Russian authorities have launched a crackdown against an outlawed Islamic party accused of plotting against the government, rounding up 55 leaders and members of the group in the capital in recent days.
The Federal Security Service, the domestic successor to the KGB, announced that it had found plastic explosives, hand grenades, dynamite and detonator cords during raids aimed at breaking the local branch of Hizb ut-Tahrir, or Party of Liberation, which was banned in February for alleged terrorist connections.
"We do not have any doubts or illusions about their actions," FSB spokesman Sergei Ignatchenko said in an interview today. "We had investigative information about their preparations. They were preparing fighters to send to Chechnya" and readying for possible terrorist acts in Moscow. Ignatchenko called them "Muslim brothers" of al Qaeda.
Islamic leaders, however, called the roundup just the latest persecution against Muslims in Russia and said the government was using the international war on terrorism as an excuse to justify broader repression. Most of those arrested were from Uzbekistan or Tajikistan. Among them was Alisher Musayev, head of the Moscow branch of Hizb ut-Tahrir, and Akram Dzhalolov, a leading activist, according to authorities.
"It's a fantasy to say someone wants to establish a Muslim order or overthrow the existing regime," said Nafigulla Ashirov, chief mufti for the Asian part of Russia. "This is not real, as the goals they supposedly have are not realistic. I'm just afraid that this is more of a hunt for ghosts, as we usually say."
Hizb ut-Tahrir was founded in 1952 in Saudi Arabia to promote the restoration of the caliphate, or Islamic state, of the Prophet Mohammed under conservative sharia law. From the Middle East and Europe, the movement eventually spread to Central Asia, where in recent years it has taken aim at secular governments such as that of Uzbekistan's Islam Karimov.
According to the book "Jihad: The Rise of Militant Islam in Central Asia," by Pakistani author Ahmid Rashid, Hizb ut-Tahrir "does not advocate a violent overthrow of Muslim regimes as do other extremist groups, such as Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda" but instead "believes in winning over mass support" that would lead to the peaceful removal of such governments. Karimov has responded with a brutal campaign that has imprisoned thousands of people suspected of links to the party.
Other nations have begun targeting Hizb ut-Tahrir lately as well. Germany banned the group in January on accusations of fomenting anti-Semitic sentiment and police there raided more than 80 buildings in April to seize documents and computers.
A party leader today condemned the arrests in Russia and disputed claims that weaponry was found. "We do not undertake violent action," Imran Waheed, the group's London representative, said by telephone. "The Russian government has a long history of planting evidence on people."
"The reality," he added, "is that major powers such as America, such as Russia, such as Britain are very much opposed to political Islam and they're willing to support any means used against advocates of political Islam."