DUSHANBE, January 8, 2015, Asia-Plus — The Islamic Center of Tajikistan yesterday released a statement in response to a video showing two young Tajik men calling for jihad in Tajikistan.
The statement, in particular, notes that people well-versed in religion will never call on their brothers in religion to wage jihad in Tajikistan.
The Islamic Center notes that the threat to wage jihad in Tajikistan, where 99 percent of citizens are Muslims, is senseless.
Radio Liberty’s Tajik Service reports that militants from the Islamic State (IS) group in Iraq have published a video saying that they have asked permission from the group”s senior leadership to wage jihad in Tajikistan.
A bearded ethnic Tajik who appears in the video and who claims he is fighting with IS in Iraq says that Tajik militants in Islamic State approached the group”s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, with a proposal that they return home to “fight infidels” in Tajikistan.
The militant, who gives his nom de guerre as Abu Umariyon and looks to be around 30 years old, has appeared in a number of other videos, according to RFE/RL”s Tajik Service. Abu Umariyon says he is from the small town of Samsolik in the Nourobod district of Tajikistan”s Rasht Valley.
Abu Umariyon says that he and his fellow Tajik militants asked Baghdadi and Islamic State leaders for permission to go back to Tajikistan and fight with the extremist group Jamaat Ansarullah.
However, Baghdadi did not give his permission.
“The emirs [militant leaders] who passed on their message to Baghdadi told them that right now they have to wait,” the Tajik militant explains.
Although Baghdadi reportedly said that Tajiks in Iraq and Syria cannot return home to wage jihad at this time, a second Tajik militant in the video does not call on Tajiks in Tajikistan to wage jihad at home but says they should come to Syria or Iraq via Turkey and become suicide bombers.
