Islamic Movement Of Uzbekistan Research Articles

Hizb ut-Tahrir al-Islami: Evaluating the Threat Posed by a Radical Islamic Group That Remains Nonviolent

ABSTRACT Hizb ut-Tahrir is a transnational movement that currently finds support among young Muslims in Central Asia and Western Europe. It presents a complex challenge to both Western and Muslim governments because it calls for the unification of all Muslim countries into a single Caliphate but has consistently rejected violence as a tool of political change. In this paper we focus on Hizb ut-Tahrir in Uzbekistan, a country that is a key U.S. ally in the war on terrorism. Drawing on extensive fieldwork in Central Asia, we find that social movement theories (resource mobilization theory, political opportunities theory, framing theory) cannot explain why Hizb ut-Tahrir has remained opposed to violence under the same circumstances in which the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, the other important radical Islamic group in the region, has embraced violence. We suggest that ideology is crucial for understanding why Hizb ut-Tahrir remains peaceful, and consider several scenarios in which the group might reconsider its ideology and turn to terrorism.

Religious Extremism in Ferghana Valley

A series of disturbing events — from the Tashkent bombing in February 1999 to the May 13, 2005 incidents in Andijon city in Ferghana Valley of Uzbekistan — have drawn attention to the growing role of the religious extremist forces in Central Asia. The Islamic Movement of Turkestan (IMT), also known as the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) until the middle of 2003, and the Hizb-ut-Tahrir (HT) — the two leading extremist groups — have openly declared their objective of overthrowing the constitutional system and to create an Islamic state in Central Asia. While declining economic conditions, corruption, sense of injustice and non-accommodative polity have given more space to IMT and HT to operate, the ideological onslaught by often foreign-backed religious forces, an unremitting flow of foreign funds and the unresolved conflict in Afghanistan are the principal factors for the growth of extremism in the Ferghana Valley.

Hizb ut-Tahrir: An Islamist threat to Central Asia?1

In international relations, and in particular when it comes to security and terrorism, it is sometimes easier to focus on one group seen as the source of all evils rather than analyzing the numerous and complex problems that help an extremist group to succeed. After Al-Qaida, Hizb ut-Tahrir seems to be the new Main Villain everyone is worried about, in particular when it comes to the analysis of the situation in the Silk Road. This paper aims to answer an important and fashionable question in the field of Central Asian studies: Can Hizb ut-Tahrir eventually be the next Al-Qaida of the region, both threatening the Central Asian states and the West? The answer to this question can be alarming, yet unclear. One can not avoid the fact that this Islamist group is indeed very important, not only in Uzbekistan, but also in much of the rest of Central Asia. HT's ideology is as elaborate as it sounds threatening for the future of the region. The goal of this paper, however, is to look at the broader picture. Among other things, one can not rule out the fact that there could be an Islamist threat—in the form of Hizb ut-Tahrir and others—in the future of Central Asia. However, Islamism is not the only threat, and Hizb ut-Tahrir is definitely not the only Islamist security threat for Central Asia. This paper takes the position that the possibility for destabilization because of sub-national rivalries and the actions of more violent groups, such as the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), appears to be a much more serious threat than that posed by Hizb ut-Tahrir.

Narcotics, Radicalism, and Armed Conflict in Central Asia: The Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan

While the academic debate on security has broadened in recent years, it has failed to cohesively include transnational organized crime and drug trafficking as a security issue. However, especially in weak states in developing and postcommunist regions, these phenomena are having an increasingly negative effect on security in the military, political, economic, and societal sense. Security issues in Central Asia are a prominentexample of the links between drug trafficking and military threats to security. This is illustrated most clearly by the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), which has been both a major actor in the drug trade from Afghanistan to Central Asia as well as the most serious violent nonstate actor in the region. The link between the drug trade and armed conflict is of fundamental importance to understanding the challenges to Central Asian security.

Storm Clouds over Central Asia: Revival of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU)?

Government warnings, media commentary, and the recent bombings in Uzbekistan suggest that the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) may be renascent. Despite these concerns, the evidence suggests that the threat presented by the IMU remains manageable. Not only does the IMU lack both popular support and military strength, but the United States, Russia, and China have shown surprising solidarity in opposing a revival of Central Asian terrorism. This article first discusses the IMU's origins, structure, training, and financing. It then provides a detailed description of its activities in Central Asian countries. Despite its name, the IMU's membership roster includes a large number on non-Uzbeks, and the organization has been militarily active in much of Central Asia. The next section analyzes the policies of Russia, China, and the United States toward the IMU. The only partially successful attempts at regional cooperation against the organization are then discussed. Finally, the article reviews the debate over the appropriate U.S. policies toward the IMU and Central Asia.­

A SECULAR ISLAM: NATION, STATE, AND RELIGION IN UZBEKISTAN

The collapse of the Soviet Union a decade ago engendered both hope and fear about the future of Islam in Uzbekistan (and Central Asia in general). Many Muslims from other countries hoped that, freed from the constraints of the Soviet regime, Uzbeks and other Central Asians would rediscover their religious traditions and rejoin the broader Muslim world.1 Other observers feared that Islam would emerge as a political force and threaten the security of the region.2 As the decade progressed and militant Islamist organizations appeared, fear tended to overshadow hope. The events of autumn 2001 in Afghanistan, when fighters belonging to the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) played a prominent role alongside the Taliban, seemed to vindicate the darkest fears,3 and to justify the unremitting campaign that the regime of President Islom Karimov has waged against “religious extremism” since 1998.

