• DOI:10.1080/0966813052000314101
• Corpus ID: 153594637

Between a Rock and a Hard Place: The Islamisation of the Chechen Separatist Movement

@article{Wilhelmsen2005BetweenAR,
  title={Between a Rock and a Hard Place: The Islamisation of the Chechen Separatist Movement},
  author={Julie Wilhelmsen},
  journal={Europe-Asia Studies},
  year={2005},
  volume={57},
  pages={35 - 59}
}

• Julie Wilhelmsen
• Published 1 January 2005
• Political Science
• Europe-Asia Studies

THE CONFLICT IN CHECHNYA and its consequences are among the most serious challenges currently facing Russia-draining the country of valuable human and material resources, impeding democratic development and contributing to stall military reform. The most dramatic consequence of the nearly ten-year conflict is perhaps the radicalisation and Islamisation of parts of the separatist movement, with international Islamist organisations apparently gaining a foothold on Russian territory. One can get the impression that Islam in itself is the key conflict-generating factor in Chechnya. This article argues against that notion. Although there was a religious revival in Chechnya at the time, Islam initially played a marginal role in the ideology of Chechen separatists.' After nearly ten years of conflict and chaos both Political Islam and Radical Islam, trends quite alien to the Sufi Chechens, have become part of the ideology and working method of many Chechen fighters and politicians.2 This article aims to address two different but closely related questions. First, how did Radical Islam gain a foothold in the Chechen separatist movement? Second, why are the moderates in the separatist movement losing ground to the radicals? To answer these questions three developments that run parallel in time and mutually influence