The raid by Russian special forces upon the theatre in Moscow that had been stormed by Muslims, Chechen in origin, on Saturday 26th October led to the deaths of the majority of the gunmen and 119 civilians. 245 people are still in hospital, eight in a serious condition.
Since the siege took place, the global media has concentrated upon the use of gas by the Russians. The Russian Health Minister, Yuri Shevchenko, has now stated that it was based on Fentanyl, a potent opium-based narcotic used as an anesthetic. The gas is thought to have led to the deaths of 115 of the hostages according to Andrei Seltsovsky, Moscow’s most senior doctor and others.
The media has focused upon the use of the gas rather than focusing upon the terrorism of Russia against the Muslims of Chechnya. The Muslims of Chechnya have faced brutality, murder, torture and rape by the Russian terrorist forces for a number of years. On the 3rd July 2002 in the village of Meskyer Yurt, 21 men, women and children were bound together, blown up and their remains thrown into a ditch. The Society for Russian-Chechen Relations, in collaboration with Human Rights Watch, reports that in the span of a month between 15 July and 15 August this year, 59 civilians were shot dead, 64 were abducted, 168 were seriously wounded and 298 were tortured. Many men simply disappeared after being detained by Russian soldiers or security police; others were shot outright. During an operation in Chechenya between 21 May and 11 June, 22 men were killed. The majority were aged 20 to 26; two were 15.
On 9th September the bodies of six men from Krasnostepnovskoye were found, naked, with plastic bags wrapped around their heads. In June, a ditch containing 50 mutilated bodies was discovered near the Russian army post in Chankala. The corpses were missing eyes, ears, limbs and genitals. Since February, mass graves have been found near Grozny, Chechen Yurt, Alkhan-Kala and Argun.
Sometimes those who survive wish they were dead, as in Zernovodsk this summer, when townspeople say they were chased on to a field and made to watch women being raped. When the men tried to defend them, 68 of them were handcuffed to an armored truck and raped too.
Russia together with the other world powers including America, Britain and China continues its crusade against the Muslims whilst the world watches, ignoring the atrocities. America and Britain attempt to justify an attack upon the Muslims of Iraq on the basis of the brutality of Saddam Hussein, if this was truly the basis then why has Russia not been attacked? The reality demonstrates that the world powers use sentimental arguments about human suffering solely to achieve their interests. It is not surprising that Russia would use lethal gas against their own citizens, as it is a brutal regime with no consideration for human life, as is America, Britain and the rest of the Capitalist world.
The people of Moscow should remember that they once lived in harmony under the rule of the Khilafah. The presages of Islam reached the lands of the Caucasus towards the end of the reign of Khalifah ‘Umar bin al-Khattab (ra.) when he dispatched the armies of conquest to these lands. And the greater part of it became a part of the Islamic homeland (dar al-Islam) during the reign of Khalifah ‘Uthman (ra.). During the Umayyad Khilafah the whole of the Caucasus, due to the conquests of Maslamah bin ‘Abd al-Malik, became part of the Islamic lands. And it remained like this until the Abbasid Khilafah. The inhabitants of these lands entered into the fold of the deen of Islam and they began to carry the Islamic Call to the people.
During the Abbasid Khilafah it happened that the Mongols attacked the Caucasus and occupied it and worked to destroy it. But something happened which was beyond their expectation: the Muslims of the Caucasus started to convey the Islamic Da’wa to the occupying Mongol army. And so the Mongols embraced Islam in 1256 CE and they became the guardians of the Islamic civilization and the authority of Islam extended to Russia, Siberia and Moscow itself. It was, indeed, an amazing phenomenon: an army that had occupied lands to destroy them and control them, but what happened was that the Deen of Islam occupied the hearts and minds of those soldiers. The bonds of friendship and affection strengthened between the conquerors and the conquered and the conquerors became students who followed the peoples they had just conquered.
That is because the Deen of Islam is the Deen of Fitra (it accords with the human disposition) and because the Muslims carry the Da’wa in obedience to Allah (swt), wishing to guide the people and not to colonize them or exploit them.
Unlike the rulers of the Muslims under the Khilafah, the present rulers have abandoned all the oppressed Muslims of the world including those in Chechnya. Their armies remain idle allowing the colonialist nations to commit atrocities whilst the treacherous rulers provide all forms of support to them including bases and military co-operation.
Muslims have a duty to highlight the corruption of the global terrorist states including Russia and the plight of their oppressed brothers and sisters in Chechnya and the rest of the Islamic world. The Prophet (saw) said, “The Muslim is the brother of another Muslim, he is not unjust to his brother and nor does he abandon him nor disdain him.”
