DUSHANBE, January 3, 2012, Asia-Plus – There ought not to give a religious color to murder of young man dressed as Father Frost, a Tajik prominent religious figure Hoji Akbar Turajonzoda told Asia-Plus Tuesday afternoon, while commenting on the murder of 24-year-old Parviz Davlatbekov in Dushanbe on December 31.
“The killing of a human being by another person is a tragedy of itself,” said Turajonzoda. “If the youth had really wanted to kill unfaithfuls, they would have killed those drinking alcohol drinks and women who do not wear the hijjab. But there were no such cases in the country.”
“No propaganda against Father Frost has ever been carried out in Tajikistan. Since childhood, we have used to see Father Frost, harmless and good man. I have never seen any believer who would use insulting words against him. Therefore, I do not think that this murder was committed for religious reasons,” Turajonzoda stressed.
He further added that Tajik youth now had aggression towards everything. “Young people are dissatisfied with their lives. Reality does not meet their needs and quarrel may arise under any pretext,” Turajonzoda noted.
We will recall that 24-year-old resident of Dushanbe, Parviz Davlatbekov, dressed as Father Frost was stabbed to death on the night of December 31.
Parviz’s relatives say he was attacked for dressing as Father Frost to attend “un-Islamic” New Year celebrations. According to them, a group of young men attacked him and inflicted multiple stab wounds on him.
Meanwhile, the Interior Ministry says the deadly stabbing attack of 24-year-old Parviz Davlatbekov dressed as Farther Frost had just rowdy motives.
The Interior Ministry spokesman Mahmadullo Asadulloyev said on Tuesday that Parviz Davlatbekov allegedly sustained fatal stab wounds following quarrel with a group of drunken young people. “Persons who attacked him were in a state of drunkenness. Following a vocabulary quarrel, they sustained two stab wounds on him,” the spokesman said.
Three persons were detained on suspicion of having been involved in that crime and two other persons are wanted by police.
Commenting on statements by some imam-khatibs that celebrating New Year’s contradicts both Islamic laws and Tajik traditions, Turajonzoda noted that they just answered questions by parishioners, “explaining that from the point of view of Shariah.” “But this does not mean that they call on parishioners to condemn those who celebrate this holyday,” Turajonzoda stressed.
Radio Liberty’s Tajik Service reported on January 2 that the head of the Council of Ulamo (a group of scholars and imams that provides interpretations of religious practice), Saidmukarram Abduqodirzoda, urged Tajiks not to celebrate New Year’s. “It contradicts both Islamic laws and Tajik traditions,” Abduqodirzoda said. “We have many others — our own, good celebrations.”
