Recently in Kazakhstan Category

And a convert from Islam to Christianity has been subjected to a police raid. But they didn't kill him, which is what Muhammad commanded -- so they must be moderates. "Kazakhstan Destroys Bibles, Uzbekistan Attacks Convert," from BosNewsLife, March 21 (thanks to all who sent this in):

ASTANA/TASHKENT/BUDAPEST (BosNewsLife)-- A court in Kazakhstan has ordered the destruction of 121 pieces of Christian literature, including Bibles, while in neighboring Uzbekistan an elderly convert from Islam is in "great distress" after police raided his home, Christians said Thursday, March 21.

Vyacheslav Cherkasov, a street evangelist from the Kazakhstan's city of Shchuchinsk, was reportedly detained by police on October 20 last year for offering Christian literature to passers-by in the street.

Officers confiscated his suitcase containing Bibles, children’s Bibles and other books and leaflets about the Christian faith, said Forum 18, an advocacy group investigating the case.

On March 5 the court said the confiscated material should be destroyed, in what is believed to be the first such ruling since Kazakhstan gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.

Cherkasov was also ordered to pay 86,550 Tenge (US$574) well above the average one month’s wage in Kazakhstan on charges of "violating the rules" regarding "importing, publishing and distribution of religious literature" which came into force in 2011 as part of a harsh new Religion Law.

AUTOCRATIC PRESIDENT

The legislation was introduced under the autocratic President Nursultan Nazarbayev, who has been in power virtually unchallenged since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Cherkasov, who was previously harassed by police, has lodged an appeal, trial observers said.

The state Agency of Religious Affairs (ARA) has reportedly defended the ruling saying they are not "bothered by having to destroy religious literature".

Local Council of Churches Baptists said in published remarks: "We were shocked - this is sacrilege and illegality".

The latest incident is part of a wider crackdown by authorities on devoted Christians in Central Asia, rights activists say, with reports that in neighboring Uzbekistan an elderly man was attacked by security forces.

OFFICERS SHOUTING

"The officers shouted at the woman and her youngest son, a recent convert, and confiscated literature and CDs," said Barnabas Fund, an advocacy group supporting Christians in heavily Islamic nations.

"They searched for her oldest son, who is a church leader, but he was not at home," the group said, without providing more details amid apparent security concerns.

The incident, which happened late in the evening March 14, "appears to be part of a wider police crackdown on Christian converts," the group explained. "Barnabas Fund is aware of raids at the homes of at least another three converts from Islam."

The crackdown has been linked to President Islam Karimov perceived ruthless repression of what he views as religious extremists....

Religious extremists. Not Islamic jihadists. Just converts to Christianity.

The Interior Spiritual Struggle is once again curiously "misunderstood." "Islamist militant kills seven in attack in Kazakh city," by Robin Paxton for Reuters, November 12:

ALMATY (Reuters) - An Islamist militant killed seven people in running battles with security forces in a southern Kazakh city on Saturday, the latest in a series of attacks on the oil-producing state that was long seen as the most peaceful in Central Asia.

The prosecutor-general's office said a 34-year-old "follower of jihadism" killed four members of the security forces and two civilians in gun battles in the city of Taraz. He blew himself up when cornered, killing another policeman.

A string of blasts and shootouts, including one last month claimed by a hitherto unknown Islamist militant group, has unnerved the authorities and public of the former Soviet republic, a mainly Muslim nation of nearly 17 million.

A local resident of Taraz told Reuters that he heard the sound of explosions and gunfire in the center of the city, about 550 km (350 miles) west of Almaty, Kazakhstan's financial center and biggest city.

"We never thought that this kind of thing could happen here," said the resident, who did not want to be identified.

The prosecutor-general's office said a man it identified as M.K. Kariyev killed two members of the National Security Committee who had him under surveillance, before embarking on a spree of violence.

He raided a weapons store, killing a security guard and fatally wounding a visitor before escaping with two semi-automatic rifles, the office said.

It said the assailant hijacked a car and shot dead two policemen in pursuit, before collecting a grenade launcher from his home and shooting at the local building of the National Security Committee, the successor to the Soviet-era KGB.

The suspect later blew himself up when apprehended, killing a police officer who was attempting to disarm him. A further three police officers were injured in the attacks....

Actually, we've already been told this again and again and again, but actions speak louder than words. "Muslim world must tell West Islam has nothing to do with terrorism: Kazakh President," from the Ahlul Bayt News Agency, June 28:

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - The Muslim world must establish direct dialogue with the West and make it clear that Islam has nothing to do with terrorism, said Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev.

