15 May 2009
http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1297
By Mushfig Bayram, Central Asia Correspondent, Forum 18 News Service
At least 93 Jamaat Tabligh followers in Tajikistan have been held in
police detention centres since 14 April, Forum 18 News Service has been
told by a Jamaat Tabligh follower, who wanted to remain unnamed for fear of
state reprisals. The 93 are held in the capital Dushanbe, Qurghonteppa, and
Kulob. Officials have refused to give the names or the exact number of
those arrested. Jamaat Tabligh, whose name means the Society of Preachers,
is an Islamic movement promoting Muslim values.
The authorities are refusing to say exactly why the 93 have been arrested.
Humayro Mirova, the Interior Ministry's Press Officer could not tell Forum
18 on 13 May under which law the Jamaat Tabligh followers were arrested,
but stated that they would face criminal charges for extremism. Muhammedjon
Khayrulloyev, an official of the General Prosecutor's Office, told Forum 18
on 12 May that they would charge the arrested people with "engaging in
illegal religious activity."
Hikmatullo Saifullozoda of Tajikistan's Islamic Renaissance Party (IRP) -
the only legal religious party in Central Asia - suggested that "the
government may have felt threatened" by the movement's influence. "Because
their [Jamaat Tabligh's] numbers grew in thousands, the government decided
to put a stop to the movement now," he told Forum 18 on 14 May from
Dushanbe.
The arrests
Trouble began for Jamaat Tabligh followers on 14 April, when 113 people
were arrested while listening to a sermon preached by a Jamaat Tabligh
preacher in Dushanbe's Umari Farrukh Mosque. "The Deputy Police Chief of
Dushanbe's Firdavsi District entered the mosque during the sermon, and told
people in the mosque not to panic, but to quietly get into buses waiting
outside for them," a Jamaat Tabligh follower told Forum 18 on 12 May. "From
there the people were taken to the Firdavsi Police Station to be
questioned, and later to a police detention centre."
Shortly after the raid on the mosque in Dushanbe, National Security
Committee (NSC) secret police, together with ordinary police began
arresting people in Qurghonteppa and Kulob, in south-west Tajikistan. "Some
were arrested in their homes, others at their work places and still others
on the street," the Jamaat Tabligh follower said. "It took the NSC secret
police about 15 days to arrest people in those two cities, the last one
being arrested at the beginning of May."
How many are still detained?
Interior Ministry officials - including Interior Minister Ibdurrahim
Kahhorov at a 22 April press conference - have admitted to only four
arrests of Jamaat Tabligh followers. "Only four persons are being held in
the Ministry's detention centre," Mirova of the Interior Ministry insisted
to Forum 18 on 13 May. However, she did not disclose their names. "At first
more people were arrested," she claimed without specifying when. "All but
four were later released." Mirova refused to give the number of the
released people.
Equally, Khayrulloyev of the General Prosecutor's Office would not give
the exact number of arrests. He told Forum 18 that it was "much smaller
than 93."
But other sources have given much higher figures. Jamaat Tabligh followers
state that 34 of their colleagues have been held since 14 April in
Dushanbe, 47 are said to be held in Qurghonteppa and 12 in Kulob. This
would bring the total number of detainees to 93. "All of them are being
interrogated by police and NSC secret police investigators," Forum 18 was
told.
The Jamaat Tabligh follower identified some of those arrested as:
Khushbakht Davletov, Saidmashrab, Bilol, Safarali, Bakhrom, Nasriddin (last
names unknown), who are held in Dushanbe; Nosir, Ikbolsho, Amirali,
Talabsho, Churakhon (last names unknown) being held in Qurghonteppa; and
Nurullo Sadriddin being held in Kulob.
Also contesting official claims was Saifullozoda of the IRP. He told Forum
18 that "up to twenty" Muslims might be charged for allegedly inciting
people to religious intolerance in an organised fashion. "I heard that at
first it was four persons but later, as the number of people arrested
across Tajikistan grew, up to 20 people are said to face criminal charges,"
he told Forum 18.
Is Jamaat Tabligh banned?
Tajik authorities claim that Jamaat Tabligh was banned in 2006. However,
other Tajik sources have told Forum 18 that - if the movement was banned in
2006 - the ban was not made public.
When Tajikistan banned the Salafi school of Islamic thought in January
2009, that ban was widely known and condemned at the time of the ban (see
F18News 23 January 2009
).
