PSCRP-BESA Reports No 69 (July 10, 2024)
by Alex Greenberg
Dagestan witnessed a series of terrorist attacks on June 23, when anonymous terrorists attacked churches and synagogues in Derbent and Makhachkala. After this, the militants attacked an Orthodox Church on Lenin Street and then set fire to the Kele-Numaz Synagogue on Tagi-Zade Street while continuing to exchange fire with the police. The church and synagogue burned down. Simultaneously, militants in Makhachkala set fire to a synagogue on Yermoshkin Street and opened fire on a traffic police post in the same area. The Holy Assumption Cathedral, where 19 people took shelter after the shooting began, also came under fire.
The authorities launched a counter-terrorist operation, which ended on June 24. According to the Interfax news agency, 22 people lost lives as a result of the terrorist attacks and counter-terrorist operations. These terrorist attacks cannot be considered unrelated to the anti-Semitic riots at the Makhachkala airport on October 29. A mob of hundreds of rioters, chanting anti-Semitic slogans, stormed the airport after the arrival of a flight from Israel. The rioters checked the passports of the passengers and airport workers, looking for Jews among them. The authorities did nothing to stop the riots, whereas riot police (OMON) arrived only after the riots had stopped. Anti-Semitic riots broke out in other cities of Dagestan as well.
Most comments in the Western and Russian liberal media focus criticism on the ineffectiveness of the Russian authorities, arguing that the Kremlin’s current policy of brute force is not working. While it is difficult to question the ineffectiveness of the Russian authorities in fighting terrorism in the Caucasus, it should be remembered that the Russian authorities are ineffective everywhere in Russia, and Dagestan is hardly an exception. Most analysts, while rightly drawing attention to the lack of good governance and human rights violations in Russia, avoid addressing Islamist terrorism and anti-Semitism as separate problems in Dagestan. Likewise, no liberal media outlet (Western or Russian) has attempted to offer reasonable explanations for the anti-Semitic and anti-Christian nature of the riots and subsequent terrorist attacks. While the Kremlin has no qualms to instrumentalize anti-Semitism for its political needs, there are no grounds to blame it for the violent anti-Semitic riots. Such an approach absolves the concerned population of responsibility for what happens in their country.
Some precedents of anti-Semitism in Dagestan
Antisemitism in Dagestan is neither a new phenomenon nor an innovation introduced by the federal authorities. For the first time, anti-Jewish violence in the Caucasus broke out in the 19th century during the Caucasian War. The level of religious confrontation increased, and intolerance towards non-believers appeared, which forced Jews to migrate under the protection of Russian fortresses in the North Caucasus. This led to the establishment of Jewish communities in Grozny, Nalchik, Kizlyar and other Russian fortresses. During the Civil War, violence was widespread in the Caucasus — there were both pogroms and murders.
Anti-Semitic incidents also occurred after World War II. In August 1960, an article titled “Without God, the Road is Wide” was published in a Buynaksk newspaper. It claimed that Jews were buying 5-10 grams of Muslim blood, diluting it in a large bucket of water and selling it to other Jews. On the same day, the contents of this article were broadcast on local radio. The situation almost ended in a pogrom, which did not happen only thanks to Moscow’s intervention.
During the Six-Day War, a rally condemning Israel was held in a mosque in Derbent. It was addressed by kolkhoz (collective farm) chairmen and directors of factories and plants, who called on the authorities to “strike at the aggressor.” The people in the streets took these words as permission to attack Jews, and an impending pogrom loomed in the city. Jews appealed to the authorities for protection and also organized self-defense units in case of an attack. That time, it was avoided.
In the early 1990s, immediately after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Mountain Jews in Dagestan became the target of very severe criminal violence, including property seizures and murders. Many Mountain Jews left for major Russian cities and Israel.
Foreign violent Islamism
The exact ideological affiliation of the perpetrators remains unclear, although some Telegram channels identified them as Osman and Adil Omarov. They both were killed in a shootout with law enforcement. The Baza channel published footage of the attack in Makhachkala and claimed it had been filmed by Osman Omarov.
Al-Azaim, the media of the Russian branch of IS, Khorasan, praised the attack by “their brothers from the Caucasus” for demonstrating their capabilities. Given that Al-Azaim referred to their Caucasian “brothers” without claiming responsibility for the attack, it can be assumed that the direct culprit is Wilayah al-Qawqaz (Islamic State — Caucasus Province, IS-CP), which is also an ISIS branch.
