Oh, Actual Terrorists

Did you see the IMU shootout in Jalalabad? No, not the Jalalabad that hasn’t seen an IMU militant since 2001. I mean the one in Kyrgyzstan.

The press secretary of Kyrgyzstan’s Jalal-Abad regional administration says five armed individuals killed by Kyrgyz national security troops were members of the banned extremist group the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU).

Speaking to RFE/RL’s Kyrgyz Service, Orozali Karasartov said that Kyrgyz national security troops located a group of IMU members in a house in the region’s Suzak district.

Kyrgyz officials later claimed they were suicide bombers from the IMU who had trained in Pakistan. Is it possible? Yes. Probable? Who knows. Right now there’s no obvious reason for them to make this up, unless it’s some weird ploy for the upcoming election. But we’ll be keeping an eye on it.

Meanwhile, what is going on in Tajikistan?

Tajikistan said Wednesday that the alleged leader of a banned Islamic movement and dozens of followers have been arrested on charges of inciting religious hatred…

Security Service officers detained Mullo Sirodzhiddin, leader of the ultraconservative Salafiya movement, and about 40 followers Tuesday during a sermon at a mosque in the capital, Dushanbe, the Interior Ministry said.

The Salafiya movement, which has been banned in Tajikistan since the beginning of the year, is estimated to have an overall membership in Tajikistan of around 20,000 people, mostly young men.

Salafism is an ultraconservative Islamic movement that has grown in popularity across the Middle East and in Central Asia in recent decades. It preaches strict segregation of the sexes and resists any innovation in religion or adoption of Western ways.

Tajik authorities accuse the group of espousing an extremist religious ideology and posing a security risk to the country. They say many of Salafiya’s members received their religious training at madrassas, or religious schools, in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Yemen.

What’s interesting is that the Tajik authorities have defined extremism as anything that challenges the cultural status quo and resists western ideas of morality. By that definition, Hizb-ut Tahrir is also an extremist organization. Then again, so are Jehovah’s Witnesses, who apparently subverted Rahmon’s regime by pledging non-violence and refusing military service. What’s interesting about these movements is, best anyone can tell they’re not responsible for violence… yet. Simply labeling an organization like HUT Islamist—which is true—but immediately noting that Tajikistan had a tragic civil war where one faction was Islamist, however, which seems to be the game the AP is playing, is deeply misleading. The Islamist group Hizb-ut Tahrir had nothing to do with the Islamists during Tajikistan’s civil war (still rumored to be deep in the Pamirs, but who knows).

HUT in particular is explicit in its belief in non-violence and political means to achieve shari’a. Jehovah’s Witnesses are similarly non-violent in their preaching. While it is certainly possible there’s some evidence somewhere that the Salafiya preacher and his followers are in fact on the verge of committing horrible violence in pursuit of their faith… we don’t have any of it, and for the time being it seems to be just another excuse for the government to crack down on a religious movement it dislikes and cannot control.

But I could have sketchy and incomplete information. You guys know anything?

Previously:
Is the IJU faked?