Recently in Tajikistan Category

An entire Islamic party full of Misunderstanders of Islam -- how on earth do these things keep happening? Behold the glorious complexity of Islam! So incredibly difficult are its peaceful teachings to grasp, that some of its most dedicated and devout adherents keep misunderstanding them and getting the crazy idea that Islam has something to do with violence against unbelievers! Has Islamophobic literature somehow been circulating in Tajikistan, poisoning the minds of the hitherto peaceful and pious?

"Prosecutor-General Accuses Islamic Renaissance Party," from Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, August 30 (thanks to Twostellas):

Tajikistan's Prosecutor-General's Office has accused members of the opposition Islamic Renaissance Party of involvement in crimes connected to extremism and terrorism.

The statement on August 30 gave no indication of what next steps the authorities might take against the party, which is currently the only legal Islamist party in Central Asia.

In an interview with RFE/RL, the party's deputy chairman, member of parliament Sayidumar Husaini, denounced the prosecutor's claims as part of a campaign aimed at shutting down the party....

Of course. That must be it. Such campaigns are being waged the world over, inexplicably, as racist, bigoted Islamophobes unaccountably accuse these Amish-like people of involvement in religiously-sanctioned violence. Oh, the humanity!

Misunderstanders of Islam in Central Asia shout "infidel" as they murder a man dressed as Santa Claus, and Tajikistan's media says the murder didn't take place on religious grounds. Have they been taking lessons from the U.S. media? "Santa killed by Muslim fanatics for being ‘infidel’ in Tajikistan," from News.am, January 2 (thanks to Silvester):

DUSHANBE. – An outrageous incident occurred in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, where a group of religious fanatics killed Santa Claus.

Parvis Davlatbekov wore [sic] as Santa Claus to congratulate his friends for the New Year. However, a group of fanatics attacked and stabbed him by crying ‘infidel’ in the street.

The young man died on Monday without coming into consciousness. The unprecedented tragic incident is widely discussed in Facebook, ITARR-TASS reports.

Tajikistani MFA acknowledged officially the incident. However, it rejected that the brutal killing occurred on religious grounds but claims it was a regular violence.

Meantime, local media calls to pay attention to the discussions whether it is right to celebrate the New Year in a state where 98 % of population is Muslims.

Clearly not.

Ever wonder why the BBC is so consistently and fanatically pro-jihad, and intent on smearing freedom fighters? "BBC Reporter Sentenced for Links to Islamist Group," from AP, October 14:

DUSHANBE, Tajikistan October 14, 2011 (AP) A court in Tajikistan sentenced a BBC reporter to three years in jail Friday over links to a banned radical Islamic group, but immediately released him after granting amnesty.

The Sughd regional court found BBC Central Asia service journalist Uronboi Usmonov guilty of failing to provide authorities with information about alleged criminal activities planned by Hizb ut-Tahrir.

The BBC World Service rejects all suggestions that Usmonov was directly involved with Hizb ut-Tahrir and says that his dealings with the group were linked exclusively to his activities as a journalist.

Usmonov was arrested in June in the northern Sughd region on suspicion of belonging to the group. But after condemnation by the U.S. government and the European Union, prosecutors downgraded that charge to failing to bring forward information to the authorities about the organization.

The BBC World Service condemned Friday's guilty verdict.

"We will continue to support (Urunboi) and hope that the appeal process will lead to his reputation as a highly respected writer and journalist being restored," said Peter Horrocks, director of BBC Global News....

Priorities. This is what you use the United Nations for: stopping a private entity in a distant country from republishing some drawings in a book. Under any other circumstances, the absurdity would be obvious and rightly laughed off, but, of course, double standards abound. "Tajikistan urges UN to try to stop republication of Muhammad cartoons," from Interfax, May 6 (thanks to Weasel Zippers):

Dushanbe, May 5, Interfax - Tajikistan has urged the United Nations to take measures to stop a Norwegian firm from republishing a book containing cartoons satirizing the Muslim prophet Muhammad that set off global turmoil in 2005.

A letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon "expresses anxiety over the fact that the Norwegian printing press Cappelen Damm plans to republish the book Tyranny of Silence in May 2011," the Tajik Foreign Ministry said in a statement. "This book contains cartoons that blaspheme the name of the Islamic prophet."

Action must be taken. This urgently needs a response, from UNHCAAYPI, the United Nations High Commission on Asking "And Your Point Is?"

Tajikistan, which currently presides in the Organization of the Islamic Conference, had the text of the letter approved by all the other 56 member states of the OIC.

The 12 cartoons published in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten on September 30, 2005 first sparked protests in the Danish Muslim community, and were then condemned at an OIC summit in December 2005 and set off mass anti-Danish demonstrations in Muslim countries resulting in numerous fatalities.

Christian proselytizing is forbidden, in accord with traditional Sharia provisions, even in this relatively secular post-Soviet republic. Islamic Tolerance Alert: "Tajik authorities ban sales of Jesus cartoon," from AsiaNews, February 18 (thanks to C. Block Ness):

Dushanbe (AsiaNews) - Tajikistan's Religious Affairs Committee banned the sale of a Jesus Christ cartoon in Khorog, the administrative centre of the Gorno-Badakhshan autonomous region, the BBC Persian service reported.

Claiming that the cartoon advocated a foreign religion, the Committee seized 20 copies of the cartoon from sellers. It later confirmed to Interfax that it had seized religious discs in Khorog but did not comment the matter.

The cartoon had been translated into Shughni, a language spoken by about 250,000 Pamir Tajiks, who are predominantly Ismaili Muslims, a branch of Shia Islam. Most Tajiks (85 per cent) are Sunni.

Under a new version of the Law on Religion and Religious Associations adopted in Tajikistan in 2009, proselytising is against the law. Nevertheless, over 80 religious organisations, most of them Christian, operate in the country.

Of course, it would be "Islamophobic" to note the remarkable uniformity with which jihadists "misunderstand" Islam in places so far removed from one another, whether in attacks inside the U.S., ambushes on churches in Indonesia, or even in Tajikistan. "'Islamist gunmen' kill 23 soldiers in Tajikistan," from BBC News, September 19:

Islamist militants in Tajikistan have killed 23 soldiers in an attack in the east of the country, officials say.

A military convoy was ambushed in Racht valley, about 250km (150 miles) east of the capital Dushanbe.

The soldiers were going to replace guards at roadblocks set up after at least 25 militants escaped from a prison on the Afghan border last month.

In the 1990s Tajikistan had a civil war between the Moscow-backed government and the Islamist-led opposition.

First jihad/martyrdom bombing in Tajikistan in five years. The virgins were getting impatient. "Car bomber kills 2, wounds 25 police in Tajikistan," by Roman Kozhevnikov for Reuters, September 3:

DUSHANBE (Reuters) - Suicide car bombers struck a police station in Tajikistan on Friday, officials said, killing two officers and wounding 25 in an attack authorities blamed on a militant group linked to al Qaeda.

Tajikistan's first known suicide bombing in five years would deal a blow to the government of the ex-Soviet republic, where poverty pushes youth towards radical Islam and political rivalries still fester a decade after a civil war.

And yet study after study has shown that jihadists are generally wealthier and better educated than their peers. And if poverty pushes youth towards "radical Islam," where are all those Haitian suicide bombers?

A sedan exploded after entering the courtyard of a regional police anti-organized crime unit headquarters in Khujand, Tajikistan's second largest city, Interior Ministry chief of staff Tokhir Normatov said....

The Interior Ministry said the attack was likely carried out by the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, which aims to establish Islamic rule in ex-Soviet Central Asia and has fought alongside the Taliban and al Qaeda in Afghanistan.

But longtime President Emomali Rakhmon's government often blames the IMU for attacks, while his critics and rights groups accuse him of using the Islamist threat as an excuse to crack down on dissent in the nation of seven million....

