HOMO JIHADICUS

and the process of radicalisation takes place there 311 . It is true mostly of the European
part of Russia, as well as western and central Siberia, where anywhere
from several dozen to several hundreds of thousands of labour migrants from
the Central Asian states live and work 312 . Small Salafi communities also exist
in the other countries of the former USSR, in which Islam traditionally did not
play an important role – for example in Belarus 313 .
One noteworthy phenomenon is that Russians and members of other traditionally
non-Muslim ethnicities present in Russia occasionally convert to Islam.
This process began in the late 1980s-early 1990s, during the fall of the
USSR and the collapse of the Soviet model of society, and it has intensified in
the recent years. According to the converts themselves, Islam is a solution for
all the social problems present in Russia, such as alcoholism, drug abuse, the
crisis of the family etc. 314 It is hard to pin down the exact scale of the phenomenon
– the most probable estimates hold it to be at a level of 3,000 people 315 .
The most well-known example of a Russian convert to Islam is Said Buryatsky
(Aleksandr Tikhomirov) – ethnically half Russian, half Buryat, he converted
to Islam, became one of the most influential leaders of the peaceful Salafists,
and then joined the ranks of the Caucasus Emirate and was killed in a clash
with Russian forces in 2010 in Ingushetia.
Considering the dynamic growth of Islam in general and Salafism in particular
which has taken place during the last quarter of a century on the post-Soviet
area, it seems prudent to suppose that there will be an increase in the number
of regions where the Islamic issue, including radicalism and fundamentalism,
is present in the socio-political life.
PRACE OSW REPORT OSW 09/2012 09/2015
311
For example: http://irkutsk.rusplt.ru/index/zachem_v_irkutske_otkryvayutsya_kursy_
arabskogo_yazyka_i_osnov_islama-15201.html i http://www.ng.ru/ng_religii/2015-02-04/4_
siberia.html
312
More on the Central Asian labour migrants in Siberia: Piotr Varnavski, Iz Azii v Sibir, ili
v poiskakh „novogo sveta” (polozheniye migrantov iz Tsentralnoy Azii v Baykalskoy Sibiri),
Ulan Ude 2013.
313
Peaceful Salafi community with followers in the dozens, suffering from continuous repressions
from the Belarusian authorities: http://news.tut.by/society/432820.html and http://
charter97.org/ru/news/2015/1/11/134768/
314
The Russian nationalist Aleksandr Kovtun provides an example of this. He conducted a series
of attacks in 2010 in the Primorsky Krai (Russian Far East). While in prison he converted
to Islam, concluding that Islam is the solution to the problems of Russian society, such as
alcoholism, drug abuse, or prostitution: http://www.aif.ru/incidents/18598, and http://ummanews.com/minbar/9148--l-r.html.
315
http://www.interfax-religion.ru/?act=news&div=17618
102