Football and Salafism in Dagestan

This BBC television report describes the Salafist insurgency currently underway in the Russian republic of Dagestan, in the Caucasus. The old form of Islam, which had managed to coexist with Tsarist and Communist Russia, is being supplanted by the fundamentalist variety imported from Saudi Arabia.

The BBC does a reasonable job of explaining current events in Dagestan. However, you’ll notice a persistent subtext in the narration: poverty and unemployment are somehow the root of the problem. Like most progressives, the BBC reporter strains to assign an economic cause, rather than an ideological one, to the radical Islamic incursion.

Many thanks to Vlad Tepes for uploading this video: