Portfolio: Islam and Chechnya

About a decade ago Russia's leadership acknowledged that bullying wasn't working in this remote and most violent corner of the nation. So in 2000, Moscow threw its weight behind a former rebel leader, Akhmad Kadyrov, and left him largely alone to run affairs in the restive North Caucasus republic. Kadyrov, like most Chechens, was Muslim, indeed so devout that he served as the local Mufti, or spiritual leader, for some time. Three years after he was assassinated in 2004, having reached the minimum age of 30, his son Ramzan assumed the same role as Chechnya's president and has continued to foster many aspects of Sharia law. Matloff discusses how, with the Kremlin's approval, Islam is flourishing in Chechnya -- a means to maintain at least a veneer of tranquility while keeping even more radical forces at bay. Adapted from the source document.