DUSHANBE, May 28, 205, Asia-Plus — The Supreme Court of Tajikistan formally labeled Islamic Sate of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) as a terrorist organization in early May this year.
Tajikistan”s Supreme Court has banned ISIL as a terrorist group on the basis of a suit filed by the Prosecutor-General”s Office.
An official source at the Supreme Court says a decision has been made to make this information closed for the public.
“There is a list of groups and organizations banned in the country and information about some of those organizations, including ISIL, is classified,” the source added.
Tajik Interior Minister Ramazon Rahimzoda noted on My 8 that 348 Tajik nationals are fighting alongside ISIL militants in Syria and Iraq.
The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria or the Islamic State of Iraq and ash-Sham (ISIS), or simply as the Islamic State, is an Islamic extremist terrorist group controlling territory in Iraq and Syria, with limited territorial control in Libya and Nigeria. The group also operates or has affiliates in many other parts of the world, including Southeast Asia.
On June 29, 2014, the group proclaimed itself to be a worldwide caliphate, with Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi being named its caliph, and renamed itself “Islamic State.” The new name and the idea of a caliphate has been widely criticized and condemned, with the United Nations, various governments, and mainstream Muslim groups all refusing to acknowledge it. As caliphate, it claims religious, political and military authority over all Muslims worldwide and that “the legality of all emirates, groups, states, and organizations, becomes null by the expansion of the khilafah”s [caliphate”s] authority and arrival of its troops to their areas.” Many Islamic and non-Islamic communities judge the group to be unrepresentative of Islam.
The United Nations has held ISIL responsible for human rights abuses and war crimes, and Amnesty International has reported ethnic cleansing by the group on a “historic scale.” The group has been designated as a terrorist organization by the United Nations, the European Union, the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia, Canada, Indonesia, Malaysia, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Syria, Egypt, India, and Russia. Over 60 countries are directly or indirectly waging war against ISIL.
The group originated as Jama”at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad in 1999, which pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda in 2004. The group participated in the Iraqi insurgency, which had followed the March 2003 invasion of Iraq. In January 2006, it joined other Sunni insurgent groups to form the Mujahideen Shura Council, which in October 2006 proclaimed the formation of the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI).
Under the leadership of al-Baghdadi, the ISI sent delegates into Syria in August 2011 after the Syrian Civil War began in March 2011. This group named itself al-Nusra Front, and established a large presence in Sunni-majority areas of Syria, within the governorates of Ar-Raqqah, Idlib, Deir ez-Zor, and Aleppo.
In April 2013, al-Baghdadi announced the merger of his ISI with al-Nusra Front, and announced that the name of the reunited group was now the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
ISIL is known for its well-funded web and social media propaganda, which includes Internet videos of the beheadings of soldiers, civilians, journalists and aid workers, as well as the deliberate destruction of cultural heritage sites.
