Owner of vandalized shop in Dagestan blames SDM

On March 25, Magomedkhan Gaziev, owner of the "Lotos" shop and the head of a charitable public organization under the same name, brought a written complaint to the Sovietskiy ROVD of Makhachkala. Mr Gaziev asserts that the Spiritual Department of Moslems (SDM) of Dagestan is to be blamed for the attack on his shop on March 8.

Mr Gaziev said to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that on that day after the pre-evening prayer, some 50 aggressively tuned young men entered his shop, and about a hundred more remained outside.

"They have asked if I had a laser disk with the film 'Ordinary Sufism'. I answered positively, although I didn't see that film myself. The visitors then stated that I was a Wahhabite and disseminated Wahhabite literature," said the shop owner.

Then, Gaziev said that after a small squabble "they seized his arms from behind and started to take all the goods out of the shop, including expensive perfumes and bottles with medicinal mixes." The incident had broad resonance, a week later, Gaziev's acquaintances came to him and "brought back some stolen goods." They promised to completely compensate the damage, but the promise was never fulfilled.

Mr Gaziev said that the damage was evaluated as 90,000 roubles, while the returned goods were worth 30,000. He has no doubts that he will receive compensation in full. "I know the names of the robbers and license numbers of the cars, in which they took out the goods," he said.

According to Gaziev, "the Spiritual Department of Moslems of Dagestan was to be blamed, since some three weeks before the incident he was visited by SDM representatives, who showed him the lists of Islamic literature allowed and forbidden for sale."

"The 'black list' included only the books published outside Dagestan," Gaziev asserts.

The investigatory bodies of Dagestan were also addressed by Amin Abdulkadyrov, owner of a mobile communication shop. According to his story, on March 6, when only two young assistants were in the shop, 8 persons armed with pistols rushed in there. Shouting "This is a Wahhabite shop, it should be all ruined!" they started beating the assistants and crushing the electronic equipment and all the goods exposed for sale.

Later, the shop assistants had to address the Republic's Traumatology Hospital, where their numerous bruises, traumas and an arm fracture were registered. Mr Abdulkadyrov asserts that the damage to the shop is worth over 50,000 roubles. He was also promised a compensation of the damage, but nothing has happen so far.

In his turn, Muhammadrasul Omarov, press secretary of the Spiritual Department of Moslems, has noted that the Department has nothing to do with the incident. He confirmed the fact of dissemination of lists of non-approved literature, but they were of purely recommendatory character.

"The Muslim figures of the Republic and personally the Mufti condemn the hooligan act committed by young people, which has inflicted an irreparable harm to the SDM's reputation and traditional Islam in Dagestan," said Mr Omarov.