Tuesday, September 14, 2004
Chechens and A Short History of Muslim Nazis
Some news stories are so unbelievably abominable it takes time to absorb the impact. Such are the stories out of Beslan, Russia.
"Valery Andreyev, the top Federal Security Service official in the region, said 20 militants were killed, including 10 Arabs. The Arab presence among the attackers would support President Vladimir Putin's contention that al-Qaida terrorists were involved in the Chechen conflict, where Muslim fighters have been fighting Russian forces in a brutal a war of independence for most of the past decade."
News that Arab men were part of the terrorists seems to be a change from the opinions reached in this Christian Science Monitor article about Chechens fighting in Afghanistan.
"But most experts who study the tiny, traditionally Muslim republic of Chechnya say they doubt its legendary warriors have joined Osama bin Laden's terrorist network in large enough numbers to become its "biggest single component," as some reports have claimed. For one thing, they say, most Chechens are not religious. "Islam did not strike deep roots among the Chechens, and has played only a slight role in their rebellions against Russian rule in the past," says Alexander Iskanderyan, head of the independent Center for Caucasus Studies in Moscow. "Religion is not the key to understanding Chechens; their painful past is."
"Many experts agree that a history of bloody defeat, mass repression and bitter exile, combined with a martial culture in which boys become full-fledged soldiers at age 12, may have led significant numbers of young Chechen men to join Al Qaeda, seeking revenge not just against Russia, but the entire non-Muslim world. "The Chechens cannot forget or forgive the mass suffering they have endured, and which they continue to bear," says Svetlana Omarova, an expert with the Confederation of Repressed Peoples of the former USSR, a human rights organization. "This is not to offer excuses, but one must understand how profoundly offended this nation is. These are men who are used to fighting for a lost cause."
The Chechen "lost cause" began centuries ago with the Russian Tsars. (Additional information from the Christian Science Monitor.)
"General Mikhail Yermolov, who led Russian forces in a ruthless 30-year campaign to crush Chechnya in the 19th century, called them "congenital rebels." Novelist Mikhail Lermontov, who took part in that struggle, was more admiring of the Chechens, writing in 1832: "Their god is freedom; their law is war." Yermolov conquered Chechnya by burning its forests to deny cover to the guerrillas, and by killing dozens of Chechen captives for every Russian soldier he lost. [from CSM]
"Russian imperialism in the Caucasus lasted several centuries and met its most determined and well-organized resistance on the territory of Chechnya and the bordering regions of Dagestan. There, for a quarter of a century, Shamil's Islamic proto-state fought the Russian army until 1864."
When the Bolsheviks began their deadly march, Chechens allegedly fought on both sides, only uniting against the Red Army after the Tsarist army had been defeated. That revolt was finally defeated in late 1921.
"The Congress of the Mountain People that convened in the trans-Caucasus in January 1921 (chaired by Stalin, the People's Commissar of Nationalities at the time) declared the formation of the Mountainous Soviet Republic of the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic (RSFSR). Over the ensuing three years, Chechnya, Ingushetia, and a number of other autonomous oblasts of the Northern Caucasus became independent.
But the "peace" only lasted until the Soviets had consolidated their power over greater Russia.
"A brief period of relative tranquillity was cut short by the mass political repression of the collectivization campaign during the late 1920s and early 1930s. This sparked a new wave of anti-Soviet uprisings in Chechnya that continued for the next ten years, gradually taking on the character of guerrilla warfare."
During WWII the Chechens looked for new allies. They created a rebel government that "…issued an "Appeal to the Chechen-Ingush People," to "wait for the Germans as [welcome] guests." The government declared that the Germans would be greeted with hospitality if they acknowledged the independence of the Chechen republic."
The Muslim communities of the Caucasus joined forces with the Nazis.
In fact, the dark, dirty secret is that many Islamists fought with the Nazis. Bosnian Muslims, Albanians in Kosovo and Macedonia, other Muslims in Bosnia-Hercegovina, and Chechen Muslims all formed Nazi-Muslim SS Divisions.
