ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the Timur Mutsuraev, a popular Chechen singer and composer who called himself “the singer of Jihad”. Parts three and four demonstrate that Mutsuraev strongly appealed also to Russians, including the religious Orthodox, nationalists, liberals, as well as leftists. In 2008, he returned to Chechnya but made no attempts to revive his music career. Apparently, he managed to come to an understanding with the President of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov about his own security. Despite the fact that he calls himself “the singer of Jihad”, Timur Mutsuraev did not receive any religious education, nor did he study Arabic. Mutsuraev started to engage with music while studying at a Soviet school, and the general background of late Soviet popular culture shaped his style. Against the backdrop of the war in Afghanistan, “military author’s songs” performed by Soviet war veterans were widely spread.
