For a long time Tohir Yuldosh has been the only Uzbekistani (and Central Asian), who was included by US and UN to the list of top suspects for connection with Al Qaeda and Taliban. Tohir Yuldosh is an amir (leader) of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), who got this position after the death […]
On-going spreading of new-born religious sects by self-proclaimed prophets is becoming a serious threat to nation’s spiritual life.
Everyday raids of Ministry of internal affairs officers and permanent arrests of sects activists made me re-think the role of religion in our state and try to understand the level of religious freedom and guarantees which proclaimed […]
Besides its color revolution, bloody suppressions of peaceful demonstrations and civil war, Fergana valley is becoming famous also for being an area that gives births to different trends within Islam religion. It is hard to find a true answer why the area that had been ruled by the super-secular Soviet government for almost seven […]
In Ferghana valley, where borders of three Central Asian countries meet - Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, Islam has always been a delicate issue to deal with, especially on political level. Taking into consideration that almost 95% of population in Fergana valley are Muslim, officials of these three countries clearly understand that Islamic issues once […]
Some weeks ago I send a group message addressed to friends and colleagues of mine containing web links to a slide-show posted on Jerusalem Online.
http://www.jerusalemonline.com/terror1.asp
http://www.jerusalemonline.com/terror2.asp
A response from a friend of mine gave a start to a relatively long lasting debate on that topic. It was not originally intended to be posted online and style […]
Editor’s Note: What follows is part of a cross-blog survey that explores minorities in Central Asia. This article was originally published on Thinking-East in 2005.
Nafisa Hasanova (22, from Uzbekistan) dares to violate taboo: she visits the Luli, Central Asian Romas, whose community has been marginalised in her hometown of Samarkand. However, in a tragic […]
Microsoft recently unveiled their answer to Google Books, but because of copyright issues, most of the books available are extremely old.
When searching for books on Central Asia, I came across a book titled The Mohammedan World of To-day, published in 1906. While mainly about missionaries in the larger Muslim world, it has some […]
If there was a one simple answer for the question, then that would be - “Uzbeks have not tasted one fruit “freedom” yet, like other Central Asian countries”.
From Caucasus to Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan they all tasted freedom. Except Caucasus, all former Soviet countries tasted the fruit, called freedom, when it was still raw. […]
The NYT has a lengthy story on the release of a 70-minute video recording of the events in Andijan in May 2005. (A shorter version is already in circulation, mostly through the Uzbek embassies, and can be viewed at Registan.) Pretty early on it becomes clear that the video can be viewed from any […]
Why is it that I am immediately suspicious of an article entitled ‘Central Asia Rediscovers its Muslim Roots’ (courtesy of Reuters)? Is it because I think it will perpetrate the myth that Islam was totally dead during Soviet rule? or is it because I fear it will repeats old canards about Central Asian muslims […]
