"For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths." Northwoods is a ministry dedicated to refreshing Christians and challenging them to search for the truth in Christianity, politics, sociology, and science
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In Dagestan, which is overwhelmingly Muslim, one can acknowledge that the niqab poses a security risk. But to say such a thing in the West would be racist and “Islamophobic.”
Islamic authorities in Russia’s Dagestan ban full-face veil after attacks
MOSCOW, July 3 (Reuters) – Islamic authorities in Russia’s mostly-Muslim North Caucasus region of Dagestan on Wednesday temporarily banned women from wearing the niqab full-face veil, after simultaneous attacks targeting churches and synagogues killed 22 last month.
In a statement posted on the Telegram messenger app, the Dagestan Muftiate said it was introducing a “temporary” ban on the niqab after an appeal from Russia’s ministry of nationality policy and religious affairs.
Reports following the attacks on June 23 said one of the gunmen had planned to escape wearing a niqab.
The muftiate, a religious organisation representing Dagestani Muslims, said that the ban would remain in place “until the identified threats are eliminated and a new theological conclusion is reached”….
Gunmen in Russia’s Dagestan attack churches, synagogue and police post
Gunmen on Sunday attacked synagogues and churches in Russia's North Caucasus region of Dagestan, killing a priest, six police officers, and a member of the national guard, security officials said.
The attacks took place in Dagestan's largest city of Makhachkala and in the coastal city of Derbent, where gunfights were ongoing.
Russia's Investigative Committee said it had opened criminal probes over "acts of terror", while the hunt for the gunmen was ongoing.
Witnesses could hear shooting near a church in Makhachkala while shootouts were continuing in Derbent, the TASS state news agency reported. Dagestan's interior ministry said it had killed two of the gunmen in Makhachkala.
Sunday is a religious holiday in the Russian Orthodox Church called Pentecost Sunday. Dagestan is a largely Muslim region of Russia, neighbouring Chechnya.
"This evening in the cities of Derbent and Makhachkala armed attacks were carried out on two Orthodox churches, a synagogue and a police check-point," said the National Antiterrorism Committee in a statement to RIA Novosti news agency.
"As a result of the terrorist attacks, according to preliminary information, a priest from the Russian Orthodox Church and police officers were killed."
In all, six police officers had been killed and another 12 wounded in the attacks, the spokeswoman for Dagestan's interior ministry, Gayana Gariyeva, told RIA Novosti.
The reporter in the video below said that 25 have been wounded. But they are probably still counting.
Russia's National Guard said one of its officers had been killed in Derbent and several others wounded.
A 66-year-old priest was killed in Derbent, the press secretary of Dagestan's interior ministry, Gariyeva told the agency.
Synagogues on fire
Dagestan's RGVK broadcaster named the priest as Nikolai Kotelnikov,saying he had served more than 40 years in Derbent.
"The synagogue in Derbent is on fire," the chairman of the public council of Russia's Federation of Jewish Communities, Boruch Gorin wrote on Telegram.
"It has not been possible to extinguish the fire. Two are killed: a policeman and a security guard".
He added: "The synagogue in Makhachkala has also been set on fire and burnt down."
Gorin wrote that in Derbent, firefighters had been told to leave the burning synagogue because of the risk that "terrorists remained inside".
He added: "There is shooting in the streets around the synagogue".
The leader of Dagestan, Sergei Melikov, wrote on Telegram: "This evening in Derbent and Makhachkala unknown (attackers) made attempts to destabilise the situation in society.
"They were confronted by Dagestani police officers."
Russia's FSB security service in April said it had arrested four people in Dagestan on suspicion of plotting a deadly attack on Moscow's Crocus City Hall concert venue in March, which was claimed by Islamic State.
Militants from Dagestan are known to have travelled to join the Islamic State group in Syria.
In 2015, the group declared it had established a "franchise" in the North Caucasus.
Dagestan lies east of Chechnya where Russian authorities battled separatists in two brutal wars, first in 1994-1996 and then in 1999-2000.
