Posted on 11/16/2001 1:04:22 PM PST by cake_crumb
Last week, a violent confrontation broke out between rival Muslim groups in the Dagestani village of Chabani- Makhi. Members of the Wahhabi group clashed with those of local Tariqat Sufi orders. Two people were killed and three hospitalized. Eighteen Wahhabis were briefly taken hostage until special police sealed off the village and restored order. These events underscore the tensions that have arisen in many Soviet successor states following the relaxation of Soviet-era restrictions on religious proselytizing.
The Wahhabi movement is looked upon with suspicion in several CIS states. A Sunni group, the Wahhabis have been active in Central Asia and Muslim regions of the Caucasus since 1992. The group has a reputation of going beyond simply teaching their form of Islam. It is usually well funded -- mostly by Saudia Arabia -- helps construct mosques, and distributes Korans in local languages. But the Wahhabis' presence in the North Caucasus and the Fergana Valley, in Central Asia, is resented by other sects, particularly the various Sufi orders that have been present in the Muslim areas of the CIS for centuries.
The Wahhabi movement originated in Saudi Arabia in the 18th century as a reformist Sufi movement aimed at cleansing Islam in Arabia. The Wahhabis advocated an orthodox view of Islam that refuted practices adopted by some Muslims after the death of the Prophet Muhhammad. Wahhabism rejected "magical rituals" and the veneration of saints or any human being, something that had become commonplace among Sufi orders. It united the Arabian tribes in the mid-18th century and provided the foundations for the modern state of Saudi Arabia in the early 20th century. The Wahhabis' aggressive proselytizing complements its strict interpretation of Islam and hence has often been labeled fundamentalist.
This article is a long read, but very, very worth the time.
More links to Wahhabism and muwahhidunism:
Wahhabism or Muwahhidun - Encyclopedia of the Orient
Clash of Fundamentalism - Wahhabism in Yemen Yemen? Now, where have I heard about Yemen recently?
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