IS-CP was established in June 2015 and has previously claimed responsibility for a number of terrorist attacks in the Caucasus and elsewhere in Russia. In 2017, the group claimed an attack on a Russian National Guard unit in Chechnya that killed six servicemen. In 2019, the terrorists claimed responsibility for the explosion in an apartment building in Magnitogorsk on December 31, 2018, which killed 39 people. Also in 2019, the group claimed an attack on police officers near the residence of Chechen head Ramzan Kadyrov in Grozny.
Roots of Islamism in Dagestan
ISIS and other types of violent Islamism spread across the Caucasus; however, they have never been uprooted. The structure of local society in Dagestan may provide an explanation for how the Caucasus has become a hotbed for all kinds of imported violent Islamism.
Local Dagestani traditions have always been intertwined with Islam. The peculiarities of the region are manifested in the clan system and the ubiquity of the Muslim mystical tradition, Sufism. Jamaat in Dagestan is not a synonym for an Islamist cell, but rather another word for clan. Islam in the Caucasus is a popular traditional religion, not necessarily a political ideology. Sufism throughout the Muslim world is divided into various Sufi orders which are called “tariqats”.
The” import” of Saudi Wahhabism and Islamism began in the 1990s. Numerous Arab emissaries came to the Caucasus and influenced local youth. The interaction between the two varieties of Islam created tensions between young people and more traditional adults. Salafis and Wahhabis supported armed struggle not only against the Russian authorities but also against local authorities, who were considered “kuffar” and “tawaghit” (infidels and tyrants).
One of the Salafi leaders of Dagestan, Bahauddin Kebedov attempted to conquer the mountain regions of Dagestan with his troops. Salafi “daawah” (preaching of Islam) appealed to Caucasian youth who were experiencing economic deprivation, unemployment and lack of prospects for the future. Salafism in its imported form opposes any understanding and cooperation with the authorities. Of course, economic hardship alone does not lead to radicalization, so poverty and deprivation cannot be considered the ultimate cause of Islamism. However, there is no doubt that socio-economic grounds coupled with certain cultural-historical metrics enhance susceptibility to the violent messages of Islamism. Moreover, the more people suffer from hardship in the present, the more their propensity to embrace an Islamist political utopia increases.
Dagestan is a very multi-ethnic region, as its population consists of at least seven Muslim ethnicities, including Avars, Lezgins, and Chechens. Many Dagestani Islamists were Chechens, so thus, the two Chechen wars had a direct impact on the dynamics of Islamism in Dagestan. The ethnic heterogeneity of the population warrants tensions and lack of national cohesion. Islamism fills this lacuna and therefore creates an alternative community that replaces the missing national one.
Connection with the Middle East
From the very beginning, the spread of Islamism in the North Caucasus has been closely linked to geopolitical fluctuations in the Middle East, starting with Arab veterans of the jihad against the USSR in Afghanistan. They later spread their ideology throughout the Muslim world and shared their combat experience with the Caucasians. Islamic preachers in Dagestan are generally well versed in Arabic and learn from native Arabic speakers.
Thanks to Arabic media such as Al-Jazeera, Dagestani Muslims closely follow the plight of the Palestinians. Having embraced Islamism, Dagestanis also adopted a virulent form of anti-Semitism, which has been superimposed on already existing antisemitic patterns.
Genesis of anti-Semitism among Russian Muslims
The dogmatic and conspiratorial anti-Semitism is thus inextricably linked to the ideology of Muslim radicals who aggressively criticize the state of Israel. Anti-Zionism among Muslims can manifest itself in various forms, from expressing solidarity with the “struggling Palestinian people” to supporting fanatical terrorists. While few are willing to participate in a war against “infidels and Zionists,” there is a consensus among Russian Muslim leaders in support of “the just right of the Palestinian people to establish an independent state with Jerusalem as its capital.”
Dogmatic anti-Judaism may well be part of the ideology of Islamic fundamentalists, which implies taking the foundations of the Muslim faith seriously. Russian Islam has for centuries actively interacted with both Orthodoxy and the pagan traditions of the peoples of Russia, which means that there is an acute conflict between Islamism imported from abroad and the generally accepted, traditional forms of Islam in Russia. In addition, fundamentalism implies an uncompromising struggle not only with Judaism, but also with Christianity, and even more so with the secular model of the state.
The inevitable conflict with the authorities and Islamic clergy interested in stability pushes hardened radicals underground, which, of course, is fraught with extremism and terrorist methods of struggle.
