Tag Archives: Islamic extremism

Islamic radicalism from North Caucasus spreads in Central Asia

ALMATY/Kazakhstan, APRIL 29 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Tsarnaev brothers, blamed for bombing the Boston marathon earlier this month, were ethnic Chechens, brought up in Kyrgyzstan who apparently learnt about radical Islam in Dagestan.

This link, between radical Islamic ideas in Russia’s North Caucasus and Central Asia, can’t be ignored. Domestic security in Central Asia and NATO’s main route for withdrawing its equipment from Afghanistan are potentially vulnerable.

But, although bomb attacks blamed on radical Islamists, increased in 2010 and 2011 in Kazakhstan, several Almaty-based analysts said the impact of radical Islamic ideology from the North Caucasus on Central Asia should not be overstated.

“Today there is no direct connection reported between the insurgency in North Caucasus and terrorist acts taking place in Kazakhstan,” Zhulduz Baizakov, a Kazakhstan-based analyst, said.

“The ideology, methods and purposes are different.”

Instead, analysts said that the radicalising influence from the Arabian peninsula and Afghanistan was more important than from the North Caucasus.

But the North Caucasus’ brand of radical Islam is accessible. It’s also worrying the Kazakh security forces. They are concerned with both the trickle of young Kazakh men fighting with rebels in Dagestan and the emergence of Islamic literature from the North Caucasus in Kazakhstan.

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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 133, published on April 29 2013)

Islamic radicals in Central Asia

APRIL 22 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Snow covered the Almaty street, reflecting the light pouring from the restaurant’s windows.

Inside, vodka flowed, dancers twirled and laughter boomed.

This was a typical Chechen wedding party in Kazakhstan on a freezing evening in February.

The women wore their hair loose; the men strutted and joked as they tried to impress.

Across Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, a proud, flamboyant Chechen diaspora is acutely visible.

Worried that the unruly Chechens would rebel while the Red Army was fighting the Nazis, Soviet dictator Josef Stalin deported roughly 500,000 people from the North Caucasus to Central Asia in 1944. In 1957, four years after Stalin’s death, the Soviet authorities eased movement restrictions. Many Chechens opted to return home. Many others, though, stayed.

But despite the suspected Boston bombers’ Chechen ethnicity and upbringing in Kyrgyzstan, these communities do not hold particularly radical Islamic beliefs.

Radical Islam is a danger to Central Asia but the risk from Chechens already living within the region is low. The main danger lies in the flow of radical beliefs from places like Makhachkala — the teeming capital of Dagestan and apparently where the suspected Boston bombers lived after leaving Kyrgyzstan — to poor, vulnerable ethnic Kazakhs and Kyrgyz.

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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 132, published on April 22 2013)

Tajikistan fears instability

APRIL 11 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajik president Emomali Rakhmon reiterated his concern that NATO’s withdrawal from Afghanistan will destabilise Tajikistan and Central Asia, Reuters reported from a conference in Brussels. NATO plans to withdraw from Afghanistan by the end of 2014. Tajikistan shares a 1,200km porous border with Afghanistan.

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(News report from Issue No. 131, published on April 12 2013)

Georgia offers to send forces to Mali

MARCH 21 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia offered to send two military officers to support a 500-man EU force heading to Mali to train government forces fighting Islamic radicals. Georgia’s offer is significant as it is an extension of its policy to support US-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Georgia wants to join both NATO and the EU.

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(News report from Issue No. 128, published on March 22 2013)

Tajik security forces fight IMU, again

JAN. 18 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajik security forces battled more militants linked to the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), which has ties to the Taliban, President Emomali Rakhmon told media. In the firefight in the north of the country, one IMU militant died and nine were arrested. There had also been a shoot-out with the IMU last week.

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(News report from Issue No. 121, published on Jan. 25 2013)

Tajik security battles islamists

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(News report from Issue No. 121, published on Jan. 25 2013)

Tajikistan arrests IMU members

JAN. 11 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajikistan’s interior ministry said police had arrested three suspected members of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IUM) after a shoot-out in the east of the country near the border with Uzbekistan, media reported. One policeman died in the shoot-out. The IMU is linked closely with the Taliban in Afghanistan.

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(News report from Issue No. 120, published on Jan. 18 2013)

Tajik police arrests islamists

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(News report from Issue No. 120, published on Jan. 18 2013)

Azerbaijani court jails islamists

DEC. 3 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in Baku jailed 4 people for Islamic extremism and for plotting to attack the Eurovision Song Contest held in the Azerbaijani capital in May, media reported. Azerbaijan has said it is battling a threat by foreign-trained Islamists to de-stabilise the country.

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(News report from Issue No. 116, published on Dec. 7 2012)

Azerbaijan jails terrorists

OCT. 11 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – In one of Azerbaijan’s biggest terrorism trials, a court in Baku jailed 22 people for 10 – 15 years for plotting a series of attacks on behalf of Iran, media reported. Relations between Azerbaijan and Iran have been increasingly strained over the past 12 months.

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(News report from Issue No. 108, published on Oct. 12 2012)