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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: lorne who wrote (122082)	12/27/2003 4:14:30 PM
From: Bilow	Respond to of 281500

Hi lorne; Re: "How come the moslems hate Russia? Is it because of Russian support for Israel? Or could it because there is the odd infidel there?" Russia has little support for Israel. Their problem is their own backyard, Chechnya, a region of strategic importance that just happens to be populated by people who speak a different language than Russian, look different from Russians, don't like the same foods or drinks, have a different religion, have a long history of fighting the Russians, and have buddies around the world who sympathize. The result of the Russian occupation of Chechnya is similar to the result of the Israeli occupation of Palestine and the US occupation of Iraq: guerilla war forever. Chechnya is adjacent to Russia so the Russians have good reasons to keep fighting. My guess, however, is that they will eventually let the shitty little place go its own way, especially as the war is now partly fought in Moscow itself. Here's a short history of the place: Conflict in Chechnya, Russia's Renegade Republic Lee Banville, PBS The conflict over the region now known as Chechnya has raged intermittently since the mid-18th century. Reports of fighting between czarist Russian forces and Muslim tribes in the region date back as early as 1722. By mid-century, Russian troops had occupied much of the area. At the same time, Sheikh Mansur, a Muslim cleric, unified the Chechen tribes and declared holy war on the czar and his army, delivering a shocking defeat to Russian forces in 1785. Mansur is still seen as a mystical figure and an inspiration to generations of Chechen separatists. ... Richard Clogg, professor of modern Balkan history at the University of London, wrote in a 1995 article for the Times of London that Russia's moves to limit Islam's religious influence in the region only strengthened the Chechens' beliefs. "Far from crippling the influence of Islam, as the Soviet authorities hoped, such policies simply drove religion even further underground, and the influence of the Sufi tarikats, or religious brotherhoods, if anything, increased," he writes. The region once again experienced an uneasy calm during the 1970s and 80s, but as the Soviet Union began to unravel, Chechnya once again made a move towards independence. Like prior attempts, the independence movement would soon devolve into a guerilla war between the Russian army and militant separatists aimed at ending more than 150 years of Russian rule. pbs.org -- Carl