"The problems in the relationship between the Muslim community and the rest of the world, first of all the West, rank among the most serious ones. The Muslim world has been associated in the West in the past few years mostly with its radical segment, inciting unfounded fear," Nazarbayev said at a session of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation's Foreign Ministers Council.

"The true meaning of Islam has nothing to do with the activities of the extremist structures, to say nothing of terrorist organizations. We must state unambiguously that Islam has nothing in common with political violence, extremism and terrorism," he said.

Nazarbayev urged the OIC member-countries to form a special website that would highlight the organization's activities, encourage the younger generation to turn to religion and Islamic culture, and popularize Islamic spiritual values.

"We need to establish an open and honest dialogue between the Muslim world and the West," he said.

That would be nice. When an honest Muslim spokesman is ready for such dialogue, call me.

Yeah, that's all we need: yet another disingenuous media campaign about how Islam is peaceful. If it really were, Muslims wouldn't have to go around insisting on it all the time. If Muslims wouldn't keep committing acts of violence in the name of Islam, Islam wouldn't have an image problem in the first place.

"Nazarbayev: Muslim world should defend Islam’s image," from CentralAsiaOnline.com, June 8:

ASTANA – The Muslim world must launch a media campaign to create a more positive image of Islam, Kazakhstani President Nursultan Nazarbayev told participants at the 7th World Islamic Economic Forum June 8, according to Novosti-Kazakhstan.

The Islamic world needs to reinforce the image of Islam as a religion of peace, kindness, tolerance and justice, he said, adding that the Islamic world is itself a target of terrorism.

Terrorism is linked not only to trans-national crime but to geo-political sources too, he said....

Islamic supremacism was long dormant in the Central Asian former Soviet republics. But that is changing now. "Kazakhstan: Suicide bomber targets Kazakh state security building," from AKI, May 17 (thanks to C. Cantoni):

May 17, Aktyubinsk (AKI) - A suicide bomber blew himself up on Tuesday outside a regional security building in the western Kazakh city of Aktyubinsk, a police source said, cited by RIA Novosti news agency.

Only the bomber was killed in the attack, according to RIA Novosti....

Terrorist attacks are rare in the Central Asian state, which has been ruled by the former Soviet-era leader Nursultan Nazarbayev since independence in 1991.

From China Daily:

The Pakistani military said that 17 militants gunned down near the Afghan border were all from Kazakhstan and included women and teenage youths.

"We now believe the entire group was from Kazakhstan," military spokesman Major General Shaukat Sultan told AFP on Monday.

He said the authorities recovered four passports and some documents and identity cards which indicated they were Kazakhs.

Troops hunting militants with suspected links to Al-Qaeda and the Taliban killed the 17 in a clash in the rugged border tribal area on Sunday.

The clash broke out two days after US forces in Afghanistan killed 24 suspected Al-Qaeda militants and their Taliban allies on the Pakistani side of the border.

Pakistani troops acting on a tip-off cordoned off a hideout in an isolated complex outside Miranshah, the main town in the semi-autonomous North Waziristan tribal region.

The 17, including women and teenagers, were killed as they tried to break the siege and flee the compound in two vehicles after a shoot-out, Sultan said. One vehicle was knocked out and the other was crippled.

The general said the group included women and youths aged under 20, who also took part in the fighting.

"These guys were all trained fighters," the general said adding that women and young people received training in explosives.

He said local officials and elders had tried for more than two hours to persuade the group to surrender but a gunbattle erupted when they tried to escape in their vehicles.

The women hurled grenades when security forces stopped them, Sultan said.

Troops recovered arms and ammunition, including detonators, explosives and bomb-making instructions. Sixteen locals who had helped the group were arrested...

Background on the jihad in Uzbekistan, from Asia Times. Note that the jihadis were from middle-class families:

Recent reports

Prior to the recent terror attacks in Uzbekistan which claimed at least 19 lives, a spate of reports from the region shows ongoing Islamist activity and law-enforcement efforts to contain it. One report details the state of affairs in the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Other reports suggest that Hizb ut-Tahrir al-Islami (Party of Islamic Liberation - HT), an organization that now stands at the center of concerns over rising Islamist activity in Central Asia, is increasingly tailoring its recruiting efforts to match local dynamics in Tajikistan and Kazakhstan, targeting individuals from the dominant ethnic group with a higher education and ties to state institutions.

