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‘Foreign Ideas’ as Extremism in Central Asia

Categories: Central Asia & Caucasus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Citizen Media, Human Rights, Religion

On Registan.net, Noah Tucker speculates [1] about what is wrong with the way Central Asian governments deal with religious activity that is not sanctioned by the state:

[I]n former Soviet Central Asia there is little debate that the root problem [of extremist beliefs] is “foreign ideas,” defined so broadly as to become a target of opportunity for both every political purpose and every local policeman or official’s ambition. Any sign of dissent from state policies or ideology <…> can be enough to bring the wrath of the state, sometimes with great violence.