A recipe for radicalisation: the campaign against Islam in Tajikistan | openDemocracy

A government campaign against Islamic education and political movements in Tajikistan, prompted by an armed conflict with ’mujaheds’ in the Rasht valley, risks creating the very militancy it aims to prevent, write Sophie Roche and John Heathershaw.

In earlier articles for opendemocracy, we wrote of the armed conflict between government and rebel factions in the Rasht valley region of Tajikistan.  This violence, the most serious in Tajikistan for 10 years, began with an attack on a government convoy in September 2010.

On 4 January 2011, official and local sources confirmed that Government forces had killed Alovuddin Davlatov (aka Ali Bedak), the commander accused of having launched the attack, and the remnants of his groups. This news apparently brings to an end the military conflict between the Government and the self-styled ‘Mujaheds’ led by Davlatov and other former civil war commanders.  However, the conflict itself, which has led to around 100 deaths, has had far wider repercussions that go beyond the terrible violence of Rasht.

via A recipe for radicalisation: the campaign against Islam in Tajikistan | openDemocracy.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *