Local residents treat fatwa of Grozny conference as outdated for Chechnya

The international Islamic Conference held in Grozny has remained almost unnoticed in Chechnya. This was stated by local residents. They treat the theses of the final declaration as outdated for at least ten years.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on August 25-27, Grozny hosted the Islamic Conference on the topic "The followers of the Sunnah: who are they?". Following the conference results, the participants adopted a fatwa, which recognizes only followers of the Sufi tariqat as the true Muslims. Followers of the Salafi concept of Islam were declared members of a dangerous religious sect.

According to the local residents interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent, the relevance of the held Islamic Conference is minimal for the Chechen Republic.

"I agree with those who believe that the conference is held to improve the status of Chechnya in the Islamic world and strengthen its role in the Islamic field in Russia. Meanwhile, for the residents of the Chechen Republic, the conference remained almost unnoticed," states a native of Chechnya, a graduate student of the Moscow State University, who introduced himself as Tamerlan.

He has also noted that "the Islamic Ummah is uniform in Chechnya", and therefore he called "the theses of the Grozny fatwa as not relevant to the republic and outdated for ten years."

Another local resident, who asked not to be named, also shares the opinion concerning the lack of interest in the Islamic Conference held in Grozny.

"Residents of Chechnya are not interested in it, since this fatwa has long been acting in Chechnya. Meanwhile, before the conference, the republic officially criticized followers of all other concepts of Islam, other than Sufis of the Qadiri tariqat. For now, the conference just let people of other countries know about that, and it did not surprise the residents of Chechnya," said the man.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.