To Tame a Chechen Wolf: Shedding the Failing Frame of Salafism

摘要

The Islamist movement in Chechnya has run into a major roadblock. Unable to mobilize significant support from the population and fighting a sporadic guerrilla war against the Russians has significantly weakened the movement. The Islamist ideology of Jihad for a greater Islamic Chechen state is no longer working. The Chechen public is caught between forces vying for control of the political space; repressed by the Russian-supported Chechen government (who are intermingled with heavy-handed criminal networks) and the Chechen separatist rebels. Kidnappings, illegal arrests, torture, rape and other humanitarian abuses have increased parallel to the amount of pressure from the Russian government to capture or kill Chechen terrorists. While tactically the Islamist Chechen rebels are using guerrilla warfare to combat Russian control of their government, theoretically they are stuck in a downward- spiraling movement. But why have the rebels been unable to mobilize a large part of the uncommitted Chechen population. The answer is quite simple: they have become stuck in their own frame.