TASHKENT, Uzbekistan - A prominent U.S. Islamic scholar urged more religious freedom and tolerance during a visit Friday to Uzbekistan where the staunchly secular government had been cracking down on the Islamic opposition.
"I hope that Islam will be given freedom to flourish because with freedom comes moderation and with oppression come extremism and radicalism," Imam Yahya Hendi, the Muslim chaplain at Georgetown University, told reporters.
Overwhelmingly Muslim but staunchly secular Uzbekistan has been for the past several years battling the radical Islamic opposition which seeks to set up an Islamic state in Central Asia.
The Uzbek government has been strongly criticized by human rights groups and Western governments for persecuting peaceful Muslims while fighting Islamic radicals. Thousands of innocent Muslims have been imprisoned for alleged extremist activities, human rights groups say.
But the former Soviet republic's relations with the United States have considerably improved since last fall when it provided an air base for U.S. troops involved in the anti-terrorism campaign in neighboring Afghanistan.
Imam Hendi said free exchange of ideas and thoughts and free education rather than force could prevent the rise of religious radicalism in any society.
"No religious community is free from extremism. We can overcome it with freedom and education," he said.
He also called on moderate voices of Islam to speak up and be more active.
"Extreme interpretations of Islam flourish when moderate voices are low," he said.
Imam Hendi's three-day U.S. embassy-sponsored visit to Uzbekistan includes lectures at the Islamic State University and the Islamic Institute in the Uzbek capital Tashkent and meetings with Islamic clergy and representatives of non-governmental organizations in the eastern Fergana Valley.