After the defeat of Chechen insurgents, Russian authorities have been locked in a simmering conflict with Islamist militants from across the North Caucasus that has killed scores of civilians and police.
Doctors examine a man injured in an attack on a Russian church Sunday in Kizlyar Dagestan, Russia. Photo by EPA-EFE/Str
UPI -- The Islamic State terror group claimed responsibility Monday for an attack that killed five at a church in the Dagestan region of Russia.
Authorities said the gunman was Khalil Khalilov and that he was a member of an IS sleeper cell.
Five people were killed in the shooting Sunday as worshipers left a traditional pre-Lent celebration in the city of Kizlyar, capital of the Republic of Dagestan.
"An unidentified bearded man ran toward the church yelling 'Allah Akba,'" Father Pavel, dean of the church, told RBC.
"When we heard the shots, we quickly closed the doors so that he couldn't get inside. He had a gun and a knife."
Several others were injured in the attack. The gunman was shot dead by police.
RBC reported that Khalilov, 22, joined the Islamic State last year and intended to target the attack on the Christian holiday.
Head of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov, though, disputed the shooter's Islamic ties.
"One can say with certainty that the bandit and his patrons, in case he had any, do not have any direct or indirect connection to Islam," Kadyrov wrote on Telegram.
"The North Caucasus has always been a region of close cooperation and mutual understanding between Muslims and Christians. So today, it is our duty to deter assaults on our heritage that instigators and Russia's enemies may make."
Obviously, if shouting Allah Akba means he wasn't an Islamic adherent, I wonder what it does mean? Are there other religions that worship Allah?
The acting head of the southern Russian republic of Dagestan has ordered the dismissal of the whole regional cabinet, after its former chairman and his deputies were held on charges of embezzling millions of rubles of state funds.
As part of the move, acting head of Dagestan Vladimir Vasiliyev also appointed Anatoly Karibov as the republic’s new prime minister, and ordered ministers to continue to work as normal until the new cabinet is formed.
The changes came after agents of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) on Monday detained the former acting head of the Dagestani government, Abdusamad Gamidov, two of his former deputies – Shamil Isayev and Rajuddin Yusufov – and the former Dagestani education minister, Shakhabbas Shakhov. Investigators searched the residences of the detained and discovered several firearms, including a gold-plated pistol and two Kalashnikov assault rifles, although it has not been reported if the weapons were registered or possessed illegally.
All of the men were taken to the FSB’s Moscow headquarters for questioning. There, they were officially charged with large-scale embezzlement. The chief spokesperson for Russia’s Investigative Committee (the federal agency which probes specially important crimes) told reporters that the damages caused by the suspected criminal scheme perpetrated by the detained ex-officials could amount to 95 million rubles (US$1.7 million). The charges involve the purchase of a kindergarten building for 31 million rubles, while the estimated actual price of the real estate was about 12 million rubles. The men also face accusations of alleged embezzlement of funds allocated for repairs in a local detention center and a mountain resort.
RBC news reported that the arrests were made in connection with a major investigation that began in Dagestan in January. Earlier, law enforcement officers detained the mayor of the republic’s capital, Makhachkala, and the chief architect of the city on charges of abuse of power.
The agency also quoted unnamed sources in the Russian Interior Ministry and the FSB as saying that the investigation was continuing into suspected wrongdoing by Dagestani officials, and that more detentions could take place in the nearest future.
Former head of Dagestan Ramazan Abdulatipov, who was replaced by the current acting head of the republic in October last year, criticized the ongoing anti-corruption campaign as “sporadic” and added that the decision to detain so many officials at once was “politically wrong.”
Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov said that it was wrong to describe the latest events in Dagestan as political turmoil. “This is not a political crisis but rather a continuation of work of the law enforcement bodies. President Putin has repeatedly noted that this is not a sporadic effort but a consistent, goal-oriented and system-based work,” Peskov told reporters.
