Karachaevo-Cherkessia is another flyspeck-sized "autonomous republic" within Russia, neighboring Georgia and not too far from Chechnya and Dagestan. The Cherkess are the smallest ethnic group in the republic, making up 11 percent of the population. The Karachays make up 30 percent and the Russians 40 percent. The Cherkess are first cousins to the Circassians; the Karachays are Turkic. The Karachay Muslims have (surprise!) united in the "Hizbu-At-Tawhid", and a Radio Kavkaz (Radio Caucasus) correspondent rushed breathlessly to meet with the amir of the Karachaevo "Jamaat," Dagir Bejiev.
Bejiev recently married a widow of a Shaheed, whose husband kicked it in Chechnya in 2000. He was fired up by his local imam, Ramazan Burlakov, the amir of a Madrasa â yep, they have them in the Caucasus, surprisingly enough; wonder who pays for them? â in Uchkeken, a town near Kislovodsk. "I would travel 30 kilometers out there," quoth Bejiev, "just to listen to his Friday Hutba (sermon). It was in 1997. Before that I was a complete jaheel (an ignorant person). Once I met that man, my destiny was determined. I secured a firm foothold in Islam."
Ramazan ran off to Chechnya with 150 mujahideen to fight jihad against the hated Russers. He and about thirty of his compatriots were waxed, but his legacy lives on: "Today over a thousand of the best sons of Karachai Nation are participating as much as it is within their capabilities in the process of revival of Islam, at their home as well as across the entire Caucasus. Ramzan was the initiator of this revival. Our march on the path of Islam is Jihad."
And why is this so? Because "Jihad is going on all around the world. This is an objective process that does not depend on the will or desire of the enemies of Islam, especially after the September 11. As far as Karachaevo-Cherkessia goes, as well as the entire Caucasus, it is the natural zone of Islamic interests... Thatâs why our Mujahideen are now in Chechnya." 
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