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BainsBane

(53,001 posts)
Thu Apr 25, 2013, 06:24 AM Apr 2013

"Who Are the Chechens?"

By Brian Glyn Williams

"In the aftermath of the killing and arrest of the Tsarnaev brothers, responsible for the Boston marathon bombings, the worst terrorist attack on American soil since 9/11, there has been much speculation and interest in their ethnic origins. The media was quick to report that the brothers had Chechen ancestry, but few Americans know what that means. Having taught what is perhaps the only class in America, if not the world, on this obscure land for nine years at University of Massachusetts -- Dartmouth, I thought I would take advantage of this unique moment to shed some light on the brothers’ little known homeland and its ancient people.

The Chechens are an ancient highlander people who have lived in the high peaks of the northeastern Caucasus Mountains since time immemorial. They were there before the modern Indo-European (Aryan) races such as the Germans, Italians, Greeks, Celt and Slavs came to the region, and their complex language known as Vainakh is not related to these European languages. The Chechens converted to a watered down, mystical form of Islam known as Sufism in the 16th century, but were never strict fundamentalists of the sort one found in Saudi Arabia.

In the 1800s the expansionist Russian empire began to encroach into their lands and the Chechen highland clans fought back ferociously. As the Russians burnt their villages and ethnically cleansed the lowlands the Chechens waged a desperate battle to maintain their ancient freedom. At the time Russian authors such as Lermontov and Tolstoy wrote admiringly of the Chechen mountain warriors’ courage. But for all their bravery the Chechens could not resist the might of the transcontinental Russian Empire, the largest state in the world. In 1861 the Chechens finally submitted to Russian rule and became sullen subjects of the Tsars of Orthodox Christian Russia.

In 1917 the tsar was overthrown and the communist Soviet Union was subsequently formed. While the oppressed Chechens hoped that their condition would improve they were to find the Soviets even harder masters. The Soviet secret police and the Red Army cracked down on the Chechens’ folk Islam, killed their leaders, banned festivals and confiscated their lands, all in the aim of wiping out their ancient culture. Then, in 1944, during the final days of World War II, disaster struck. Soviet dictator Josef Stalin ordered the entire Chechen race deported to the depths of Siberia and Soviet Central Asia, to exile in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. More than one in three Chechens died as they were dragged onto freight trains from their burning villages and scattered across the frozen wastes. A whole nation had been sentenced to destruction in what could only be called an act of genocide. But the Chechens reacted by having many children to replenish their nation and by keeping their traditions and language alive in exile."


Full article available at the History News Network:
http://hnn.us/articles/who-are-chechens

8 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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"Who Are the Chechens?" (Original Post) BainsBane Apr 2013 OP
After reading this I had to look up "Sufism," which I'd heard of, LuvNewcastle Apr 2013 #1
It's mysticism BainsBane Apr 2013 #2
There are Sufis, and then there are sufis. pangaia Apr 2013 #3
Can you explain how a region like the Northern Caucuses BainsBane Apr 2013 #4
My understanding... HooptieWagon Apr 2013 #5
Hooptiewagon knows more history that I do. pangaia Apr 2013 #6
Broad brush. Igel Apr 2013 #7
Related. proverbialwisdom May 2013 #8

LuvNewcastle

(16,820 posts)
1. After reading this I had to look up "Sufism," which I'd heard of,
Thu Apr 25, 2013, 07:29 AM
Apr 2013

but didn't really know anything about it. Sufism seem to be less radical than some other branches of Islam, making the Tsarnaev brothers' actions seem all the more strange. I don't know if we'll ever find out exactly why the Tsarnaevs did what they did, but it doesn't appear to be a result of a religious or ethnic tendency towards violence.