I can't remember the last time we had a Tajik jihad update. Is there any place on earth where the tiny minority of extremists cannot be found? "Extremists detained in Tajikistan," from Pravda, :

Members of the banned Uzbek Islamic Movement were arrested on Monday in the city of Khudzhand in northern Tajikistan.

"An Uzbek citizen, 37, and a Russian citizen from the Mordova
region, 41, who are accused of being members of the Uzbek Islamic Movement, were detained on December 5 in Khudzhand," a source from the Tajik Interior Ministry told.

"Six other people from northern Tajikistan were also detained," the
source said.

The men were detained while distributing leaflets calling for a
coup d'etat. The town of Khudzhand is an administrative center in the Tajik Sughd region. It borders on Uzbekistan and is the second largest city in the country.

The Uzbek Islamic Movement is an extremist organization, which says it wants to establish an Islamic caliphate in the Central Asian countries.

Several dozen people suspected of links with the Uzbek Islamic
Movement and Hizb-ut-Tahrir have been arrested in Tajikistan since the beginning of 2005, Interfax reports

From Turkish Press, "Seven jailed in Tajikistan for membership in outlawed Islamic group," :

DUSHANBE - A court in Tajikistan handed down prison sentences of three to nine years Wednesday to seven people accused of belonging to an outlawed Islamic group Hizbi Tahrir and agitating for the overthrow of the Central Asian country's government.

"They were found guilty of fomenting racial and religious hatred, organising an armed group, calling for the overthrow of the government, and participating in an extremist group and illegal party," said Sadyk Kurbanov, the judge in the northern Sogd district.

"The extremists, among whom were two students, were arrested six months ago while handing out Islamic leaflets in a local market. During searches of their home Hizbi Takhrir literature was found," he told AFP.

Hizbi Tahrir, or the Freedom Party, was founded in the 1950s in the Middle East and is considered one of the most active fundamentalist Islamic organisations. Thousands of people in Muslim Central Asia are believed to be members.

The party's main goal in Central Asia, which was under Communist rule until the Soviet collapse in 1991, is the creation of a religious state throughout the region...

This piece at the jihadist Kavkaz Center site is interesting for its denial that the Tajik Civil War of 1992-1997 was an "interethnic conflict," as most analysts assume. It also predicts that Tajikistan will become the base for jihad in Central Asia. Note the characterization of proponents of a secular state as kafirs (unbelievers).

Modern history of Tajikistan is interesting by the fact that here you can observe the first example of Jihad in the post-Soviet space after the collapse of the USSR (1991). Historians from among the unbelievers know about this Jihad as the Tajik Civil War of 1992-1997. They were assuming that the opposing forces in this war were 'Communists' and 'Islamists'. Others were claiming that the war was an 'interethnic conflict' between regional clans. ...

Opposing sides

The first side can be called the Kafirs (infidels). They have been represented by three regional groups, which founded the bloc: tycoons from Hojent, Kulyabians and Gissarians.

Hojent oligarchs represent the regional Communist elite and the corps of directors of the most Russified industrialized and densely-populated city, which used to be called Leninabad during the Soviet times (now the city of Hojent). During the Civil War they were the main sponsors of the army of Kafirs.

Kulyabians are natives of cotton-growing regions in the South. They were the main strike force of the Kafirs. Positions of criminal elements are too strong in Kulyab. They were the ones who provoked the Anti-Islamic Mutiny in June 1992. Many prominent field commanders of the army of Kafirs were Kulyabians, and so is the current president of the Republic, Emomali Rakhmonov.

Gissarians are natives of Gissar Valley near the Uzbek border, ethnic Uzbeks and intermediaries between Tajik Kafirs and Uzbek neo-communist regime of Karimov.

There is a reason why they are called Kafirs (infidels, unbelievers), for they all were supporters of a secular state. And Kulyabians were demanding that the calls to prayer over the radio are banned. They were also practicing burning the mosques of their opponents.

