Sufi mobs raid Islamic shops in Makhachkala

Sufi mobs raided several Islamic shops in Makhachkala on March 8, 2009. Some "Islamic" sects, namely Sufis, were celebrating so called Mawlid (alleged birthday of Prophet Muhammad, may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) on that day.

Around 50 young men burst into an Islamic shop on Malygin street, near a mosque in the center of Makhachkala. "It was an intimidating action. 50 men crowded into a small room of 16 square meters, another 100 men were standing in the street. They shouted that I was spreading Wahhabi literature, that I was a Wahhabi, that they would shave off my beard", Magomedkhan Gaziyev, owner of the shop, told.

The angry men began to sweep from the shelves everything they could find, in the street they ripped with their knives "Tafsir" by `Abdur-Rahman al-Sa`di, burned copies of interpretations of the meanings of Qur'an in Russian language, trampled on "Sahih al-Bukhari". The attackers took away from the shop everything that was sold there, Gaziyev said.

On the same day angry mobs raided another Islamic shop, on Yaragskiy street. There they beat two Muslim sellers, destroyed some property and took away all audio and video production.

Three weeks before the incident, representatives from the official "Spiritual authority of Muslims in Dagestan" (DUMD) visited bookstores in Makhachkala and showed a list of literature that was forbidden to sell by the DUMD. The only books that were allowed to sell were those published in Dagestan, while books published in Moscow, Saint Petersburg and Kazan were forbidden to sell. "Nobody in Makhachkala has any questions regarding who organized the raids on the shops. Anyone will tell you that it was done by the Spiritual authority", told Magomedkhan Gaziyev.

It is officials from the DUMD who incite youth against fellow Muslims, it is a common thing now that official muftis attack scholars like Ibn Taymiyah and al-Albani on local TV, and label them as Wahhabis, adds Gaziyev.

Meanwhile, the spokesman of the Islamic center of Dagestan, Magomedrasul Omarov, denied that DUMD was behind the raids: "The Spiritual authority of Muslims in Dagestan did not authorize and could not authorize raids on bookstores in Makhachkala".