Asked for the reason for the arrests, Khayrulloyev of the General
Prosecutors Office claimed that the Jamaat Tabligh movement was banned by
the Supreme Court on 30 March 2006. "The movement is on Tajikistan's
official list of banned terrorist and extremist organisations, which
includes Al-Qaeda," he told Forum 18.
Echoing Khayrulloyev was Idibek Ziyoyev, Head of the Culture Ministry's
Religious Affairs Department. He said his Department in 2004 gave an
unofficial warning to the public that the Jamaat Tabligh was an extremist
movement. "It was in 2006 that the official warning came with the Supreme
Court decision," he told Forum 18 on 7 May. When asked why Jamaat Tabligh
followers were allowed to preach in the mosques regularly after the alleged
ban, Ziyoyev claimed that they did it "without permission".
Asked why no court cases had been brought against the Jamaat Tabligh
followers since the claimed ban, both Ziyoyev and Khayrulloyev referred
Forum 18 to the NSC secret police. "Please ask the NSC, which is leading
the investigation," Khayrulloyev said. However, the NSC secret police told
Forum 18 on 13 May that they were "in no way involved in the arrests or
interrogation of Jamaat Tabligh."
Supreme Court official denies knowledge of claimed ban
An official of the Supreme Court Chancellery (who would not give his name)
said he knew nothing about a ban on Jamaat Tabligh. "If there was a
decision about it in 2006, it would probably be in the archives," he told
Forum 18 on 12 May. He referred Forum 18 to Solehjon Zavkiyev, Deputy Chief
of the Supreme Court Apparatus. "He must know about the case, talk to him,"
he said.
Zavkiyev said he knew nothing about the ban and referred Forum 18 on 12
May to Farrukh Malakhov, the Supreme Court's Press Officer. Forum 18
unsuccessfully tried to reach Malakhov between 12 and 14 May. All calls
went unanswered.
Civil society sources doubt ban's existence
A Jamaat Tabligh follower complained to Forum 18 that neither he or nor
anyone else from the movement knew of the Supreme Court ban. "Since 2004
more than 200 Muslims have been detained by the police and NSC secret
police at various times, questioned about Jamaat Tabligh religious activity
and teachings, and then released," he said. "None of them were told of the
existence of a ban."
A well-informed independent human rights defender, who wished to remain
anonymous, agreed. "When my organisation asked the Interior Ministry the
reasons for the arrests, they told us that Jamaat Tabligh was banned," he
told Forum 18 on 14 May from Dushanbe. "However they didn't produce any
proof of the ban." He told Forum that he had "never heard" of the ban
before.
Sayfullozoda of the IRP vaguely remembered that "a couple of years ago
there was a notice in the press that Jamaat Tabligh movement along with IMU
and some other Islamic movements" was banned in Tajikistan. "No one took
any seriously notice of this, as people in Tajikistan were not even
familiar with Jamaat Tabligh," he commented. "I can say that Jamaat Tabligh
as a movement didn't even exist in Tajikistan then." Sayfullozoda then
suggested that this could be the reason why the authorities "until now
tolerated individual Jamaat Tabligh members."
CSTO ban
The Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO), which brings together
seven of the former Soviet republics including Tajikistan, added Tabligh
Jamaat and Salafism to its list of "extremist" organisations this year,
press reports say. The CSTO list was first drawn up in November 2004 and
included 22 organisations, but seven more were added this year.
What did the Jamaat Tabligh followers do?
It is unclear what actions by Jamaat Tabligh followers - or anyone else -
triggered the arrests. Officials have repeatedly refused to name any
specific incidents which caused the arrests. A Religious Affairs Department
official who would not give his name told Forum 18 on 13 May that he could
not say what exactly was wrong in the actions of Jamaat Tabligh followers.
He said that neither Ziyoyev nor anyone else was available to answer the
question.
Attempts to persuade the General Prosecutor's Office or the Interior
Ministry to comment were unsuccessful on 13 and 14 May. All calls went
unanswered.
None of the arrested Muslims have in the past been criminally or
administratively punished, the Jamaat Tabligh follower told Forum 18. He
stated that the names of their preachers were "well known" to the
authorities. "They freely preached in the mosques, and there were no
attempts to stop our activity until now," he pointed out. "We gathered in
various mosques once a week with the invitation and permission of the
mosques' imams."
The Jamaat Tabligh follower told Forum 18 that among those arrested "only
ten to twelve people" had studied abroad in Iran, Syria, and India, while
some others were educated in Tajikistan.
