KHUJAND, June 14, 2016, Asia-Plus – Six residents of the Obburdon jamoat in the Mastchoh district of the Sughd province, aged 28 to 42, have been jailed for membership in the banned Salafist movement.
A court in the Mastchoh district sentenced Abdujabbor Sharipov, 33, Sunatullo Mirzoyev, 33, Rustambek Qalandarov, 42, Sharof Rasoulov, 31, Mirali Rahmonov, 32, and Muhammadi Mirzoyev, 28, to jail terms ranging from 3 years and 8 months to 4 ½ year on June 12.
Abdujabbor Sharipov, Sunatullo Mirzoyev and Rustambek Qalandarov got jail terms of 4 years and 3 months each, Sharof Rasoulov and Mirali Rahmonov were sentenced to 3 years and 8 months in prison each, and Muhammadi Mirzoyev was sentenced to 4 ½ years in prison. They will serve their terms in a minimum-security penal colony
The sentence followed their conviction on charges of organizing activity of an extremist group, participation in political parties, public or religious associations or any other organization banned in Tajikistan (Article 307’ (2) of Tajikistan’s Penal Code).
All of them were detained by officers of the State Committee for National Security (SCNS)’s office in Sughd in March this year.
A source at the Mastchoh district court says the convicts joined the Salafist movement in the Russian city of Nizhnevartovsk.
The Salafi movement or Salafist movement is an ultra-conservative orthodox movement within Sunni Islam that references the doctrine known as Salafism. The movement first appeared in Tajikistan in the early 2000s, having been brought back to the country by Tajiks that had taken refuge in Pakistan during the civil war.
The movement claims to follow a strict and pure form of Islam, but Tajik clerics say the Salafists’ radical stance is similar to that of the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Salafists do not recognize other branches of Islam, such as Shi”a and Sufism. The movement is frequently referred to as Wahhabism, although Salafists reject this as derogatory.
The Tajik authorities banned Salafism as an illegal group on January 8, 2009, saying the Salafi movement represents a potential threat to national security and the Supreme Court added Salafis to its list of religious groups prohibited from operating in the country.
On December 8, 2014, the Supreme Court of Tajikistan formally labeled the banned Salafi group as an extremist organization. The ruling reportedly followed a request submitted to the court by the Prosecutor-General’s Office. The ruling means that the group’s website and printed materials are also banned.
The overwhelming majority of Tajiks are followers of the Hanafi madhab, a more liberal branch of Sunni Islam.
