Soviet authorities' policy on Islam left traces in Caucasus

The extermination of the clergy and the destruction of mosques in the Soviet years resulted in the appearance of radical preachers, Damir Mukhetdinov, the rector of the Moscow Islamic Institute, has stated at the conference "The History of Islam in Russia: Comprehension with Look into the Future". In the 1990s, disputes between Sufis and Salafis arose again in Northern Caucasus, said Alikber Alikberov, a deputy director of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS).

The conference was devoted to the presentation of Mr Mukhetdinov's work "The History of Islam in Russia", which makes an attempt to look at the history of Russian Muslims as an inseparable part of history of the Russian state.

It was precisely the destruction of mosques and the extermination of the intellectual layer from among Muslims that, in Mukhetdinov's opinion, resulted in the fact that "radical preachers" filled in the gap in the post-Soviet period.

At all times, ideological and other contradictions within the Islamic world have been used by the Russian authorities to ensure "better controllability," said Alikber Alikberov, a deputy director of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the RAS.