Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan - Kyrgyz authorities fear today that a radical form of Islam is taking root despite their efforts
A year ago, 44-year-old Avas Attokurov was drifting, drunk and without a job, constantly fighting with his family in this tiny, impoverished village on the slopes of the Pamir mountain range in Kyrgyzstan.
But then, at the urging of a neighbour steeped in religious training received in a neighbouring Country, he sobered up and, with Islam as his anchor, set about living his life according to a faith practised by his nomadic ancestors before it was banned by the Soviet Union.
“I thank Allah for giving me vision,” Attokurov said, explaining through a reedy Asian beard grown to conform with Islam’s precepts that he had bought a small mill and was now able to feed his family.
Attokurov’s story is typical of many in this poor region. Islam has emerged as a social mainstay in Kyrgyzstan’s south, a source of strength in an inhospitable, rural area where heroin use and alcoholism have soared and yearly wages rarely exceed 1,000 dollars.
But the rise of the religion, coupled with nearness of Afghanistan, where US-led forces continue to hunt Islamic militants, has prompted Kyrgyz authorities to see the region around Dzhany Bazaar as fertile for Muslim extremists.
A crackdown on Islamic “fundamentalism” was launched in 1999 after the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), an Afghanistan-based group allegedly linked to Al Qaeda, used Kyrgyz territory to stage attacks in neighbouring Uzbekistan.
That was redoubled after the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, especially when a US airbase was opened in Kyrgyzstan to support operations in Afghanistan.
But Kyrgyz authorities fear today that a radical form of Islam is taking root despite their efforts.
“The number of extremists grows each year, primarily among youth, because of illiteracy and poverty and joblessness,” the head of a special police unit in the southern city of Osh established to tackle the threat, Hakim Razykov, told AFP.
His job, and that of his men, is to counter signs of extremism in the traditionally Muslim south, which is separated from the northern, more secular and Russian-speaking half of the country by hundreds of miles of mountains.
Earlier this year, they arrested 30 people believed to be IMU members in a raid in Osh during which they uncovered a weapons store. They swoop was planned after a suspected IMU militant from Uzbekistan blew himself up with a grenade during a document check last year, killing himself and a police officer.
Officers said most of those they consider extremists are ethnic Uzbeks but that fundamental Islam appeared to be spreading to predominantly Kyrgyz areas.
One officer declining to be named said there were signs that, while the IMU aimed to destabilise Uzbekistan, a shadowy new Kyrgyz group had emerged, allegedly financed by local businessmen.
The official crackdown has been zealous - too zealous according to the New York based Human Rights Watch.
Last year, 13 suspects were arrested on charges of extremism, though most were members of a non-violent but banned group calling itself Hizb ut-Tahrir, or the Freedom Party. They were seized as they distributed leaflets or congregated with other members of the organisation.
Security services were also keeping tabs on a half-a-dozen smaller groups also considered to harbour extremist views.
Hizb ut-Tahrir’s declared aim is to create a pan-Islamic state, or a Caliphate, governed by the rules of Islam through non-violent means. It has an estimated 5,000 to 10,000 followers in southern Kyrgyzstan.
An active Hizb ut-Tahrir member based in Osh said a court ruling banning the organization amounted to religious discrimination and expressed little hope that government pressure would ease after last week’s revolution that toppled the previous Soviet-era regime.
“The driver has changed, but the bus, the gasoline and the road it drives down are the same. The war against Hizb ut-Tahrir did not stop for a minute,” said Dilyardzhan Dzhumabayev.
He said that under a Caliphate, non-Muslims would be allowed to practice their own religion but would be subject to the rules of Sharia, or strict Islmaic law. “If a Christian steals his hand will be chopped off,” he said.
According to Dzhumabayev, the crackdown would only help his organisation.
Uzbek President Islam Karimov “did a great favour to the Hizb ut-Tahrir movement by tormenting and arresting its members, he caused the people to rise up,” he said, predicting that continued repression could create such a reaction in Kyrgyzstan.