Look who's talking! Islamic discourse in the Chechen wars

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Notes

1. See, among others, William H. Sewell, Jr, “The Concept(s) of Culture,” in: Victoria E. Bonnell and Lynn Hunt, eds, Beyond the Cultural Turn: New Directions in the Study of Society and Culture (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1999), pp. 35–61; John J. Gumperz and Jenny Cook Gumperz, “Introduction: Language and the Communication of Social Identity,” in: John J. Gumperz, ed., Language and Social Identity (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1982), pp. 1–21; John C. Turner, et al., Rediscovering the Social Group (New York: Basil Blackwell, 1987).

2. Ann Swidler, “Culture in Action: Symbols and Strategies,” American Sociological Review, Vol. 51, 1986, p. 273.

3. Talcott Parsons, Social Systems and the Evolution of Action Theory (New York: Macmillan, 1977), p. 164.

4. Joseph Schull, “What is Ideology? Theoretical Problems and Lessons from Soviet-Type Societies,” Political Studies, Vol. XL, 1992, p. 731.

5. Noel Malcolm, Kosovo (New York: New York Uuniversity Press, 1998), p. 341.

6. Random House College Dictionary (New York: Random House, 1981).

7. Philo C. Wasburn, Broadcasting Propaganda (Westport, CT: Praeger, 1992), p. 5.

8. Fitzhugh Green, American Propaganda Abroad (New York: Hippocrene Books, 1988), p. 80.

9. Gary D. Rawnsley, Radio Diplomacy and Propaganda (New York: St. Martin's press, 1996), 13.

10. Malcolm, Kosovo, pp. 342, 350.

11. Jean Edward Smith, George Bush's War (New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1992), p. 99. In 2002, his son, President George W. Bush, made the same comparison. Anne E. Kornblut and Charles M. Sennott, “Bush Seeks NATO Solidarity,” Boston Globe, 21 November, 2002.

12. Smith, George Bush's War, p. 250.

13. See Reuven Firestone, Jihad: The Origin of the Holy War in Islam (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999); John L. Esposito, Unholy War: Terror in the Name of Islam (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002).

14. Shahram Chubin and Charles Tripp, Iran and Iraq at War (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1988), p. 32.

15. Bernard Lewis, Islam and the West (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993), p. 181.

16. Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996).

17. Bernard Lewis, The Political Language of Islam (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1988), p. 73.

18. Ibid., p. 77.

19. Ibid., pp. 2–3.

20. Nazih N. Ayubi, Political Islam: Religion and Politics in the Arab World (New York: Routledge, 1991), p. 60.

21. Hamid Enayat, “Iran: Khumayni's Concept of the ‘Guardianship of the Jurisconcult’”, in: James P. Piscatori, ed., Islam in the Political Process, quoted in Ayubi, Political Islam, p. 146.

22. Ruhollah Khomeini, Islamic Government (New York: Manor Books, Inc., 1979), pp. 25–26.

23. Ibid., p. 66

24. Chubin and Tripp, Iran and Iraq at War, p. 38

25. Efraim Karsh and Inari Rautsi, Saddam Hussein: A Political Biography (New York: Free Press, 1991), p. 142.

26. Chubin and Tripp, Iran and Iraq at War, p. 96.

27. Ofra Bengio, Saddam's Word (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998), p. 187.

28. Ibid., p. 187.

29. “Timeline: Chechnya,” BBC News, accessed May 4, 2006, <http://news.bbc.co.uk>.

30. John B. Dunlop, Russia Confronts Chechnya (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998), p. 3.

31. Richard Boudreaux, “Faith Fuels Chechen Fighters”, Los Angeles Times, February 9, 1995.

32. Anatol Lieven, Chechnya: Tombstone of Russian Power, (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998), p. 361

33. Chechnya was technically part of the Chechen–Ingush Autonomous Republic until a local referendum in December 1991 brought about the division into Chechnya and Ingushetia.

34. Dunlop, Russia Confronts Chechnya, p. 98

35. Lieven, p. 75.

36. Theories include: the problems in Chechnya becoming too intolerable politically for Yeltsin, then president, to endure; Russia was losing too much of the proceeds from energy reserves in Chechnya; Yeltsin felt a personal affront from the insults of Dudayev and had to save face; hijackings and banditry from Chechnya posed a real threat to Russia's national security and territorial integrity. Sebastian Smith, Allah's Mountains (New York: I.B. Tarius, 1998); Dunlop, Russia Confronts Chechnya; Lieven; Stasys Knezys and Romanas Sedlickas, The War in Chechnya (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1998); Georgi M. Derluguian, “Grudge Match In Grozny”, Newsday January 8, 1995.

37. Smith, Allah's Mountains, p. 260.

38. “Islam Influences Life, Politics in Postwar Chechnya”, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 26, 1997.

