TASHKENT, Uzbekistan - Prominent Uzbek Islamic scholar Sheih Mohammad Sodik Mohammad Yusuf urged Uzbek authorities on Wednesday to abandon forcible methods in fighting religious extremism.
Mohammad Yusuf, who in 1999 ended self-imposed exile but still spends much of his time abroad, said that the strict persecution of religious dissent by Uzbek authorities was one of the reasons why radical Islamists were gaining followers in Uzbekistan.
"Religious extremism should be fought through education and enlightenment. A person can be put in prison, but one cannot jail an idea," he told reporters.
Uzbekistan's staunchly secular government for several years has been struggling with the Islamic opposition which seeks to set up an Islamic state.
Human rights groups say the government's crackdown on radical Islam is accompanied by widespread human rights violations. They say thousands of peaceful Muslims have been imprisoned in recent years.
Mohammad Yusuf, 50, was the last spiritual leader of the Muslims of Soviet Central Asia. He left Uzbekistan several years after the Soviet collapse in 1991 and lived in Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and Turkey. He is the author of the first Uzbek-language commentary on the Koran.
Mohammad Yusuf, who has no formal contact with official Islamic institutions, said he was on a personal mission to avert extremist trends among Uzbek Muslims. He said through his meetings with Muslims across the country he was trying to show to people that Islam is tolerant to other religions and ideas and does not advocate violence.
He said the government's intolerance of religious dissent was stifling free exchange of religious ideas and blocking way to moderate views.
He criticized authorities for banning religious education and for failing to counter fundamentalist ideas with a solid and progressive Islamic ideology.
"An ordinary Muslim has no access to his religion. All young Muslims get is ideas of such extremist groups as Hizb-ut-Tahrir," he said.
Hizb-ut-Tahrir is a secretive organization which aims to create a caliphate ruled by the Islamic law of Shariah that would unite all Muslims. It has networks throughout the Middle East and former Soviet Central Asia and Azerbaijan.