Dagestan-An Overview

By Brian E. Muhammad -Contributing Writer- | Last updated: Feb 4, 2010 - 1:05:19 PM

(FinalCall.com) - Prior to the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan's November 29, 2009 message “The Time and What Must Be Done Pt. II” the international representative of the Nation of Islam, A. Akbar Muhammad showed the audience at Mosque Maryam, and the many others viewing across the globe via internet webcast an assortment of gifts, Minister Farrakhan had received during his travels across the globe.

NEWS ANALYSIS

He briefly described one visit to the nation of Dagestan.

In November of 1997, The Honorable Louis Farrakhan embarked on a World Friendship tour that took him and a delegation of 23 people to 36 countries and six of the seven continents. One of the locations visited was a little known province in the Caucasus Mountains called Dagestan.

The region is of interest to the Nation of Islam because it is also the birth place of the mother of Master Fard Muhammad, the teacher of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. The stop on the tour came during Minister Farrakhan's visit to Russia where he spoke at the Eid celebrations in Moscow marking the end of the fast of Ramadan. He also addressed the Muslims in nearby Siberia.

Dagestan is a province that is part of the Russian Federation and has been fighting a long struggle of resistance against Russian occupation since the 19th century when the Russians annexed the entire region of the Caucasus Mountains. The lands became part of Russian expansionism that partly made up what became the Soviet Union.

Historically the majority of people in Dagestan were Muslims and for the early resistance fighters, Islam was the banner under which they fought for for the integrity of their land and people. In fact, the most prominent liberation leader of the Caucasus was a Muslim leader from Dagestan by the name of Imam Shamil who valiantly fought the Russian invasion for 25 years. Though ultimately defeated, the people of Dagestan have been a thorn in the side of Russia since that time.

The advent of Russian rule brought oppression, communism and religious suppression. However, with the collapse of the Soviet Union from the mid 1980's to the early 1990's, the people who lived under occupation began to organize themselves towards being independent states and the revival of Islam became the unifying appeal for several of the provinces such as Dagestan and Chechnya. It was as if Islam was buried in the DNA of the people until the right time and circumstances for its release.

Geographically Dagestan is located on a social fault line of a mixture of ideologies, cultures and economic interests which in reality is the underlying root cause of many of the problems in that part of the world.

Citing former U.S. National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski in his book “Caucasus—Mountain Men and Holy Wars” author Nicholas Griffin wrote “there is no more important area in the world than the Caucasus. Geopolitically, it is the pivot about which everything sways: American economic interests, Russian territorial interests, Islamic religious interests, all factors in the oscillating local politics.”

According to Mr. Griffin “everybody is after influence, power, land,” but the real prize in the Caucasus is oil. According to experts there are an estimated 100 billion barrels of crude oil in the Caspian Sea, which gives relevance to the area as a hotspot for world powers.

Minister Farrakhan travelled to Makhachkala, Dagestan on the invitation of Nadyrshakh Khachilayev, the late president of the Muslim Union of Russia and a member of the Russian Duma (Parliament) who was assassinated in August 2003. Mr. Khachilaayev attended the July, 1997 World Islamic People's Leadership Conference hosted by Minister Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam in Chicago that attracted Muslim leaders and scholars from around the world.

While in the Caucasus, Minister Farrakhan was to travel to speak to the people of Chechnya, where the Muslims fought over 250,000 Russian troops to a standstill for independence. Many Muslims from Dagestan, led by Mr. Khachilayev, battled alongside their Chechnyan brothers in the war. Because of this history, the Russian Federation quickly moved to prevent the prominent Muslim leader from making any link with the Muslims of Chechnya by sending the military in to seize the hotel the delegation was staying in.

The heavily armed Russian soldiers only withdrew from the hotel, when Minister Farrakhan dropped his plans to travel to Chechnya, deciding to leave the country and avoid an international incident which would undermine the purpose for which he embarked on the tour, which was to establish peace.'

Related news:

Russian Muslims embrace Farrakhan (FCN Special World Tour Coverage, 02-1998)

Farrakhan, delegation celebrate Ramadan with Moscow Muslims (FCN, 02-1998)

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