Salafis mustered

IT WAS prayer time at the Northern Mosque in Khasavyurt, a town in western Dagestan, when troops in black balaclavas arrived one day in February. “They said: ‘This mosque is closing—turn off the lights and hand over the keys’,” recalls one of the congregants. The next day Muhammad Nabi Magomedov, a local imam, led some 5,000 Salafi believers in a march on city hall, chanting “Allahu akbar!” and “Return our mosque!” In early April the security services came for Mr Magomedov, arresting him on terrorism charges.

Once in custody, the imam was told to shave off his beard. Then six men took him into a room. “One said: ‘Get on your knees’,” Mr Magomedov later told a member of Russia’s prison oversight committee, who shared details of their conversation with The Economist. “I said, ‘I won’t get on my knees’.” The men beat up Mr Magomedov, sending a clear signal to the ultra-conservative Salafi community: there will be no dialogue. “It’s a shame,” says Rasul, one of Mr Magomedov’s young followers. “He was one of the peaceful ones.”