On Fri, 1 Nov 2002, BBC Monitoring was quoted as to:
> Chechen warlord Basayev's statement on Moscow siege
> Source: Kavkaz-Tsentr news agency web site in Russian 1 Nov 02
>
> Chechen rebel commander Shamil Basayev has claimed responsibility for
> organizing and carrying out the recent siege of a theatre in Moscow. In
> a statement published by the Chechen rebel web site Kavkaz-Tsentr,
> Basayev said that the hostage-taking was carried out by a unit under his
> direct command - the Riyadus-Salikhin.
<snip>
> The following is the text of the report by Kavkaz-Tsentr news agency web
> site:
>
> 1 November: Statement by the head of the Military Committee of the
> Majlis ul-Shura of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria [CRI], Abdullah
> Shamil Abu Idris [Basayev], in connection with incident in Moscow on
> 23-26 October 2002.
>
> In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate.
>
> Praise be to the God of the Worlds, Who created us as Muslims and showed
> us mercy through jihad on His direct path. Peace and blessings onto [the
> Prophet] Muhammad, his family, his companions and all those who follow
> him on the straight path to Judgment Day.
If Basayev is the most powerful Chechen military commander, which most people seem to agree, the way he frames his public statement seems to bear on the question of whether Chechens forces are fighting for an Islamic state. And the answer sure seems to be yes.
But the question that still leaves up in the air is how muslim such a muslim state would be. More than America is Christian or Israel is Jewish? The reason I ask is because the native Chechen branch of Sufi Islam was historically famously tolerant, and Shamil is a native. I know he's fought side by side with Wahhabis like Khattab. But is there any evidence he's picked up their religious austerity? From the flask of brandy found on Barayev, it looks like Sufi doctrinal softness is still very much intact among even the most fanatically ready-to-die Chechen warriors. I wonder whether religion here isn't mainly a marker of national identity, like it is between Serbs and Croats. Being a fanatical Serb or Croat didn't at all correlate with being very religious. But of course if you asked them, they would also say they wanted their state to be Orthodox or Catholic, respectively, and use religious images as metaphors for their battles.
Michael