BainsBane

(53,001 posts)
2. It's mysticism
Thu Apr 25, 2013, 07:36 AM
Apr 2013
Rumi was a Sufi. I didn't realize entire populations of a region were Sufi. I thought individuals became mystics, but I obviously know very little about it.

pangaia

(24,324 posts)
3. There are Sufis, and then there are sufis.
Thu Apr 25, 2013, 09:08 AM
Apr 2013

Yes, Rumi was a sufi..
Genuine sufi sheikhs and their dervishes are the carriers of the true inner teaching of Islam.
All the rest is nonsense.
If you want to know just a little about a 'modern day' sufi sheikh, look up Muzaffer Ozak, who passed away in 1985. He was the head of the al-Jerrahi al-Halveti order of dervishes.
After he died Tosun Bayrak became the sheikh.

BainsBane

(53,001 posts)
4. Can you explain how a region like the Northern Caucuses
Thu Apr 25, 2013, 09:26 AM
Apr 2013

would be Sufi? Is that an accurate description?

 

HooptieWagon

(17,064 posts)
5. My understanding...
Thu Apr 25, 2013, 09:40 AM
Apr 2013

is that the Chechens converted to Islam in order to curry favor from the Ottomans, in the hope the Ottomans would ally with "fellow muslims" in the struggle to remain independant from Russia. However, the Ottoman Empire was already in decline, and they were reluctant (and probably had limited resources) to help recent converts.
Corrections appreciated if someone has better knowledge than I.

pangaia

(24,324 posts)
6. Hooptiewagon knows more history that I do.
Thu Apr 25, 2013, 07:46 PM
Apr 2013

But, no, entire regions are not true 'sufi', based on my understanding.
Many people, groups call themselves sufi. You can find many false websites claiming to have a connection with what they call 'sufism."

One can not really obtain an 'understanding' of what it means to be a sufi without years of study.
Try searching-

Mevlana
Sufi
Naqshbandi
read Rumi, Ibn Arabi, Al-Ghazali

Igel

(35,191 posts)
7. Broad brush.
Fri Apr 26, 2013, 08:37 PM
Apr 2013

There were sufis every bit into persecuting infidels and heretics as the sternest Salafi. Modern sufism is a bit more mystical and pacifist than traditional or historical sufism. We can apply the same word, sufism, to both, but that doesn't mean that they're identical things.

Moreover, it's not like sufism is genetic. I know people from "good" Irish Catholic families, their ancestors 300 years ago were Catholic and they were born Catholic, who became raving fundies. Or atheists. Or various other things.

Note that it seems likely that Tsarnaev pere was descended from a Chechen family exiled to Central Asia.

There are still a lot of ethnic tensions in the Caucasus. In some cases they're of long standing. In other cases, they're the resent of Soviet-era population movements. In others, the result of post-Soviet demographic and political shifts.

proverbialwisdom

(4,959 posts)
8. Related.
Thu May 9, 2013, 09:35 PM
May 2013
http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130420/NEWS/304200341

UMD professor: 'I hope I didn't contribute'

by Steve Urbon
April 20, 2013 1:55 AM


It was a perfectly logical thing to do. English teacher Steve Matteo at Cambridge Rindge and Latin High School put his Chechen-born student in touch with a friend who happens to be one of the top experts on Chechnya, UMass Dartmouth's Brian Glyn Williams.

That was two years ago. The assignment was to have each student in the very diverse class research their own ethnicity and write about it. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, whose family fled the horrors of the Russian occupation, was about to learn about some harrowing things he escaped from at a very young age.

Williams, whose classes on the War on Terror are routinely packed, obliged by exchanging emails with the then-17-year-old student.

There was a lot to read about. Especially since the Russians retook the tiny separatist republic, there are stories of mass killings, death camps, mass graves, torture, destruction.

There were retaliatory strikes inside Russia, including a hostage drama in a Moscow theater. Russia in the end sent 100,000 troops to surround Chechnya to keep it under their thumb.

As Williams put it, an ancient civilization was being wiped away. As many as one-fifth of the Chechen population of less than a million died in those years.

On Friday morning, Williams awoke to hear that this young man was the suspect being sought in the Boston Marathon bombing Monday.

<>


Link from https://www.nsfwcorp.com/dispatch/didnt-contribute/00f0564d07f9f087e7df86212749b85e9558d432/ posted at RI.
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