In Tajikistan, the authorities arrested a group of HT activists in Khujand in February. Various reports placed the number of individuals detained between 14 and 22. Tribune.uz, an independent Internet publication funded by George Soros' Open Society foundation, reported on February 25 that the men were all aged 20-22 and from middle-class families. Moreover, they were all ethnic Tajiks "whose parents came from the most 'Tajik of regions' of southern Tajikistan". Previously, ethnic Uzbeks and Uzbek citizens from the Ferghana Valley had figured prominently in reports of HT activity in Tajikistan. Asia Plus-Blitz also reported that three of the activists were relatives of officials in the Kulob city government and prosecutor's office.

In Kazakhstan, a court in Shymkent sentenced 23-year-old Nurzhan Zhakipov to three years in prison for HT activities on March 2. In a March 3 report, Kazinform contrasted the Zhakipov case with another HT-related incident in November 2003: "Not long ago in Shymkent, Arysi, and a number of other regions in the southern Kazakhstan Okrug, some 20 HT members were tried. In November, they took to the streets for an unsanctioned demonstration in which their organization called for the overthrow of [Uzbek President Islam] Karimov's regime. They were fined 18,900 tenges [US$135] each; two participants who resisted arrest were sentenced to 10 days in jail. The majority of the people who have been 'nabbed' in connection with HT are poorly educated and ignorant. This is why Zhakipov so surprised the journalists at his trial - he is a man from an urban family who attended Soviet school and received a higher education ..." A March 5 report in Kazakhstanskaya Pravda noted that "while the recruitment activities of HT emissaries in Kazakhstan initially focused on low-income individuals, recent efforts have targeted potential members among government officials, law-enforcement authorities, well-off businessmen, intellectuals, and students".

In Kyrgyzstan, on February 17, a court in Bishkek sentenced two IMU members - both Uzbek citizens - to death for their role in a December 2002 explosion at a Bishkek market that killed seven people. A March 2 report in Vechernii Bishkek described how "unofficial" mullahs - possibly with HT ties - in the southern Aravan region were inculcating the tenets of radical Islam in young people. According to the report, if 100-120 young people in the area are receiving a religious education from "official clerics", an equal number is learning different lessons from what the article terms "nontraditionalists".

A March 1 report by Deutsche Welle focused on IMU members, many of whom fled to Pakistan after the US-led antiterrorist operation smashed the Taliban movement, and with it the IMU's stronghold in Afghanistan. According to the report, a group of approximately 120 militants has relocated to Pakistan's northern Balochistan province. The group consists of fighters from Central Asia, Tatarstan, ethnic Russian converts to Islam, and people from the Caucasus; many of them are IMU members. Operating in groups of 25-30, they have recently moved to mountainous regions of Pakistan, including the city of Quetta, capital of Balochistan province.

The same report featured an interview with a former IMU member, who said that the IMU's leaders now reside in Wana, Pakistan - scene of the recent Pakistani military operations to track down al-Qaeda and other foreign fighters seeking refuge in the tribal regions. The movement's key leader remains Tahir Yuldashev. His first deputy for financial affairs is Dilshod Hojiyev. The military commander is Ulug'bek Holik, who also goes under the name Mohammed Ayub. All of the men are originally from Uzbekistan's Namangan Oblast.

The IMU maintains a number of unofficial daftars, or offices, in Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan and Turkey. An office in the Pakistani port city of Karachi handles financial contributions, primarily from Arab countries. According to the main source for the report, a 34-year-old Uzbek native of Navoiy Oblast who recently took advantage of an amnesty offer and returned home from Pakistan, the fighters also earn money on their own "through military operations financed by Pakistani special services against American forces in Afghanistan and through raids in Kashmir".

The source also told Deutsche Welle that a split had taken place in the IMU, with a group of combat-weary fighters rebelling against Yuldashev. In order to combat the dissenters, Yuldashev apparently summoned Ilhom Hojiyev, also known as Commander Abdurahmon, from Tajikistan. Ilhom Hojiyev is the cousin of Juma (aka Jumaboi) Namangani, the IMU military commander believed (not confirmed) to have been killed when the Taliban fell in late 2001.

In Uzbekistan itself, harsh measures against any hint of Islamist activity remain the order of the day, with courts routinely meting out long prison terms for any real or suspected HT involvement. But with severe restrictions on the media, the situation is difficult to gauge. Human rights organizations charge that some 5,000 political prisoners are better characterized as victims of a repressive regime than as wild-eyed Islamists intent on installing a fundamentalist regime of their own. Meanwhile, Uzbekistan's role as a strategic partner of the United States in the "war on terror" has politicized the debate over the threat of radical Islam, often to the detriment of dispassionate analysis.