The human rights defender had heard Interior Ministry officials claiming
that they had found Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan leaflets on Jamaat
Tabligh followers arrested in the mosque in Dushanbe. "I personally don't
believe the claims, since I know that Jamaat Tabligh is a moderate Islamic
movement," he emphasised. Describing the movement as "peaceful," he told
Forum 18 that he had personally met and talked to their representatives.
"Jamaat Tabligh followers explain to other Muslims the meaning of Sharia,
and call on them to respect it. They do not call Muslims to violence or
force their own viewpoint on others," he stated. "On the contrary, they
tell Muslims how to recognise dangerous Islamic movements such as
Hizb-ut-Tahrir. This is exactly what Tajikistan needs." (For an outline of
Hizb-ut-Tahrir's views, see F18News 29 October 2003
.)
Sayfullozoda of the IRP said Jamaat Tabligh in Tajikistan had "never got
involved in politics, unlike some other Islamic movements. Jamaat Tabligh
purely stuck to explaining the Koran and the five pillars of Islam." He
said he did not know everybody within the movement, but "on the whole the
movement in Tajikistan has been peaceful."
Salafi ban
Ziyoyev of the Religious Affairs Department told Forum 18 that the actions
against followers of Jamaat Tabligh had no connection with the January 2009
ban on the Salafi school of Islamic thought (see F18News 23 January 2009
). "No Salafis have
been arrested or brought before the courts since the ban," he claimed.
Saifullozoda of the IRP agreed with Ziyoyev's claim, stating that he also
had not heard of any action being taken against Salafis since the ban.
Will or won't the Religion Law be changed?
Tajikistan's government is making contradictory statements about whether
or not the new and restrictive Religion law will be changed, Forum 18 has
noted. President Emomali Rahmon has stated that the Law "will not be
changed" as it is "well-defined and clear". However, Mavlon Mukhtarov, the
Deputy Ministry of Culture, has told Forum 18 that the Law is "not a dogma"
and may change. "We are at the moment studying the law, and collecting
recommendations on possible changes and corrections," he stated. Protests
against the Law have continued within Tajikistan (see F18News 8 May 2009
).
http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1297
By Mushfig Bayram, Central Asia Correspondent, Forum 18 News Service
At least 93 Jamaat Tabligh followers in Tajikistan have been held in
police detention centres since 14 April, Forum 18 News Service has been
told by a Jamaat Tabligh follower, who wanted to remain unnamed for fear of
state reprisals. The 93 are held in the capital Dushanbe, Qurghonteppa, and
Kulob. Officials have refused to give the names or the exact number of
those arrested. Jamaat Tabligh, whose name means the Society of Preachers,
is an Islamic movement promoting Muslim values.
The authorities are refusing to say exactly why the 93 have been arrested.
Humayro Mirova, the Interior Ministry's Press Officer could not tell Forum
18 on 13 May under which law the Jamaat Tabligh followers were arrested,
but stated that they would face criminal charges for extremism. Muhammedjon
Khayrulloyev, an official of the General Prosecutor's Office, told Forum 18
on 12 May that they would charge the arrested people with "engaging in
illegal religious activity."
Hikmatullo Saifullozoda of Tajikistan's Islamic Renaissance Party (IRP) -
the only legal religious party in Central Asia - suggested that "the
government may have felt threatened" by the movement's influence. "Because
their [Jamaat Tabligh's] numbers grew in thousands, the government decided
to put a stop to the movement now," he told Forum 18 on 14 May from
Dushanbe.
The arrests
Trouble began for Jamaat Tabligh followers on 14 April, when 113 people
were arrested while listening to a sermon preached by a Jamaat Tabligh
preacher in Dushanbe's Umari Farrukh Mosque. "The Deputy Police Chief of
Dushanbe's Firdavsi District entered the mosque during the sermon, and told
people in the mosque not to panic, but to quietly get into buses waiting
outside for them," a Jamaat Tabligh follower told Forum 18 on 12 May. "From
there the people were taken to the Firdavsi Police Station to be
questioned, and later to a police detention centre."
Shortly after the raid on the mosque in Dushanbe, National Security
Committee (NSC) secret police, together with ordinary police began
arresting people in Qurghonteppa and Kulob, in south-west Tajikistan. "Some
were arrested in their homes, others at their work places and still others
on the street," the Jamaat Tabligh follower said. "It took the NSC secret
police about 15 days to arrest people in those two cities, the last one
being arrested at the beginning of May."
