Kadyrov will seek to counter "myths" that Russia is waging war against Islam and Muslims in Chechnya

By Damir Ahmad, IOL Correspondent

MOSCOW, January 14 (IslamOnline.net) – Leading a delegation of Russian Muslims, Chechen President Ahmad Kadyrov is due in Saudi Arabia later on Wednesday, January 14, to ask the kingdom wield its influence in the Muslim world to stem support for Chechen fighters.

The pro-Moscow president visits Saudi Arabia at the invitation of Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz, the director of Chechnya's press office in Moscow, Eidi Aisayev, told the national Novosti news agency Tuesday, January 13.

The four-day visit is Kadyrov’s first trip outside Chechnya since he assumed power last October amid cries of foul playing and rigging.

Elections were seen by his countrymen and rights groups as a farce and resembled Soviet-era elections "with their turnouts of 99.998 percent".

Accompanied by a delegation of Russia's senior Muslim scholars, Kadyrov is scheduled to hold a series of talks with top Saudi officials and scholars to help halt funds sent to Chechens, battling Russian occupation army for independence.

Kadyrov will try to dismiss "myths" circulating in the Middle East that Russia is waging war against Islam and Muslims in Chechnya, Aisayev added.

The Chechen spokesman claimed that such "myths" help "terrorists in Chechnya" to get finance from Muslim countries and to launch a "guerrilla war in the name of Islam supported by foreign volunteers".

"Today in Chechnya, there are more than 400 mosques, two Islamic institutes and students are learning Arabic, which means that the war in Chechnya is not targeting Muslims but terrorists and extremists," he argued.

Emerging from talks with the Saudi crown prince in Moscow last September, Kadyrov accused some Arab funds and organizations, which he did not name, of funding Chechen fighters.

In 1999, some 80,000 Russian troops poured into the Caucasus republic in what Moscow called a lightning-strike "anti-terror operation" but which has since degenerated into a bloody war.

The U.N. Human Rights Committee on Friday, November 7, scolded Russia over ill-treatment of prisoners under interrogation, executions and torture in Chechnya.

The current conflict, the second war between Russia and Chechen fighters in a decade, has left around 5,000 Russian soldiers dead -- 12,000 according to rights groups -- and killed thousands of civilians.

It has also driven tens of thousands of Chechens into exile within Russia and abroad.