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Ingushetia’s Muftiate was absent on Saturday at a con­fer­ence of Muslim religious author­i­ties from through­out the Russian North Caucasus, OC Media has learnt. While the Muftiates of all other republics attended, Ingushetia was rep­re­sent­ed by the state religious author­i­ties, who have been in public conflict with the Mufti since 2015.

The con­fer­ence in Cherkessk, the capital of Karachay–Cherkessia, was dedicated to the 20th anniver­sary of the Coor­di­na­tion Centre for Muslims of the North Caucasus. The centre unites the nine Muftiates of the North Caucasus — the tra­di­tion­al rep­re­sen­ta­tive bodies of local Muslims — and their heads, the Muftis.

According to their website, the centre’s goal is to help Islamic religious author­i­ties in the North Caucasus protect the interests and rights of Muslims as well as to counter religious extremism.

Ibragim Ibragimov, secretary of the centre’s executive committee, confirmed to OC Media that neither Ingushetia’s Mufti, Isa-Khadzhi Khamkhoyev, nor anyone from the Muftiate was present at the con­fer­ence, but declined to say the reason why.

Before the con­fer­ence, Ibragimov told OC Media that the centre sent out invi­ta­tions to all of the North Caucasus Muftiates without exception, and expected the Ingush Mufti to attend. The Ingush Muftiate has not offered any expla­na­tion for their absence, and OC Media failed to reach them for comment.

Ingushetia’s Mufti vs the authorities

Ingush Muslims were instead rep­re­sent­ed at the con­fer­ence by Akhmed Eldzherkiyev, the head of Ingushetia’s Depart­ment for Religious Affairs — a state body.

Ingushetia’s Mufti, Isa-Khadzhi Khamkhoyev, has been in a high-profile row with the republic’s head, Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, for several years.

After a religious conflict in late 2015 in the village of Nasyr-Kort, Yevkurov accused Khamkhoyev of politi­cis­ing his sermons.

In February 2016, Khamkhoyev visited neigh­bour­ing Chechnya, where he crit­i­cised the Ingush author­i­ties for not taking a harder line on ‘Wahhabism’ (referring to Salafism), something the author­i­ties there have done. Relations between Ingushetia and Chechnya’s author­i­ties have broken down in recent years, after a shootout between Chechen and Ingush security forces in 2013 left six Ingush police officers wounded as well as repeated claims on Ingush ter­ri­to­ries voiced by Chechen officials.

[Read on OC Media: Chechen ‘invasion’ sparks outrage in Ingushetia]

Later in 2016, Yevkurov tried to remove Khamkhoyev from his position and liquidate the Muftiate as a publicly reg­is­tered organ­i­sa­tion, a move blocked by Ingushetia’s Supreme Court.

In May 2018, the Muftiate renounced Yevkurov ‘until he stops his dis­crim­i­na­tion against the clergy’ in an official document signed by Mufti Isa-Khadzhi Khamkhoyev. In it, Yevkurov is accused of attempt­ing to liquidate the Muftiate, per­se­cut­ing imams, intim­i­dat­ing their families, closing the Angusht radio station, seizing land in Magas meant for a mosque, and inter­fer­ing in hajj — the pil­grim­age to Mecca.

Yeka­te­ri­na Sokiryan­skaya, a human rights advocate and director of think-tank the Centre for Conflict Analysis and Pre­ven­tion, was quoted by Caucasian Knot as saying that the Muftiate’s decision was a ‘political’, ‘pre-election’ move, probably addressed to the Kremlin, as the Muftiate is not eager to see Yevkurov appointed for a third term as head.

Problems in the Coordination Centre

The Coor­di­na­tion Centre for Muslims of the North Caucasus, since 2003 headed by the Mufti of Karachay–Cherkessia, Ismail-Khadzhi Berdiyev, has according to former chair of the Carnegie Moscow’s Religion, Society, and Security programme, Aleksey Malashenko, ‘always been fragile’.

In 2012, infor­ma­tion cir­cu­lat­ed online that the Muftiate of Chechnya had withdrawn from the centre. Chechnya’s Mufti, Sultan-Khadzhi Mirzayev, was quoted by Golos Islama as saying this was because the centre had not conducted any meetings ‘for the past nine years’, and its leader did not allow other members to organise any.

In 2017, similar infor­ma­tion cir­cu­lat­ed about Daghestan’s Muftiate. Neza­v­isi­maya Gazeta quoted Roman Silantyev, an expert on Islam and former head of the Inter­re­li­gious Council of Russia, as saying that ‘the Dagh­es­ta­nis’ patience has come to an end’.

State­ments by the head of the Centre, Ismail-Khadzhi Berdiyev, on the need for female cir­cum­ci­sion proved con­tro­ver­sial for many in Daghestan.

Prior to the con­fer­ence, Ibragim Mitayev, chief spokesper­son for Chechnya’s Muftiate, told OC Media the Muftiate had never left the Coor­di­na­tion Centre, labelling reports to the contrary ‘rumours’.

The Deputy Mufti of Daghestan, Magomed Magomedov, also denied to OC Media reports that Daghestan’s Muftiate had withdrawn from the Coor­di­na­tion Centre.

Ruslan Kurbanov, a senior researcher at the Institute of Oriental Studies at the Russian Academy of Sciences, told Caucasian Knot that the future of the Coor­di­na­tion Centre ‘depends on the state author­i­ties.’ According to him, the author­i­ties need the centre to facil­i­tate com­mu­ni­ca­tion between different muftiates and the state author­i­ties.