How many are still detained?
Interior Ministry officials - including Interior Minister Ibdurrahim
Kahhorov at a 22 April press conference - have admitted to only four
arrests of Jamaat Tabligh followers. "Only four persons are being held in
the Ministry's detention centre," Mirova of the Interior Ministry insisted
to Forum 18 on 13 May. However, she did not disclose their names. "At first
more people were arrested," she claimed without specifying when. "All but
four were later released." Mirova refused to give the number of the
released people.
Equally, Khayrulloyev of the General Prosecutor's Office would not give
the exact number of arrests. He told Forum 18 that it was "much smaller
than 93."
But other sources have given much higher figures. Jamaat Tabligh followers
state that 34 of their colleagues have been held since 14 April in
Dushanbe, 47 are said to be held in Qurghonteppa and 12 in Kulob. This
would bring the total number of detainees to 93. "All of them are being
interrogated by police and NSC secret police investigators," Forum 18 was
told.
The Jamaat Tabligh follower identified some of those arrested as:
Khushbakht Davletov, Saidmashrab, Bilol, Safarali, Bakhrom, Nasriddin (last
names unknown), who are held in Dushanbe; Nosir, Ikbolsho, Amirali,
Talabsho, Churakhon (last names unknown) being held in Qurghonteppa; and
Nurullo Sadriddin being held in Kulob.
Also contesting official claims was Saifullozoda of the IRP. He told Forum
18 that "up to twenty" Muslims might be charged for allegedly inciting
people to religious intolerance in an organised fashion. "I heard that at
first it was four persons but later, as the number of people arrested
across Tajikistan grew, up to 20 people are said to face criminal charges,"
he told Forum 18.
Is Jamaat Tabligh banned?
Tajik authorities claim that Jamaat Tabligh was banned in 2006. However,
other Tajik sources have told Forum 18 that - if the movement was banned in
2006 - the ban was not made public.
When Tajikistan banned the Salafi school of Islamic thought in January
2009, that ban was widely known and condemned at the time of the ban (see
F18News 23 January 2009
).
Asked for the reason for the arrests, Khayrulloyev of the General
Prosecutors Office claimed that the Jamaat Tabligh movement was banned by
the Supreme Court on 30 March 2006. "The movement is on Tajikistan's
official list of banned terrorist and extremist organisations, which
includes Al-Qaeda," he told Forum 18.
Echoing Khayrulloyev was Idibek Ziyoyev, Head of the Culture Ministry's
Religious Affairs Department. He said his Department in 2004 gave an
unofficial warning to the public that the Jamaat Tabligh was an extremist
movement. "It was in 2006 that the official warning came with the Supreme
Court decision," he told Forum 18 on 7 May. When asked why Jamaat Tabligh
followers were allowed to preach in the mosques regularly after the alleged
ban, Ziyoyev claimed that they did it "without permission".
Asked why no court cases had been brought against the Jamaat Tabligh
followers since the claimed ban, both Ziyoyev and Khayrulloyev referred
Forum 18 to the NSC secret police. "Please ask the NSC, which is leading
the investigation," Khayrulloyev said. However, the NSC secret police told
Forum 18 on 13 May that they were "in no way involved in the arrests or
interrogation of Jamaat Tabligh."
Supreme Court official denies knowledge of claimed ban
An official of the Supreme Court Chancellery (who would not give his name)
said he knew nothing about a ban on Jamaat Tabligh. "If there was a
decision about it in 2006, it would probably be in the archives," he told
Forum 18 on 12 May. He referred Forum 18 to Solehjon Zavkiyev, Deputy Chief
of the Supreme Court Apparatus. "He must know about the case, talk to him,"
he said.
Zavkiyev said he knew nothing about the ban and referred Forum 18 on 12
May to Farrukh Malakhov, the Supreme Court's Press Officer. Forum 18
unsuccessfully tried to reach Malakhov between 12 and 14 May. All calls
went unanswered.
Civil society sources doubt ban's existence
A Jamaat Tabligh follower complained to Forum 18 that neither he or nor
anyone else from the movement knew of the Supreme Court ban. "Since 2004
more than 200 Muslims have been detained by the police and NSC secret
police at various times, questioned about Jamaat Tabligh religious activity
and teachings, and then released," he said. "None of them were told of the
existence of a ban."