Nazis found sympathetic allies among the Muslims of that era, and their primary ally was the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini. In 1937 he met with Adolf Eichmann and became a Nazi agent. In 1941 he went to Baghdad to help in a failed pro-Nazi coup against the British. (One of the other coup plotters was Saddam Hussein's future father-in-law and Yasser Arafat is believed to be al-Husseini's nephew.) He then met with Hitler himself and gained a promise the Nazis would "free" the Caucasus and the Arab world from British rule once they had established their dominance in Europe. Not coincidentaly, shortly after the Hitler/al-Husseini meeting, the infamous "Final Solution" was implemented.
It's doubtful Hitler would have kept his word to the Mufti. Hitler was not a Christian although he attempted to pass himself off as one. He believed he was an Aryan, a mythical people from Atlantis who were both great artists and great warriors. Himmler was the architect of the "religion" fashioned from that myth, and claimed Christians had actually stolen the holy teachings and relics from the Aryans to pass them off as their own. A victorious Hitler would never allow a religion such as Islam free reign in his idyllic "Aryan" world. (Ironically "Aryan" is actually an Iranian word that means "noble.")
Al-Husseini either ignored the possibility or thought he could sway Hitler when the time came. He went about encouraging fellow Muslims to ally themselves with the Third Reich, personally bringing the Bosnian Muslims into the newly established Nazi-Muslim SS which slaughtered both Jewish and Christian Serbians during the Nazi occupation of Yugoslavia.
The Mufti escaped ahead of the Allied forces sweeping through Germany, as did many other mid-level Nazis SS. We know many found asylum in South America, but just as many found refuge in the Islamic Middle East, including Syria and Egypt, and busied themselves teaching and training endless ranks of Islamic terrorists. The Nazi "final-solution" philosophy, the plotting, the tactics, the killing of innocents continues unabated to this day.
So every time I read the 'Bush equals Hitler' meme, I realize how dirt-stupid the liberal left really is, including Hugh Pearson of Newsday .
"As I watched Tuesday night's network coverage of the unrelenting political propaganda hour known as the Republican National Convention, the first thought that came to mind was of old newsreels of those self-congratulatory Nazi rallies held in Germany during the reign of Adolf Hitler."
On second thought, they're not dirt-stupid--they're bloody -stupid.
// posted by CJ @ 1:55 PM ¶ 6:33 PM
"Valery Andreyev, the top Federal Security Service official in the region, said 20 militants were killed, including 10 Arabs. The Arab presence among the attackers would support President Vladimir Putin's contention that al-Qaida terrorists were involved in the Chechen conflict, where Muslim fighters have been fighting Russian forces in a brutal a war of independence for most of the past decade."
News that Arab men were part of the terrorists seems to be a change from the opinions reached in this Christian Science Monitor article about Chechens fighting in Afghanistan.
"But most experts who study the tiny, traditionally Muslim republic of Chechnya say they doubt its legendary warriors have joined Osama bin Laden's terrorist network in large enough numbers to become its "biggest single component," as some reports have claimed. For one thing, they say, most Chechens are not religious. "Islam did not strike deep roots among the Chechens, and has played only a slight role in their rebellions against Russian rule in the past," says Alexander Iskanderyan, head of the independent Center for Caucasus Studies in Moscow. "Religion is not the key to understanding Chechens; their painful past is."
"Many experts agree that a history of bloody defeat, mass repression and bitter exile, combined with a martial culture in which boys become full-fledged soldiers at age 12, may have led significant numbers of young Chechen men to join Al Qaeda, seeking revenge not just against Russia, but the entire non-Muslim world. "The Chechens cannot forget or forgive the mass suffering they have endured, and which they continue to bear," says Svetlana Omarova, an expert with the Confederation of Repressed Peoples of the former USSR, a human rights organization. "This is not to offer excuses, but one must understand how profoundly offended this nation is. These are men who are used to fighting for a lost cause."
The Chechen "lost cause" began centuries ago with the Russian Tsars. (Additional information from the Christian Science Monitor.)
