The Telegraph tells the truth about the Beslan jihadists’ goals, as we have been pointing them out here all along. Note also that these caliphate dreams are shared by radical Muslims the world over. (Thanks to Jeff Lastname for the link.)
When the Chechen terrorist mastermind Shamil Basayev hijacked hundreds of hostages including many schoolchildren in Beslan last week, it was not for a narrow nationalist cause.
His objective is more radical – and less likely to be achieved – than the aims of more run-of-the-mill Chechen nationalists, who merely want full independence from Russia.
He dreams of establishing an Islamic Emirate across the North Caucasus, and to do so, he has been fomenting the Islamic rebellion that plagues states across the broad stretch of territory from the Red Sea to the Caspian….
When a senior adviser to the Kremlin announced on the day of the assault that 10 Arabs were among the hostage takers, his claim was designed to link the hostage-takers with a wider foe: jihadists who support Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda terrorist network….
In pursuit of his goal of establishing an Islamic republic stretching across Chechnya, Ingushetia and North Ossetia, Basayev has followed a strategy of staging sudden raids, putting hundreds of lives at risk and provoking a deadly, but usually incompetent, Russian response.