DUSHANBE, December 19, 2008, Asia-Plus — Appearance of Tajik Salfis resembles first steps of Afghan Taliban, known Tajik cleric and politician Hoji Akbar Turajonzoda remarked at a scientific conference on the inter-religion conflict problems in Dushanbe on December 18.
According to Turajonzoda, during the first years of their appearance in Afghanistan, the Taliban movement members were also loyal to official authorities and were even fighting criminals in the country. “However, later it revealed who they are in reality,” Turajonzoda said.
“Salafis still do not pose threat to Tajik society but if we lose time, they may become a serious threat to our national security,” Turajonzoda said.
Turajonzoda, who is a member of Tajikistan’s upper house of parliament, also compared Salafis to Wahhabis of the early 1990s. According to him, they have something in common, including disobedience to traditional Tajik Muslim leaders.
“However, the difference is that Wahhabis were not trained abroad as Salafis and just foreign religious literature had influence on them,” said Turajonzoda, “While Salafis are the force, which is financed from abroad.”
According to him, the Salafiya organization in Tajikistan now does not have more than 2,000-3,000 members and some 80 percent of them are not well aware of Islam. “The majority of them are defrauded young men who because of insufficient knowledge of the Hanafiya mazhab became Salafis,” Turajonzoda said.
