Radical Islam in Central Asia
Radical Islam in Central Asia
A United States intelligence report concludes that the political situation in Central Asia is conducive to the development of radical Islam in the region, and that this makes countries in the region unreliable partners for the US. Political observers in the region have criticised the analysis behind the findings, saying they are based on stereotypes.
On January 11, US National Intelligence Director John Negroponte delivered his annual report on global security risks. In the section on Central Asia, the report says repression, political stagnation and corruption are characteristic of regimes in the region, and create fertile conditions for radical Islamic sentiment and movements to emerge. Furthermore, the report says, these factors cast doubt over the reliability of these countries as partners in the energy sector and the “war on terror”.
The US is the biggest investor in Kazakhstan’s energy sector, and has had a military airbase in Kyrgyzstan since 2002.
Observers in the region interviewed by NBCentralAsia are not prepared to go along with Negroponte’s view.
“Central Asia should not be compared with the Middle East or other regions where the Islamic factor plays a significant role,” said Kazakstan-based political scientist Eduard Poletaev.
Poletaev believes much of the expert analysis on the role of Islam in Central Asia has long been based on stereotypes that often lack foundation.
For instance, he said, the predictions by some experts that radical Islamists could become more active in Kyrgyzstan after the March 2005 revolution, and also in Turkmenistan after the death of President Saparmurat Niazov in December 2006, failed to materialise.
Other commentators argue that even if an outburst of radical Islamic sentiment remains a possibility, it will be drive more by social and economic hardship than by political repression.
“Political repression can of course contribute to the rise of radical Islam,” said Abdujalil Abdurasulov, a journalist based in Kazakstan. “But Islam's influence is growing not because our rulers are despots, but because it offers people a way of coping with the social and economic difficulties of the transitional period.”
Ishenbay Abdrazakov, the head of the Kyrgyz Foundation for Political Studies, researches also agrees with this opinion. “Many people now give Islamic a hearing, primarily because social realities fail to match up to the hopes of ordinary people nowadays, especially in rural areas where most of the population lives on the brink of poverty,” he said.
(News Briefing Central Asia draws comment and analysis from a broad range of political observers across the region.)
On January 11, US National Intelligence Director John Negroponte delivered his annual report on global security risks. In the section on Central Asia, the report says repression, political stagnation and corruption are characteristic of regimes in the region, and create fertile conditions for radical Islamic sentiment and movements to emerge. Furthermore, the report says, these factors cast doubt over the reliability of these countries as partners in the energy sector and the “war on terror”.
The US is the biggest investor in Kazakhstan’s energy sector, and has had a military airbase in Kyrgyzstan since 2002.
Observers in the region interviewed by NBCentralAsia are not prepared to go along with Negroponte’s view.
“Central Asia should not be compared with the Middle East or other regions where the Islamic factor plays a significant role,” said Kazakstan-based political scientist Eduard Poletaev.
Poletaev believes much of the expert analysis on the role of Islam in Central Asia has long been based on stereotypes that often lack foundation.
For instance, he said, the predictions by some experts that radical Islamists could become more active in Kyrgyzstan after the March 2005 revolution, and also in Turkmenistan after the death of President Saparmurat Niazov in December 2006, failed to materialise.
Other commentators argue that even if an outburst of radical Islamic sentiment remains a possibility, it will be drive more by social and economic hardship than by political repression.
“Political repression can of course contribute to the rise of radical Islam,” said Abdujalil Abdurasulov, a journalist based in Kazakstan. “But Islam's influence is growing not because our rulers are despots, but because it offers people a way of coping with the social and economic difficulties of the transitional period.”
Ishenbay Abdrazakov, the head of the Kyrgyz Foundation for Political Studies, researches also agrees with this opinion. “Many people now give Islamic a hearing, primarily because social realities fail to match up to the hopes of ordinary people nowadays, especially in rural areas where most of the population lives on the brink of poverty,” he said.
(News Briefing Central Asia draws comment and analysis from a broad range of political observers across the region.)