39. Ibid.

40. Richard Beeston, “Public Executions for Grozny”, The Times, September 10, 1997. Maskhadov and Shamil, heroes in the First Chechen War, had a falling out during the inter-war period over the radicalization and Islamic nature of the republic, a division which, after Maskhadov was dragged into another war (into which and Basayev, it seems, also dragged Russia), was reflected in the ways they described the war, as will be seen.

41. “Maskhadov on Current Chechnya Situation,” Moscow Obshchaya Gazeta, February 19–25, 1998 No 7.

42. David Filipov, “Russian Nemesis Rises Again: Chechen Rebel Hero is a Leader in Dagestan Uprising”, The Boston Globe, August 12, 1999.

43. For two opposing views, see Masha Lipman, “Chechenization is Failing,” Washington Post, May 11, 2004 and C.J. Chivers, “Signs of Renewal Emerge from Chechnya's Ruins,” New York Times, May 4, 2006.

44. Data was obtained from a search of all articles pertaining to Chechnya on Lexis-Nexis and the Foreign Broadcast Information Service from 1994 to 2002.

45. “Chechens Urged to Fight to Death against Russians”, USA Today, December 15, 1994.

46. Matt Bivens, “From Hideout, Top Chechen Vows Rebel Raids on Russia,” Los Angeles Times, February 18, 1995.

47. “Dudayev Spurns Peace Talks, Elections,” Moskovskoye Novosti (80), November 19–26, 1995.

48. Bivens.

49. Tony Barber, “Muslim Ire Raised by Russian Tactics”, The Irish Times, December 21, 1994.

50. Richard Boudreaux, “Faith Fuels Chechen Fighters; Islam has Inspired Young Soldiers and Elderly Villagers,” Los Angeles Times, February 9, 1995.

51. Ibid.

52. “Khattab on Russia, Islam, Chechnya,” Prague Lidove Noviny, September 6, 1999.

53. David Filipov, “Russian Nemesis Rises Again; Chechen Rebel Hero Is a Leader in Dagestan Uprising,” The Boston Globe, August 12, 1999.

54. “Chechen Leader on War, Solution, Al-Sharq al-Awsat (London), October 7, 1999.

55. Olivia Ward, “Rebels Resigned to Play More Russian Roulette”, The Toronto Star, September 25, 1999.

56. “Interview with Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov,” Le Monde, May 4, 2000.

57. Marcus Warren, “Chechens Beam their Defiance from the Hills”, Daily Telegraph (London), February 1, 2000.

58. “Basayev Calls for Struggle against Russian Aggressors in Funding Squabbles,” Rossiyskaya Gazeta, May 26, 2001.

59. Ali Merjo, “The Struggle Going on,” September 8, 2001 <http://kavkaz.org>.

60. Scott Peterson, “Defiance of Russia only Deepens in Chechnya”, The Christian Science Monitor, May 22, 2001.

61. David Filipov, “Moscow Warns Muslim States off Dagestan”, The Boston Globe, August 15, 1999.

62. David Hoffman, “Yeltsin Assails Army ‘Sloppiness’; Chechen Guerrillas Press Offensive in Dagestan,” Washington Post, September 8, 1999.

63. “Russia to Wipe Out ‘Terrorists’—Even in Toilet,” Reuters, September 24, 1999.

64. Marcus Warren, “Putin Sacks General as Battle for Grozny Rages Frustration Over Failure to Seize Capital Results in Shake-up of the High Command,” Daily Telegraph (London), January 23, 2000.

65. As it happened, Russian special forces killed Maskhadov in 2005. The Kavkaz Center website posted a defiant message in response: “For those who fight for Allah, the jihad continues.” “Russian MPs Hail Maskhadov's Death,” March 9, 2005 <http://news.bbc.co.uk>.

66. Kathleen Knox, “How Western Attitudes toward Wars Have Shifted,” Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, October 3, 2003 <http://rferl.org>.

67. “Shamil Basayev Made an Announcement”, September 22, 1999 <http://kavkaz.org>.

68. Putin was quoted as saying, “If you want to become a complete Islamic radical and are ready to undergo circumcision, then I invite you to Moscow. We are a multidenominational country. We have specialists in this question as well. I will recommend that he carry out the operation in such a way that after it nothing else will grow.” Thomas Fuller, “Putin's Words Spark Confusion at EU,” International Herald Tribune, November 13, 2002.

69. “Russia, Country Reports and Human Rights Practices 2003,” US Department of State, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, February 25, 2004.

70. “Bin Laden Rails against Crusaders and UN,” March 11, 2001 <http://news.bbc.co.uk>.

71. “Jihad against Jews and Crusaders,” February 23, 1998 <http://www.fas.org>.