A well-informed independent human rights defender, who wished to remain
anonymous, agreed. "When my organisation asked the Interior Ministry the
reasons for the arrests, they told us that Jamaat Tabligh was banned," he
told Forum 18 on 14 May from Dushanbe. "However they didn't produce any
proof of the ban." He told Forum that he had "never heard" of the ban
before.
Sayfullozoda of the IRP vaguely remembered that "a couple of years ago
there was a notice in the press that Jamaat Tabligh movement along with IMU
and some other Islamic movements" was banned in Tajikistan. "No one took
any seriously notice of this, as people in Tajikistan were not even
familiar with Jamaat Tabligh," he commented. "I can say that Jamaat Tabligh
as a movement didn't even exist in Tajikistan then." Sayfullozoda then
suggested that this could be the reason why the authorities "until now
tolerated individual Jamaat Tabligh members."
CSTO ban
The Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO), which brings together
seven of the former Soviet republics including Tajikistan, added Tabligh
Jamaat and Salafism to its list of "extremist" organisations this year,
press reports say. The CSTO list was first drawn up in November 2004 and
included 22 organisations, but seven more were added this year.
What did the Jamaat Tabligh followers do?
It is unclear what actions by Jamaat Tabligh followers - or anyone else -
triggered the arrests. Officials have repeatedly refused to name any
specific incidents which caused the arrests. A Religious Affairs Department
official who would not give his name told Forum 18 on 13 May that he could
not say what exactly was wrong in the actions of Jamaat Tabligh followers.
He said that neither Ziyoyev nor anyone else was available to answer the
question.
Attempts to persuade the General Prosecutor's Office or the Interior
Ministry to comment were unsuccessful on 13 and 14 May. All calls went
unanswered.
None of the arrested Muslims have in the past been criminally or
administratively punished, the Jamaat Tabligh follower told Forum 18. He
stated that the names of their preachers were "well known" to the
authorities. "They freely preached in the mosques, and there were no
attempts to stop our activity until now," he pointed out. "We gathered in
various mosques once a week with the invitation and permission of the
mosques' imams."
The Jamaat Tabligh follower told Forum 18 that among those arrested "only
ten to twelve people" had studied abroad in Iran, Syria, and India, while
some others were educated in Tajikistan.
The human rights defender had heard Interior Ministry officials claiming
that they had found Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan leaflets on Jamaat
Tabligh followers arrested in the mosque in Dushanbe. "I personally don't
believe the claims, since I know that Jamaat Tabligh is a moderate Islamic
movement," he emphasised. Describing the movement as "peaceful," he told
Forum 18 that he had personally met and talked to their representatives.
"Jamaat Tabligh followers explain to other Muslims the meaning of Sharia,
and call on them to respect it. They do not call Muslims to violence or
force their own viewpoint on others," he stated. "On the contrary, they
tell Muslims how to recognise dangerous Islamic movements such as
Hizb-ut-Tahrir. This is exactly what Tajikistan needs." (For an outline of
Hizb-ut-Tahrir's views, see F18News 29 October 2003
.)
Sayfullozoda of the IRP said Jamaat Tabligh in Tajikistan had "never got
involved in politics, unlike some other Islamic movements. Jamaat Tabligh
purely stuck to explaining the Koran and the five pillars of Islam." He
said he did not know everybody within the movement, but "on the whole the
movement in Tajikistan has been peaceful."
Salafi ban
Ziyoyev of the Religious Affairs Department told Forum 18 that the actions
against followers of Jamaat Tabligh had no connection with the January 2009
ban on the Salafi school of Islamic thought (see F18News 23 January 2009
). "No Salafis have
been arrested or brought before the courts since the ban," he claimed.
Saifullozoda of the IRP agreed with Ziyoyev's claim, stating that he also
had not heard of any action being taken against Salafis since the ban.
Will or won't the Religion Law be changed?
Tajikistan's government is making contradictory statements about whether
or not the new and restrictive Religion law will be changed, Forum 18 has
noted. President Emomali Rahmon has stated that the Law "will not be
changed" as it is "well-defined and clear". However, Mavlon Mukhtarov, the
Deputy Ministry of Culture, has told Forum 18 that the Law is "not a dogma"
and may change. "We are at the moment studying the law, and collecting
recommendations on possible changes and corrections," he stated. Protests
against the Law have continued within Tajikistan (see F18News 8 May 2009
).