Islamic movement of Uzbekistan: Will it strike back?

The basic argument in this paper is that the revival of Islam in the post‐Soviet disintegration period, increased contacts with the foreign radical Muslim organisations and suppression of religion on the part of government authorities, led to the creation of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan in Central Asia. Declining socio‐economic conditions gave further impetus to the movement. Post‐September 11, 2001, the movement appears to have lost steam due to the US led ‘war against terrorism.’ This paper examines whether it will bounce back or fade into oblivion.

Jihad: The Rise of Militant Islam in Central Asia

The terrorist attacks of September 11th have turned the world's attention to areas of the globe about which we know very little. Ahmed Rashid, who explored Afghanistan's Taliban regime in a previous work, here turns his skills as an investigative journalist to the five Central Asian republics adjacent to Afghanistan. Central Asia is coming to play a vital strategic role in the war on terrorism, but the region also poses new threats to global security. The five Central Asian republics - Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan - were part of the Soviet Union until its collapse in 1991. Under Soviet rule, Islam was brutally suppressed, and that intolerance has continued under the post-Soviet regimes. Religious repression, political corruption, and the region's extreme poverty (unemployment rates exceed 80 percent in some areas) have created a fertile climate for militant Islamic fundamentalism. Often funded and trained by such organizations as Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda and the Taliban, guerrilla movements like the IMU (Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan) have recruited a staggering number of members across the region and threaten to topple the governments of all five nations. Based on research and numerous interviews, this text explains the roots of militant rage in Central Asia, describes the goals and activities of these militant organisations, and suggests ways in which this threat could be neutralised by diplomatic and economic intervention. Rich in both cultural heritage and natural resources - including massive oil reservoirs - Central Asia remains desperately poor and frighteningly volatile. In tracing the history of Central Asia and explaining the current political climate, Rashid demonstrates that it is a region we ignore at our peril.

Religious extremism in central Asia

The Central Asian republics are bearing the brunt of terrorism fed by religious extremism for the last few years. Uzbekistan, Kyrghyzstan and Tajikistan have suffered the most among the five Central Asian republics. Uzbekistan and Kyrghyzstan are currently facing armed rebel incursions that began in 1999. After the end of the Communist control, the somewhat unsettled situation made the region a happy hunting ground for a new breed of highly motivated Islamic clergy. Countries like Saudi Arabia, Iran and Pakistan liberally provided religious literature and funds for the construction of mosques and religious schools etc. At the same time, the socio‐economic dislocation in the republics and the vacuum following the sudden collapse of the Soviet Union and socialism was cleverly exploited by Islamic radical elements backed by the Taliban. The Taliban helped the Islamic opposition movements of the Central Asian republics providing them sanctuaries and training. The Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), whose ultimate objective is to establish an Islamic state, was given arms and training in Afghanistan by the Taliban. These linkages have made religious extremism a potent source of destabilisation for the region. The turbulence in the region is unlikely to disappear anytime soon.

The Fires of Faith in Central Asia

The salient fact about Central Asia today is that independent statehood was neither coveted nor sought by the region's ruling Communist elites. It was thrust upon them when the Soviet Union broke up in 1991. Thus the region's rulers were suddenly compelled to fabricate a new identity for their five ethnically diverse states Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan and to contend for the first time with radically differing ideologies. A decade later, the same elites are in power. After a brief period of allowing some political freedom, they embarked on repressive campaigns to eliminate all forms of opposition, subverting democracy and elections almost as meticulously as the Soviets did and eliminating their political opponents through assassination, imprisonment, or exile. With the democratic and nationalist opposition effectively crushed, the survivors have moved underground and become armed and radicalized by Islamic fundamentalism, which seeks to overthrow the ruling elites, impose upon the region an imagined Islamic community of believers that has as its reference point seventh-century Arabia and the era of the Prophet Muhammad, and to restructure Central Asia through an antiWestern and anti-Russian crusade. Examining these insurgent groups will be the focus of this article. Every act of state repression has pushed these militants into adopting even more extreme positions, while the dearth of Islamic teachings during the 74 years of communism has created a new conundrum. The militants' philosophy is based not on the indigenous Islam of Central Asia, which was the birthplace of Sufism a tolerant, moderate form of Islamic mysticism or nineteenth-century Jadidism a modernist interpretation of Islam but on imported ideologies from the Taliban in Afghanistan, the militant madrassas (Islamic schools) of Pakistan, and the extreme Wahabbi doctrine of Saudi Arabia. Contrary to Central Asia's own history, jihad (holy war), rather than ijtihad (reinterpretation and consensus), has become the strategy of these groups to mobilize popular support. The civil war in Tajikistan (1992-97) was the first testing ground for the reinterpretation of Islam in Central Asia. Today, Islamic movements such as Hizb-ut-Tahrir al Islami and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan pose the greatest threats to the Central Asian regimes and stability in the region. Well armed and financed, highly motivated, and with extensive support from the wider world of Islamic radicalism and drug smuggling mafias based in Afghanistan, these are pan-Islamic and pan-Central Asian movements. The danger posed by Islamic radicalism in Central Asia is also rapidly changing the geostrategic picture as China, Russia, and the United States realign their regional strategies to meet this threat while the Taliban and Islamic groups in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, China, and Kashmir help fuel the process of radicalization.