mr. Nureyev adds
that if he were younger, he would be willing to fight for a Muslim
nationalist cause.
"I am a Muslim and proud of my Tatar traditions. Because of that I
identify with Kosovo," he says.
Such views are in the minority in this republic of 3.7 million people,
where Muslims make up about one-fourth of the population. Tatars
themselves only slightly out-number Slavic Russians.
But the emotions raised by Kosovo show just how deep the sense of
ethnic identification with one another runs among Tatar nationalists.
The regional government has shied away, however, from the violent
separatism of another ethnic Muslim republic, Chechnya.
Tatarstan's President Mintimer Shaimiev frowns on mercenary activity
of any sort. When the Balkans war began, he raised the unsettling
prospect that Muslim volunteers from Tatarstan might one day battle
Russian mercenaries who support Belgrade.
This is not the first time Tatarstan has gone its own way from Moscow,
500 miles to the west. Since it declared semiautonomy in the waning
days of the Soviet Union in 1990, the republic has regularly clashed
with federal authorities over finances. Tatarstan's red, green, and
white flag flutters through the regional capital, Kazan, rather than
the Russian banner.
Mr. Shaimiev is one of Russia's most powerful men, and he makes the
most of the region's strategic importance, with its endowment of oil
and defense plants. Tatarstan's claim as an intermediary between East
and West is supported by the abundant minarets and faces with Asian
features.
An ambivalent relationship with Slavic Russia has existed ever since
Mongols thundered in from Asia in the 13th century and invaded. Kazan,
nestled in the Volga River region, was for some time their capital.
These Turkic people adopted Islam in AD 922 and the republic remains
one of several Muslim centers in Russia. In 1552 Russian Czar Ivan the
Terrible ravaged Kazan and tried to force Orthodox Christianity on its
citizens. Moscow's famed St. Basil's Cathedral was erected to
celebrate the event. Suspicion of Islam continued through the Soviet
era, when like other religions it was discouraged. But many Tatars
continued worshiping in secret.
This all changed with the creation of the republic, and an
accompanying Muslim revival that has seen the number of mosques jump
from 16 to 1,000. Sheikh Valuallah Hazrat Yakubov, the deputy head of
the Muslim Religious Board of Tatarstan, is against his flock fighting
for Kosovo. But he understands the strong emotional link with that
fellow Muslim minority dominated by Slavs.
"Certainly we feel a connection with Kosovo," he says. "As we're
Muslims from an autonomous region in Russia, it would be the same
tragedy for us if someone began to persecute us, too."
The willingness of some men to serve in Kosovo has caused
consternation for local authorities who were already trying to quell
fundamentalism imported from abroad. Shaimiev recently warned of
attempts by Muslim schools to mobilize young people for military
training outside the region.
There was an outcry in the Tatarstan Parliament a few months ago when
it transpired that one such college had sent three youths to Chechnya
to learn guerrilla techniques.
Raphael Khakimov, a presidential aide, says it was necessary to be on
guard against extremism.
"We're completely against any participation in such [armies]. We
believe Islam can be a unifying force, but a peaceful, nonideological
one."
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