"General Mikhail Yermolov, who led Russian forces in a ruthless 30-year campaign to crush Chechnya in the 19th century, called them "congenital rebels." Novelist Mikhail Lermontov, who took part in that struggle, was more admiring of the Chechens, writing in 1832: "Their god is freedom; their law is war." Yermolov conquered Chechnya by burning its forests to deny cover to the guerrillas, and by killing dozens of Chechen captives for every Russian soldier he lost. [from CSM]
"Russian imperialism in the Caucasus lasted several centuries and met its most determined and well-organized resistance on the territory of Chechnya and the bordering regions of Dagestan. There, for a quarter of a century, Shamil's Islamic proto-state fought the Russian army until 1864."
When the Bolsheviks began their deadly march, Chechens allegedly fought on both sides, only uniting against the Red Army after the Tsarist army had been defeated. That revolt was finally defeated in late 1921.
"The Congress of the Mountain People that convened in the trans-Caucasus in January 1921 (chaired by Stalin, the People's Commissar of Nationalities at the time) declared the formation of the Mountainous Soviet Republic of the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic (RSFSR). Over the ensuing three years, Chechnya, Ingushetia, and a number of other autonomous oblasts of the Northern Caucasus became independent.
But the "peace" only lasted until the Soviets had consolidated their power over greater Russia.
"A brief period of relative tranquillity was cut short by the mass political repression of the collectivization campaign during the late 1920s and early 1930s. This sparked a new wave of anti-Soviet uprisings in Chechnya that continued for the next ten years, gradually taking on the character of guerrilla warfare."
During WWII the Chechens looked for new allies. They created a rebel government that "…issued an "Appeal to the Chechen-Ingush People," to "wait for the Germans as [welcome] guests." The government declared that the Germans would be greeted with hospitality if they acknowledged the independence of the Chechen republic."
The Muslim communities of the Caucasus joined forces with the Nazis.
In fact, the dark, dirty secret is that many Islamists fought with the Nazis. Bosnian Muslims, Albanians in Kosovo and Macedonia, other Muslims in Bosnia-Hercegovina, and Chechen Muslims all formed Nazi-Muslim SS Divisions.
Nazis found sympathetic allies among the Muslims of that era, and their primary ally was the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini. In 1937 he met with Adolf Eichmann and became a Nazi agent. In 1941 he went to Baghdad to help in a failed pro-Nazi coup against the British. (One of the other coup plotters was Saddam Hussein's future father-in-law and Yasser Arafat is believed to be al-Husseini's nephew.) He then met with Hitler himself and gained a promise the Nazis would "free" the Caucasus and the Arab world from British rule once they had established their dominance in Europe. Not coincidentaly, shortly after the Hitler/al-Husseini meeting, the infamous "Final Solution" was implemented.
It's doubtful Hitler would have kept his word to the Mufti. Hitler was not a Christian although he attempted to pass himself off as one. He believed he was an Aryan, a mythical people from Atlantis who were both great artists and great warriors. Himmler was the architect of the "religion" fashioned from that myth, and claimed Christians had actually stolen the holy teachings and relics from the Aryans to pass them off as their own. A victorious Hitler would never allow a religion such as Islam free reign in his idyllic "Aryan" world. (Ironically "Aryan" is actually an Iranian word that means "noble.")
Al-Husseini either ignored the possibility or thought he could sway Hitler when the time came. He went about encouraging fellow Muslims to ally themselves with the Third Reich, personally bringing the Bosnian Muslims into the newly established Nazi-Muslim SS which slaughtered both Jewish and Christian Serbians during the Nazi occupation of Yugoslavia.
The Mufti escaped ahead of the Allied forces sweeping through Germany, as did many other mid-level Nazis SS. We know many found asylum in South America, but just as many found refuge in the Islamic Middle East, including Syria and Egypt, and busied themselves teaching and training endless ranks of Islamic terrorists. The Nazi "final-solution" philosophy, the plotting, the tactics, the killing of innocents continues unabated to this day.
So every time I read the 'Bush equals Hitler' meme, I realize how dirt-stupid the liberal left really is, including Hugh Pearson of Newsday .
"As I watched Tuesday night's network coverage of the unrelenting political propaganda hour known as the Republican National Convention, the first thought that came to mind was of old newsreels of those self-congratulatory Nazi rallies held in Germany during the reign of Adolf Hitler."
On second thought, they're not dirt-stupid--they're bloody -stupid.
// posted by CJ @ 1:55 PM ¶ 6:33 PM
