DUSHANBE, October 30, 2015, Asia-Plus – An article “Tajikistan”s Crackdown on Islam ”Helps IS Recruiters”” posted on Radio Liberty’s website notes that a Tajik Diaspora leader in Russia says a crackdown by Tajikistan”s government against Islamic political and religious groups and certain forms of Islam has played into the hands of Islamic State (IS) recruiters.
Farukh Mirzoyev, the head of the Yekaterinburg-based Tajik cultural society Somon, reportedly said earlier this month that young people from Islamic countries like Tajikistan were joining IS not because of ignorance, but because they did not see any prospects for religious development at home.
“IS ideologues play on this very skillfully,” Mirzoyev said.
According to him, Tajikistan”s spiritual leaders brand Islamic groups and those who show a greater degree of religious observance as “Salafis, Wahhabis, and IS men.”
In September, following armed attacks in and around Dushanbe, the Tajik government banned the Islamic Revival Party of Tajikistan (IRP), the only Islamic political party legally registered in Central Asia.
Tajikistan”s Interior Ministry named the leader of one of the attacks, which targeted a police station, as Ziyoraddin Abdulloyev, who was initially accused of being an IRP member.
A high court in Tajikistan later ruled that the IRPT — formerly a major player in the country”s political scene — should be included on a blacklist of extremist and terrorist groups.
Tajikistan had previously accused the IRPT of having ties to IS.
“In Tajikistan, they even closed the IRP on the grounds that many of its members had become IS agitators,” Mirzoyev said.
The result of the crackdown against “Wahhabism” has had a chilling effect in Tajikistan, according to Mirzoyev. “[Everyone] tries to be careful about what they say. Radical statements have stopped,” the Tajik Diaspora leader said.
Mirzoyev believes that IS recruiters have been able to make use of the situation in Tajikistan to manipulate Tajiks, particularly labor migrants in Russia, into joining the extremist group in Syria.
Since Tajiks with an interest in Islam — such as those who want to become more religiously observant — are not able to express that interest, or even ask questions, IS recruiters have moved to fill the vacuum.
IS has also seized on the advantage it holds in having recruiters with a better knowledge of Islam than Tajikistan”s clergy do. “IS clergy makes use of the fact that our clergy do not have a perfect command of Arabic or theology. When IS ask [our] imams questions, [the imams] are stumped,” Mirzoyev said.
Mirzoyev believes that to counter IS propaganda and recruitment, Tajikistan needs to improve its knowledge of Islam rather than suppress it.
“We need to create a theological school or madrasah that would train qualified theologians and imams,” Mirzoyev said. “IS has nothing to do with Islam, but it interprets [Islam], it brings it to young, immature minds in a colorful way.”
Mirzoyev also said that Tajikistan should separate religion from the state. “The religious leaders want to control a person from birth to death,” he added.
Tajik Interior Minister Ramazan Rahimzoda said in June that the number of Tajik nationals fighting alongside IS was 500.
But not all Tajiks in Syria are fighting alongside IS. There is evidence that Tajik nationals have also joined other Islamist groups in Syria, including two now-defunct Aleppo-based groups — Jaish al-Muhajireen wal-Ansar and the Crimean Jamaat — which have now merged with Syrian Al-Qaeda affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra (Al-Nusra Front).
