Despite the sneer quotes and skepticism about the jihad charges in this article, some telling details come through: Shavkat Makhmudov “performed a number of terrorist attacks in Tashkent and Tashkent province in 2009.” And “Makhmudov’s group is based on the teachings of Imam Obidjon Nazarov.”
How did an imam, a man who dedicated his life to understanding and teaching the Qur’an and Sunnah properly, come to misunderstand jihad so spectacularly as to think that it had something to do with terrorism? This is a question I have often asked, whenever an imam is involved in jihad terror activity — which is fairly frequently. Yet no establishment analyst seems to think this question worthy of consideration.
“Twenty ‘jihadists’ sentenced in Uzbekistan,” from Uznews.net, March 5:
The official Uzbek media is reporting the verdicts, ranging from three to thirteen years, received by a group of twenty “jihadists”. The information is assumed to have been leaked by the prosecutor general’s office.
“During the investigation it was ascertained that the group of extremists was created by Tulkin Nematov, a Tashkent province resident, who had established ties with a son of the leader of the group called Jihad, Abduvali Mirzaev,” states the prosecutor general’s representative.
“Kamoliddin Ortikbaev and Rifkhat Temirboev, without realizing it, had joined Tulkin Nematov’s group of religious extremists,” reads the statement.
In addition to them, the group consisted of other young men wishing to know more about Islam: Alisher Yusufbekov, Farkhod and Ikrom Salmatov, Ilkhom Nurmatov, Tokhir Umurboev, Askarali Urolov, Dilshod Yakhev, Azim Toshmatov, Dilmurod Rustamov, Sobir Khamraev, Abdukhamid Dadabov, Utkir Jumaniyazov, Ikromjon and Bakhrom Khoshimov, Akhbar and Makhammad Makhkamov, Ozod Tursunov, Gabdurafik Temirboev, Abajdulla Akhmedov, Khusanboj Yuldoshev, Karim Tulaganov, and others. None of the above-mentioned stood trial or was able to testify in court.
Uznews.net reported on the sentencing of another group of “Jihadists” – consisting of six individuals – in October 2013.
It should be noted that the Uzbek authorities have a very broad understanding of who exactly is a Jihadist. If at first the term referred to the members of the group created by terrorist Shavkat Makhmudov, who, indeed, performed a number of terrorist attacks in Tashkent and Tashkent province in 2009, later the term has been known to be applied to all the followers of the two most famous imams in the country.
Makhmudov’s group is based on the teachings of Imam Obidjon Nazarov, who received political asylum in Sweden and was seriously wounded by an assassin in 2012. The authorities refer to his followers as “Jihadists”.
The supporters of the Andijan imam Abduvali Mirzaev are another group considered to be “Jihadists” by the government.