The second side can be called an army of Mujahideen (fighters). They were based exclusively in eastern regions: in Karategin (Garm) and Pamirs. Active participation of Pamirians showed that the Civil War was no 'interethnic conflict', for the Pamirians are no ethnic Tajiks at all. They are descendants of the ancient natives of Central Asia and are cognate more to the Afghan Pashto. Besides, Islamic units of Uzbek armed opposition were spotted in Karategin after the Civil War, when they showed themselves in 1999 while trying to cross into Uzbekistan through the territories of Kyrgyzstan (Kirgizia).

The only thing that Tajiks, Uzbeks and Pamirians had in common was Islam, which they were trying to revive in Tajikistan. Islamic revival started since 1979, when the Islamic Revolution started in Iran, and when units of Mujahideen (fighters) started to be formed in Afghanistan in response to the invasion by the 'limited contingent' of the Soviet Army. Moreover, the units of Tajik Mujahideen were not the least in the Afghan Resistance. For obvious reasons back then the youth of Tajikistan started joining Islam not only in the eastern parts of the country, but in the capital Dushanbe as well. Not all of the youth of course. Some young men depraved by the atheistic propaganda kept joining the ranks of criminal groups and they only saw a threat that reviving Islam was posing to their criminal activities. ...

It may seem that the Mujahideen in Tajikistan had lost. The Rakhmonov regime is still in power. The Tajik people are still separated by Russian customs. But it's not all as easy as it seems to be. There are two facts that allow claiming that the Tajik Jihad was successful, even though not all of its consequences seem to be obvious.

Fact number one: mutiny by Colonel Hudoiberdyev in Hojent, November 3-10, 1998, which was openly backed by the Uzbek regime of Karimov. The mutiny was suppressed by the government, which in turn was backed by Tajik Mujahideen.

Fact number two: 1999, the attempt of units of Uzbek Mujahideen under the command of Emir Namangani to enter Uzbekistan from the Tajik territories (Karategin) through Kyrgyzstan.

All of it points at the power of Islamic democratic opposition in Tajikistan, at its ability to put up resistance to the influence of the Karimov regime and to have its own influence on the situation in Uzbekistan. So Tajikistan may quite possibly become the outpost of the Islamic Revolution in Central Asia.

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.

Christian missionary activity in Muslim countries has always been dangerous. Islamic law forbids any Muslim to convert to another religion, on pain of death. And dhimmi laws for Christians forbid proselytizing. This just in from Tajikistan, via the Barnabas Fund: "A pastor who was also an active missionary has been shot dead while he was praying in a chapel."

"At 9.00pm on Monday 12 January gunmen burst into a churchyard in Isfara in the north of Tajikistan and fired several rounds through a window at Sergei Bessarab as he was kneeling in prayer. Forum 18 news agency reported that on hearing the gunfire, his wife, Tamara, rushed to her husband's side but he was already dead. Reuters also carried the story and confirmed he was shot 13 times with a Kalashnikov assault rifle.

"A local newspaper had only a week before attacked Bessarab for his missionary work in this staunchly Muslim region. Women are often seen wearing the veil in villages and alcohol is taboo, indeed shops stocking it have sometimes been burnt down. The hard-line Islamic Revival Party garnered a large majority of the local vote in recent elections, despite central government attempts to curb the growth of Islamic extremism. Bessarab's handing out of Christian literature aroused considerable local anger. Nevertheless police have not yet confirmed that the suspected motive for the murder was his missionary activity.

"Local opposition to the missionary work of this pastor is typical throughout the Muslim world. The reason lies in Islamic law, shari'a, which states that any male who converts from Islam should be put to death. Barnabas Fund is currently engaged in a major international campaign on behalf of converts from Islam focusing on the Islamic law of apostasy and the treatment of converts in Islamic societies. The Fund is calling upon Muslim religious leaders to condemn the harsh treatment of converts and to make public statements calling for a reform of shari'a teaching on apostasy to clearly affirm that Muslims who choose to convert to another faith are free to follow their personal convictions without fear of punishment or harassment. Further details of the campaign can be obtained by contacting Barnabas Fund or visiting the Apostasy Campaign pages on our website http://www.barnabasfund.org/apostasy.htm."