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December 20, 2006

Uzbekistan: Teachers Of Radical Islam Jailed

News from Associated Press and Interfax.

Two men have been convicted by the city court in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, of organizing an illegal Islamic school, where radicalism was on the curriculum. 30-year old Shoakmal Nosirov was sentenced to nine years in a high-security prison. His associate, 21-year old Farkhod Muminov, was sentenced to six years and six months jail.

The pair had been arrested in early summer. The pair were thought to belong to the extreme Wahhabi sect of Islam. Surat Ikramov, a rights activist, said that extremist charges against the pair had not been proved. They had only organized a summer camp for 50 children who were under the age of 14, where Islam was promoted and Koran-reading sessions were held.

Ikramov said that the two men were being punished for having supposed links to Rukhitdin Fakhrutdinov, imam of the Khuja Nuriddin mosque in Tashkent. Fakhrutdinov and another imam, Obidhon qori Nazarov, were wanted by Uzbek authorities in 2003. They were accused of radicalism.

Nazarov escaped to an EU country, and Fakhrutdinov fled to Shymkent in the south of Kazakhstan, He was arrested on November 21, 2003, and beaten while in custody. He was handed over to Uzbekistan on November 24, 2003. His trial was due to start in June this year in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

Following the detention of Fakhrutdinov, members of the clerics' families were subjected to persecution, and according to a 2004 report by Human Rights Watch, several associated Muslims in Tashkent were subjected to arrest and torture by Uzbek authorities. Fakhrutdinov was to stand trial with four others who had been abducted and returned from Kazakhstan, charged under article 244-2 "Creation, management, participation in religious extremist, separatist, fundamentalist, or any other banned organisations". The group members were said to be part of the "Wahhabist" movement, but though tried under terrorism offences, their main crime appears to be political, that of belonging to a religious group not approved by the Uzbek state.

Fakhrutdinov was given a sentence of 30 years' jail. There must always be doubts about such cases in a country like Uzbekistan (and also neighboring Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan), as the regimes are extremely dictatorial, relics of their former status as Soviet enclaves. President Islam Karimov of Uzbekistan has ruled since 1991, and for a decade he has mounted a crackdown on what he perceives to be "fundamentalist" elements.

The most extreme and well-publicized example of the Karimov regime's atrocities happened in the capital, Andijan on May 13, 2005. Several thousand people had gathered in Andijan's main square. Hundreds of protesters were shot dead, but the Karimov government has only admitted that 187 people died.

A "show trial" ended on November 14 with 15 young men convicted of leading the May uprising. They were given sentences ranging from 4 to 20 years, but their wan and haggard appearances indicated that they had been subjected to abuse or forced drugging.

Karimov's tactics are no different from the Soviet KGB. In October last year, the leader of the opposition "Sunshine" party was arrested on a trumped-up charge of theft. Sanjar Umarov was fed with psychotropic drugs, and was found naked in his cell, incoherent and mumbling. He has not reappeared in public life since.

The worst cases of Karimov's regime of oppression came to light in August 2002, when the bodies of two independent (not following state-sponsored doctrines) Muslim leaders were returned to their families. Mazafar Avazov and Husnidin Alimov had been detained in Jaslyk prison and had died in custody in suspicious circumstances.

The body of Avazov (pictured) showed signs that he had been "boiled alive", amongst other injuries.

So the news of the two men who were convicted by the Tasjkent city court, Shoakmal Nosirov and Farkhod Muminov, cannot be treated as genuine cases of religious extremism. They may have preached a brand of radical Islam. However, when faced with the authoritarianism of the regime of a dictator like Islam Karimov, it must be said that totalitarianism is a factor to push people towards radicalism.

Nosirov was charged with "violating Uzbekistan's Constitution, producing and distributing materials that pose a threat to social security and public order, and establishing, heading and participating in religious extremist, separatist, fundamentalist and other outlawed organizations."

Muminov was convicted of "involvement with religious extremist, separatist, fundamentalist and other outlawed organizations."

They are probably only guilty of following an independent faith not approved by Karimov.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at December 20, 2006 3:19 PM

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