DUSHANBE, February 1, 2015, Asia-Plus — A Tajik militant claiming to be fighting alongside the Islamic State (IS) group in Syria has told Radio Liberty’s Tajik Service, Radio Ozodi, that his goal is to introduce Shari”a law throughout the world, including among Native Americans.
The 38-year-old militant, who gave his name as Nusrat Nazarov, also goes under several other names including Makhsumi Nurat and Abu Kholidi Kulobi. A video of a Tajik militant named Abu Kholidi Kulobi appeared online in August.
Nazarov says that he is from the village of Charmgaron in the Kulob district of Tajikistan and that he went to Syria two years ago and now lives in a suburb of Raqqa, the Islamic State group”s de facto capital in Syria.
According to Nazarov, he had been living and working in Moscow before coming to Syria via Turkey.
“This is not the only route. There are dozens of other ways for our brothers to unite with us. If Turkey closes the route, then there is Yemen and other states,” Nazarov said.
According to Nazarov, he originally fought alongside Jabhat al-Nusra, Al-Qaeda”s Syrian affiliate. “After I learned about their cooperation with the West, I quit their ranks,” Nazarov said.
Nazarov emphasized that he had held “jihadist intentions” since the early 1990s and that he had studied the basics of Islam since he was a child.
Nazarov told Radio Ozodi that there are as many as 2,000 Tajiks fighting in IS and that around 500 had been killed.
However, these figures are almost certainly hyperbole. While it is not known exactly how many Tajik nationals are fighting in Syria, the State Committee for the National Security of Tajikistan said in November that as many as 300 Tajiks have gone to join the fighting.
According to Edward Lemon from the UK”s University of Exeter, who researches and tracks Tajik militants in Iraq and Syria, there are over 60 documented Tajiks in Syria.
Nazarov said that IS planned to spread Shari”a law around the world and subjugate the global population to the “caliphate” (the name given by IS to the areas under its control.)
“Even the [Native Americans] will have to live under Shari”a. We will take them tubeteikas [Central Asian caps, worn in Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan], we will build mosques for them, and we will live with them according to the laws of Allah,” Nazarov said.
The Tajik militant, however, threatened to kill Tajik religious figures who had spoken out against Tajik nationals traveling to Syria to wage jihad. Despite his threats, however, Nazarov insisted that he wanted to “spread Shari”a law in Tajikistan without war.”
Nazarov said that he had begged his wife to join him in Syria, but she would not come.
The Tajik militant also commented on a video message made by his brother, Khairullo Nazarov, who asked him to come home.
“I heard his words. The words that he said are those of the government. They”d better not blackmail my wife, because that will lead to not very good consequences for officials in Tajikistan,” Nazarov said.
The Tajik militant told Radio Ozodi that his family in Tajikistan is under “constant pressure” to bring him back to his homeland.