Anti-Zionism, on the other hand, can be considered acceptable both to the broader Muslim population (due to a sense of solidarity with the Palestinian part of the Ummah) and to the political establishment in modern Russia (due to the traditions of Soviet propaganda). Anti-Zionism was part of the official ideology and propaganda of the Soviet regime. Therefore, Muslim leaders can easily find common ground on this issue with Russian anti-Semites.
Modern Islamic fundamentalism is a political rather than a purely religious movement, and anti-Semitism plays an important role in it, helping to mobilize and consolidate supporters in the face of a common (albeit mythological) enemy. This enemy is described in religious terms but is perceived in political realities.
In terms of political ideology, Islamic fundamentalism is characterized by a declared war against modern Western democratic values that are perceived as “Jewish”. The essence of a democratic society is that Jews can engage in debauchery, lies and deceit with minimal consequence. [1] Another author argues that anyone who separates the Ummah from its religion and Quran can only be a Jewish agent, willingly or unwillingly, regardless of their origin.[2]
The distinctive feature of Muslim anti-Semites is that they do not merely oppose Jews as agents of modernism, democracy and, according to Islamists, universal human values incompatible with the Quran. Instead, their struggle takes on the character of confronting a metaphysical, absolute evil. One prominent Islamic theologian asserts that Allah has commanded Muslims to fight those whom he considers “friends of Satan” wherever they are. And among those who are considered Satan’s best friends in our time are the Jews.
In essence, anti-Zionism is tantamount to anti-Semitism because it is directed against the legitimacy of Israel’s existence, not against specific policies of the Israeli state. It is simply a semantic ploy that allows anti-Semites to claim that they are merely objecting to Israeli policies. In both Soviet and contemporary Iranian discourse, the official parlance uses the term “world Zionism” to avoid using the word “Jews”.
Finally, modern leftist ideologies, including Soviet propaganda and Islamism (both Sunni and Iranian Shi’ite), deny the Jewish nation, claiming that Judaism is merely a religious denomination. Consequently, they argue that Jews have no right to self-determination as a nation.
Samples of Anti-Semitic Content
Content analysis of Dagestan Islamist Telegram channels fully confirms the above-mentioned trends. The channel Islam Dag positions itself as “an information channel for Muslims in Dagestan”. However, its URL address is revealing: it is called “ahlu sunna Dagestan”, which hints at its Salafist affiliation. The channel is rife with anti-Semitic content.
The channel’s owner Dawood Abu Jamal has posted antisemitic content since October 2023
On June 25, he posted a link to an antisemitic YouTube video in which Russian nationalists discuss “the plans of Chabad followers to destroy Russia through the implementation of the Dulles Doctrine and the Harvard Plan ((Harvard Project on the Soviet Social System (HPSSS))” .
On June 5, he posted a link to footage claiming that “Chabad is preparing to stage a nuclear apocalypse”. Abu Jamal posted a link to a YouTube video about “the Chabad mystical sect controlling the world”.
On June 9, Abu Jamal reposted several pieces from Russian news agencies condemning the “Ukrainian regime” and reporting on “human rights violations in Crimea (by Ukrainian authorities prior to Russia’s annexation of Crimea)”.
The channel’s owner posted a link to an interview with Caucasian mystic Alan Mamiyev. The latter went into lengthy explanations about occult energies that govern the world. “One such energy is the Kaballah, which strengthens the Mossad, the IDF and Israel as a whole. The fact that Israel’s banking system continues to operate proves that this occult energy is effective. Yet it strengthens not only the power of Israel, but also the power of the Jews throughout the world — judging by the effectiveness of their control over everything”. [3]
On June 05, Abu Jamal posted a link to an interview with author Alexandre Usanin. In his musings, Usanin delves into the conspiracies of Freemasons, who he says exert control over the media. He repeatedly praises Putin and the KGB, claiming that the Russian media is held back by liberals who forbid the broadcast of positive content and are interested in spreading drugs and alcohol among Russians. In the interview, Usanin echoed some typical features of Russian propaganda, including the claim that there is no real conflict between the West and Russia, just as there is no conflict between Ukraine and Russia. Only those who hold opaque liberal views and control the media seek to create conflict. In this context, he argues that the German media is controlled by liberals and Freemasons of Jewish descent. The latter exercise control over the German media to the extent that they see fit. After World War II, the Jews forced Germany to make financial contributions, while Russia never received compensation. Usanin argued that the Soviet Union was effective in maintaining the nation’s spiritual health. Despite its atheistic nature, the censorship prevented the broadcasting of negative materials such as pornography, drugs, and alcohol.
