Asian Cultures and Modernity Research Reports Editorial Board Birgit N. Schlyter (Editor-in-chief) Ooi Kee Beng (Editor) Ishtiaq Ahmed (Associate Editor) Michael Fredholm (Associate Editor) E-mail: [email protected] International Advisory Board Prof. Valeriy S. Khan (Institute of History and Ethnography, Tashkent) Datuk Prof Dr Shamsul A.B. (Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia) Associate Professor Koo Yew Lie (Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia) The Asian Cultures and Modernity Research Group A plethora of state- and nation-building programmes are being developed in present- day Asia, where governments have to consider the regionality of old ethno-cultural identities. While the cohesive power of traditions must be put into use within a particular nation, that same power challenges its national boundaries. To soften this contradiction, economic and/or political regionalism, in contrast to isolationism and globalism, becomes a solution, suggesting new and exciting routes to modernity. In studies conducted by the Asian Cultures and Modernity Research Group at Stockholm University, sociolinguistic and culture-relativistic perspectives are applied with the support of epistemological considerations from the field of political science. Department of Oriental Languages Kräftriket 4 Stockholm University SE-106 91 Stockholm ISSN 1651-0666 Research Report No. 12 Islamic Extremism as a Political Force A Comparative Study of Central Asian Islamic Extremist Movements by Michael Fredholm Forum for Central Asian Studies, Stockholm University Editorial Note The author has written extensively on the history, defence and security policies of Eurasia. This report is a further elaboration of a previous report by this author in the series (No. 5, October 2003). Research for this report was conducted at the Forum for Central Asian Studies, and an early draft was used as study material at the Department of Central Asian Studies, Stockholm University. The views presented in this article are those of the author alone and do not represent those of the Swedish government or any other group. Copyright © 2006 Michael Fredholm Published and distributed by Asian Cultures and Modernity Stockholm University List of Contents Islamic Extremism as a Political Force................................................................................................. 1 A Comparative Study of Central Asian Islamic Extremist Movements............................................ 1 BACKGROUND....................................................................................................................................... 3 The Difficulty in Defining Religious Beliefs ..................................................................................... 3 Central Asian Islam versus Islamic Extremism ................................................................................ 5 Islamic Extremism and Politics ........................................................................................................ 6 The Dream of the Caliphate.......................................................................................................................... 6 Islam as a Political Means of Opposition...................................................................................................... 7 Islam as a Pretext for Violence and Criminal Activities ............................................................................... 7 The Impact of Islamic Extremism on Central Asian Politics............................................................ 8 THE ORIGINS OF CENTRAL ASIAN WAHHABISM.................................................................................... 8 Muhammad Rustamov Hindustani....................................................................................................9 Abdulhakim Qori ............................................................................................................................ 10 Rahmatullo Qori Alloma ................................................................................................................ 11 The Genealogy of Extremism.......................................................................................................... 11 THE ISLAMIC RENAISSANCE PARTY OF TAJIKISTAN............................................................................ 13 Origins of the Party........................................................................................................................ 13 The IRPT......................................................................................................................................... 14 The IRPT Becomes a Parliamentary Party .................................................................................... 17 THE ISLAMIC MOVEMENT OF UZBEKISTAN ......................................................................................... 19 Origins of the Movement ................................................................................................................ 19 Yuldosh and Namangani establish the IMU ................................................................................... 21 IMU Strategy .................................................................................................................................. 25 IMU in the War on Terror .............................................................................................................. 26 Other Uzbekistani Militant Islamic Groups ................................................................................... 29 THE ISLAMIC JIHAD UNION ................................................................................................................. 30 HIZB UT-TAHRIR ................................................................................................................................. 31 Origins............................................................................................................................................ 31 The Hizb ut-Tahrir Goes Global .................................................................................................... 32 The Hizb ut-Tahrir in Central Asia ................................................................................................ 35 Factionalism................................................................................................................................... 38 CHINA AND THE UIGHUR EAST TURKESTAN MOVEMENT.................................................................... 40 Activities in Exile............................................................................................................................ 40 Activities within China ................................................................................................................... 43 CONCLUSIONS ..................................................................................................................................... 45 2 Islamic Extremism as a Political Force A Comparative Study of Central Asian Islamic Extremist Movements Background Islam in Central Asia does not constitute a uniform religious, social, or political force. While all titular Central Asian ethnic groups, i.e., the nations that states were named after, eventually embraced Islam, the religion did not penetrate the traditional cultures and social systems of these groups to an equal extent. While the sedentary groups generally embraced Islam fully, and often acquired a reputation for Islamic scholarship as well as occasional bouts of fanaticism, nomadic and pastoral groups more typically assimilated Islam in a more perfunctory manner. These different degrees of Islamicisation remain visible today. The Tajiks are generally regarded as most Islamic, followed by the Uzbeks. The Kyrgyz, Kazaks, and Turkmens, in roughly descending order, are regarded as comparatively less Islamic in their attitudes.1 The difference bettween sedentary and nomadic groups with regard to Islam can also be discerned among the non-titular ethnic groups. So are, for instance, the sedentary Uighurs regarded as far more Islamic than their formerly nomadic neighbours. This traditional ranking in Islamic piety continues to affect the development of Islamic extremism in Central Asia. In newly independent Tajikistan, the influence of Islamic extremism constituted an important factor among those that caused the 1992-1997 civil war. Uzbekistan produced an Islamic extremist guerrilla group, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), which in its struggle against the secular regime had to relocate abroad and grew into an important part of the terrorist network around Al- Qaida. Uzbekistan is also the Central Asian country that appears to have been most susceptible to Islamic extremist politics in the form of the illegal Islamic party Hizb ut-Tahrir. Meanwhile, Kyrgyzstan has been somewhat less affected, but affected nonetheless. Kazakstan, on the other hand, has been relatively little affected by domestic groups of Islamic extremists, while Turkmenistan so far may have been spared altogether. Among the Uighurs, an established but secular independence movement is currently losing ground to groups of Islamic extremists. Since the various Islamic extremist movements have shown a propensity for violence, secular regimes in Central Asia as well as those in neighbouring states which may find themselves the targets of Islamic extremist aggression are duly concerned. The Difficulty in Defining Religious Beliefs Wahhabism and Salafism are