by IEVA RAUBISCO
On 8 May 2008, employees of the Chechen Ministry of Foreign Relations, National Policy, and Press and Information performed a rite of sacrifice commemorating Akhmat-Khadzhi Kadyrov, the pro-Russian president of the Chechen Republic who had been assassinated four years previously, on 9 May 2004, during a ceremony devoted to the victory of the allied forces in WWII. Bulls were slaughtered and meat was given to an orphanage in Grozny. Before reading out the mawlid (in Chechnya, a collective prayer) to pay respects to the assassinated president, the vice-mufti <2> of Chechnya, Magomed Khatanaev, remarked:
If anyone were to have told us some twenty to thirty years ago that one day it would be possible to offer praise to the Prophet Muhammad and carry out a rite of sacrifice in the government offices, he would have been considered insane. Praise be to God that today we can openly utter the name of the Almighty and our Prophet, perform namaz, <3> and observe the rules of the Holy Quran. Minister [of External Relations, National Policy, Press and Information] Shamsail Saraliev’s proposal that such a rite should be performed here [at the Ministry] proves that he and his subordinates are pious and generous people honouring the memory of the noble sons of Chechnya, such as Akhmat-Khadzhi Kadyrov. (Grozny Inform, 8 May 2008)