Islamic terrorism

==== Russia ====
[[File:Beslan school no 1 victim photos.jpg|thumb|[[Beslan school siege|Beslan school]] victim photos]]
Politically and religiously motivated attacks on civilians in Russia have been traced to separatist sentiment among the largely Muslim population of its [[North Caucasus]] region, particularly in [[Chechnya]], where the central government of the Russian Federation has waged two bloody wars against the local [[Chechen Republic of Ichkeria|secular separatist government]] since 1994. In the [[Moscow theater hostage crisis]] in October 2002, three Chechen separatist groups took an estimated 850 people hostage in the Russian capital; at least 129 hostages died during the storming by Russian special forces, all but one killed by the chemicals used to subdue the attackers (whether this attack would more properly be called a [[nationalism|nationalist]] rather than an Islamist attack is in question). In the September 2004 [[Beslan school hostage crisis]] more than 1,000 people were taken hostage after a school in the [[Republics of Russia|Russian republic]] of [[North Ossetia–Alania]] was seized by a pro-Chechen multi-ethnic group aligned to [[Riyad-us Saliheen Brigade of Martyrs]]; hundreds of people died during the storming by Russian forces.<ref>''Foreign Affairs'', January/February 2008, p. 74, "The Myth of the Authoritarian Model"</ref>

Since 2000, Russia has also experienced [[Suicide attacks in the North Caucasus conflict|a string of suicide bombings]] that killed hundreds of people in the Caucasian republics of Chechnya, [[Dagestan]] and [[Ingushetia]], as well as in Russia proper including Moscow. Responsibility for most of these attacks was claimed by either [[Shamil Basayev]]'s Islamic-nationalist rebel faction or, later, by [[Dokka Umarov]]'s pan-Islamist movement [[Caucasus Emirate]] which is aiming to unite most of Russia's North Caucasus as an [[emirate]] since its creation in 2007.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/40b2b7e8-3e84-11df-a706-00144feabdc0.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221210/http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/40b2b7e8-3e84-11df-a706-00144feabdc0.html |archive-date=10 December 2022 |url-access=subscription|title=Changing face of terror in Russia|work=Financial Times|access-date=7 January 2015}}</ref> Since the creation of the Caucasus Emirate, the group has abandoned its secular nationalist goals and fully adopted the ideology of Salafist-takfiri Jihadism<ref>{{Cite web |date=3 September 2014 |title=Salafist-Takfiri Jihadism: the Ideology of the Caucasus Emirate |url=http://www.ict.org.il/Article/132/Salafist-Takfiri%20Jihadism%20the%20Ideology%20of%20the%20Caucasus%20Emirate |access-date=11 February 2022 |website= |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140903083632/http://www.ict.org.il/Article/132/Salafist-Takfiri%20Jihadism%20the%20Ideology%20of%20the%20Caucasus%20Emirate |archive-date=3 September 2014 |url-status=dead}}</ref> which seeks to advance the cause of Allah on the earth by waging war against the Russian government and non-Muslims in the North Caucasus, such as the local [[Sufi]] Muslim population, whom they view as [[mushrikeen]] (polytheists) who do not adhere to true Islamic teachings. In 2011, the U.S. Department of State included the Caucasus Emirate on its list of terrorist organisations.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://2009-2017.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2011/05/164312.htm|title=Designation of Caucasus Emirate|work=U.S. Department of State|access-date=7 January 2015}}</ref>