RUSSIA BECOMES TARGET OF JIHADIST EXTREMISTS

April 2010

APN Newsletter

Back in December 2001, al-Qaeda deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri identified Afghanistan and Chechnya as key to the jihadist cause. He noted that control of Chechnya would give al-Qaeda's Sunni jihadists a 'mujahid Islamic belt' from the Mediterranean through Turkey and into Central Asia, Afghanistan and Pakistan, as well as western China. Terrorism has surged across the region this year, doubtless energised by theTaliban - al-Qaeda ascendency in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

In May 2009 Dokka Abu Usman, the self-proclaimed 'Mujahideen of Caucasus Emirate', declared, 'This year will be our offensive year.' In August the pro-jihadist Kavkaz Centre published a letter citing the 'Mujahideen's decision to launch an 'economic and industrial sabotage war' inside Russia. They claimed responsibility for the 17 August 2009 'martyrdom operation against the Interior Ministry as well as a 'major subversive action in Russia, disabling a hydro-electric dam the sameday. Flooding caused by the dam breach killed 75 Rus Hydro workers.

It shut down the hydro-electric power station, Russia's largest, however Moscow claimed it was just an accident caused by the ageing Soviet infrastructure. Russia has suffered numerous terrorist attacks on infrastructure this year. In late November, terrorists perpetrated a series of attacks on infrastructure in the North Caucasus republic of Kabardino-Balkaria (KB), including bombing an electricity substation. A plot to blow up KB's Aushiger Hydropower Plant was foiled as it would have inundated many villages.

In November last year terrorists sabotaged the busy railway line between Moscow and St Petersburg, derailing the luxury Nevsky Express, killing at least 26 and wounding 100. The mainsuspect, Pavel Kosolapov, is a former Russian soldier who converted to Islam in the 1990s and joined the mujahideen. Three days later an explosion in Dagestan tore apart the railway line between Baku and the Siberian town of Tyumen. The on-coming train fortunately just skidded for 150 metres and nobody was hurt.

Russian Orthodox priest Rev Daniil Sysoyev (34), a courageous missionary to Muslims and well known public critic of Islam, was assassinated in his church on 19 November. Religious tensions are rising. Some 23 million Muslims make up 16 percent of Russia's 144 million population. However, with swelling Muslim immigration they are projected to be a majority by 2050. When the USSR broke up in 1991 the Russian Federation's borders dissolved, opening the region up to infiltration by Islamic fundamentalists and jihadists, including veterans of the Afghan jihad.

Islamic jihad is causing widespread disillusionment amongst Muslims. Interfax recently reported that whilst some 2000-5000 ethnic Russians had converted to Islam, about 2 million Russian Muslims had converted to Christianity. The report said, Muslims who convert to Christianity are mostly disillusioned with Islam and attracted to Russia's Orthodox Christian culture. This process is believed to be accelerating due to extremist activities. After each terrorist action, thousands of ethnic Muslims turn to the Russian Orthodox faith.

PLEASE PRAY SPECIFICALLY THAT GOD WILL:

* be a refuge and sanctuary for his people as terrorism escalates across the North Caucasus and into the Russian heartland;  may multitudes focus their eyes on Jesus Christ and grow in faith and maturity 

* work mightily by his Spirit in the Russian Church for widespread reformation and revival, resulting in growing holiness, courageous faith, and spiritual unity.

* raise up and send out more workers for His Russian harvest