His wording regarding World War II fits perfectly with the Kremlin’s narrative bordering on the Holocaust denial. According to this narrative, the primary victim of the Nazis was the Soviet Union (with the Russian people implied), not the Jews.
On June 23, Abu Jamal reposted a news story about Israel’s ongoing war with Hamas and Hezbollah. Prior to that date, he had consistently portrayed Jews as “descendants of the children of apes and pigs”, a typical Islamic pejorative term for Jews in Arabic. [4]
On June 29, Abu Jamal posted a YouTube video of a Dagestani Jew appealing to the leadership of Dagestan to stop anti-Semitic riots. The footage also showed a destroyed synagogue. Sounds of a firefight during the counter-terrorist operation could be heard.
He added the following text to the link: “Here’s another one coming out to whine about his Jews. This scumbag is snitching to the FSB about Khabib and Islam Makhachev because they support Palestine. In this situation, all the Jews of Dagestan will be on the screens and we will know their faces, these assholes will sweep away all the diapers from the store shelves.”
All Islamist channels in Dagestan are full of Arabic content. Some of this content is blatantly anti-Semitic and is no different from Hamas propaganda. One such channel is “Khawater Daghestaniya” (Thoughts of a Muslim Woman). The address of the channel bears the name of Salma Kebedova, who may be a relative of the aforementioned Dagestani terrorist. Her posts are full of the most anti-Jewish quotes from the Quran and Hadith and support for Palestine. [5]
Another channel, Daru Salataw, on October 8 quoted a verse of the Quran calling on Muslims to fight the infidels and praying to Allah to shake the earth beneath the feet of the Jews.
On October 10, Daru Salataw posted a statement by Egyptian sheikh Ali Tantawi: “I curse Hitler in his grave — if he has a grave — not for what they falsely claimed he did to the Jews, but for not ridding humanity of the abomination of the Jews completely”.
Conclusions and Implications
The revealed patterns of anti-Semitic content fully correspond to Likhachev’s methodological description of the patterns of anti-Semitism among Russian Muslims. Anti-Semitism in Dagestan functions in two interrelated directions:
On the one hand, it fully coincides with both Kremlin propaganda clichés and popular Russian anti-Semitism. This anti-Semitism echoes the Kremlin’s war on Ukraine, which seeks to minimize the conflict between the West and Russia and to appropriate the Holocaust by claiming that Russian people were its real victims.
On the other hand, the Arabic content of the Dagestani Islamist media is no different from the most violent Islamist propaganda, including that of Hamas. These anti-Semitic statements also meet all the characteristics of Muslim fundamentalist anti-Semitism. These characteristics include Holocaust denial, portraying Jews and Israel as demonic, metaphysical enemies couched in political terms, and completely ignoring the atrocities perpetrated by Hamas.
Despite the Russian authorities’ undeniable responsibility for the current difficulties in the region, Islamism and the virulent anti-Semitism it engenders are themselves a serious problem in Dagestan. Neither the leadership nor the population of Dagestan should enjoy the condescending attitude of the West.
Alex Greenberg, Capt. (res.) IDF Military Intelligence research department, is a PhD candidate at the Department of Middle Eastern History, Tel-Aviv University.
[1] Sayid Qutb, Our battle with the Jews. The main ideologue of the Muslim Brotherhood, Sayid Qutb authored a book “Ma’rakatuna ma’ al-Yahud (Our Battle with the Jews). The book is quoted abundantly by Islamists on the Web. https://www.odabasham.net/مقالة/109072-معركتنا-مع-اليهود-للأستاذ-سيد-قطب
[2] Abd Al-Halim Mahmoud, al-Jihad wa-l-Nasr ( Jihad and Victory), p.50, https://www.noor-book.com/en/ebook-الجهاد-عبد-الحليم-محمود-pdf
[3] https://t.me/ahlu_sunna_dagestan/3223 ; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-k6Qc36b5H4
[4] https://t.me/ahlu_sunna_dagestan/3215; https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/muslim-clerics-jews-are-the-descendants-of-apes-pigs-and-other-animals
[5] https://t.me/kebedovaSalma1994/683; https://t.me/kebedovaSalma1994/762; https://t.me/kebedovaSalma1994/1709