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KABUL (TCA) — Religious scholars attending the two-day International Ulema Conference for Peace and Security in Afghanistan in Saudi Arabia on July 11 issued a declaration and called on the Taliban to denounce violence and come to the peace talks table, Afghan broadcaster TOLOnews reported. Continue reading
KABUL (TCA) — More than 2,000 Afghan religious scholars from around the country issued a fatwa, an Islamic directive, on June 4, saying that “the ongoing war in Afghanistan is forbidden under the Islamic law”, Afghan broadcaster TOLOnews reported. Continue reading
DUSHANBE (TCA) — The top Islamic official in Tajikistan has declared boxing and fighting sports "without rules" to be "haram" — forbidden under Islamic law, RFE/RL's Tajik Service reports. Continue reading
KABUL (TCA) — Afghanistan’s High Peace Council (HPC) on May 29 said that Saudi Arabia is expected to host a conference of Islamic scholars on peace in Afghanistan, TOLOnews reported. Continue reading
TASHKENT (TCA) — Although there has been a marked change in the government’s attitude toward believers, being devout Muslims still remains dangerous in Uzbekistan. We are republishing this article on the issue, originally published by Eurasianet: The opening hearing of Guzal Tokhtakhadjayeva’s criminal trial last month began late because of the hubbub that day at Tashkent city court. On April 16, an unusually large crowd of rights activists, foreign reporters and well-wishers had gathered outside the court in Uzbekistan’s capital to hear another day of testimony in the state’s case against a well-known journalist accused of sedition. Few gave Guzal much heed. Both trials, however, may prove to have had equally consequential implications for the nation’s future. The journalist, Bobomurod Abdullayev, ultimately walked out of court on a suspended sentence in what some took as a signal of the government’s willingness to ease its intransigence toward the press. The other case may provide clarity about where the state stands in its evolving relationship with fringe religious communities. Guzal, a 31-year-old from one of Tashkent’s old quarters, was in the dock with her husband Muhammad Rashidov on suspicion of distributing propaganda materials of a proscribed Islamist group and seeking to undermine the constitution. Another two relatives, a mother and son, are also on trial. In court, the prosecutor read out the accusation against Guzal in a monotone drone. “She engaged in the distribution of literature and leaflets and was also gathering funds for Hizb ut-Tahrir. She was observed by police operatives handing out 14 leaflets outside a mosque in Tashkent,” he said. Guzal rejects the specific charges, although her association with the group appears less in doubt. Almost all her immediate family have at some stage served time – or are still serving time – for their dealings with Hizb ut-Tahrir. Hizb ut-Tahrir was founded by a Lebanese Islamic scholar in the early 1950s and quickly took root across parts of the Middle East. Its very name, which is Arabic for Party of Liberation, strongly suggests an ethos no less political than it is religious. The party’s ideology combines a deep aversion for secular political order with often unabashedly intolerant views for anything perceived as un-Islamic. The group is banned in most of the former Soviet Union, though it operates openly in the West. Though in the immediate aftermath of independence Uzbekistan’s authorities pressured most religious thought outside the state-sanctioned orthodoxy, Hizb ut-Tahrir and similar-minded groups flourished in the 1990s. It was only around 1998 that the onslaught became truly ferocious. The history of arrests for links to Hizb ut-Tahrir in Guzal’s family began in November 1999, when her father, Aziz Tokhtakhadjayev, was picked up by law enforcement officials on suspicion of being a member. Aziz was an academic and taught economics the Tashkent State University of Economics. He obtained his doctorate degree in Soviet times at what was then called the Plekhanov Moscow Institute of the National Economy. Initially, Aziz was sentenced to 13 years in jail. That penalty was...
DUSHANBE (TCA) — The Council of Ulema (a body of Muslim scholars who are recognized as having specialist knowledge of Islamic law and theology) of the Islamic Center of Tajikistan has issued a statement accusing Iran of attempts to destabilize the situation in Tajikistan, Tajik Avesta news agency reported. The statement was published on May 23 on the official website of the State Committee of Religion and Regulation of Traditions, Festivities and Customs. “Iran has been involved in the destabilization of the situation and in bloody events in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and Yemen, and now, through its several provocateurs, wants to destroy peace in Tajikistan,” the statement said. “We are sure that Iran, for the sake of its interests and ambitions, seeks to sow discord, and, having achieved its goal, passes the matter into the hands of the enemies of Islam and Muslims,” the statement stressed. The statement also refers to a documentary, prepared by Tajikistan’s Interior Ministry and shown on Tajik television in August 2017, which accused Iran of the involvement in sparking the civil war in Tajikistan in the 1990s. The statement also blamed Iran for funding Muhiddin Kabiri, the leader of the banned Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan (IRPT). At a meeting with the public and Muslim clerics on May 15, Tajikistan President Emomali Rahmon accused the leadership of the banned IRPT of adoption of the Shia Islam and their desire to thrust Shia Islam upon Tajikistan. The Council of Ulema statement comes after some 50 people gathered outside the Iranian Embassy in Dushanbe on May 21 to protest Tehran's alleged support for the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan. The demonstrators, mostly young people, were carrying signs saying, "We don't want to relive the events of 1992-2000," which referred to Tajikistan’s civil war, RFE/RL's Tajik Service reported. Another placard read, "Down with Kabiri," in an apparent reference to IRPT exiled leader Muhiddin Kabiri, who is in self-imposed exile abroad. Tajikistan banned the IRPT in 2015 as a “terrorist organization” and imprisoned dozens of its officials and members. Until then, the IRPT had been the only legal Islamist party in Central Asia. Relations between Iran and Tajikistan have worsened amid accusations by Dushanbe that Tehran has been offering support to exiled IRPT members. In particular, Tajikistan was angered by Tehran's decision to invite Kabiri to an international Islamic conference that took place in Iran in December 2015, after the IRPT had been declared a "terrorist" group by the Tajik authorities. Last year, Tajik authorities accused Iran of being behind high-profile assassinations in Tajikistan during the Tajik civil war in the 1990s.
