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Tashkent investigates attacks on high profile religious leaders
On July 31, unidentified assailants stabbed Tashkent's top imam, Anvar-kori Tursunov, nine times. In a similar incident, Deputy Director of the Kukeldash Madrasa Abror Abrorov, 37, was stabbed to death on July 16.
Nigora Yadgarova
2009-08-06
UZBEKISTAN — On July 31, unidentified assailants stabbed Tashkent's top imam, Anvar-kori Tursunov, nine times. The religious leader has been hospitalised and is currently in critical but stable condition.
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Investigators are considering several scenarios involving the religious and social activities of Tursunov and Abrorov. (Photo by Hector Mata/AFP/Getty Images)
The attack came in the evening near Tursunov’s house in the village of Angiabad in the Tashkent region. Three men called for the imam to come out onto the street; when he emerged from his gated yard, the assailants stabbed him nine times. His cries drew the attention of neighbours, and the attackers fled in a white Daewoo Matiz.
Tursunov is among Uzbekistan's top religious leaders. His appointment as head imam in the capital may put him in line to become the mufti, or leader of the country's Muslims. Tursunov frequently appeared on national television presenting sermons combining religious and social commentary that singled out extremists – in particular, members of the banned pan-Islamic party Hizb ut-Tahrir. The imam also spoke out against followers of Salafism, one of the more conservative branches of Sunni Islam.
The imam conducted services in the Kukeldash madrasa, one of the largest such religious schools in Central Asia that survives from the 16th century. Tursunov, also known as Anvar-kori, a title denoting that he knows the Koran by heart, also holds the post of expert on the Religion Committee under the government's Cabinet of Ministers.
The attack brought to light a similar incident previously unreported in the country's media. On July 16, the 37-year-old deputy director of the Kukeldash Madrasa, Abror Abrorov, died after being repeatedly stabbed by attackers. He, too, was ambushed in a similar manner outside his own home.
The deceased was educated at the most prestigious university in the Islamic world, Al-Azhar in Egypt. An expert in religious matters, his counsel was also sought by the country's intelligence agencies.
Investigators are pursuing several possible scenarios based on the religious and social activities of the two victims as the attacks may have been the work of religious extremists. Human rights advocates have expressed concern that this line of investigation could generate mass arrests, since Uzbekistan often lumps religious moderates and malcontents in the category of extremist.
[Uzmetronom.com, Ozodlik.org, CA-News.org, Ferghana.ru]
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The investigators are not pursuing another important possible scenario. The thing is, that the bribe needed to get into a religious school in Uzbekistan is even higher than that needed to get to the police school. Abror Abrorov did not give the money back even when somebody failed to get to the madrasa.
There was a void in the post-Soviet countries, and people started to turn to religion. It's not good or bad, it's natural! But the government should not play the decisive role in such matters. Unfortunately, this mistake has been repeated by the Russian leaders who set a catching example to other leaders. Russian leaders have made Orthodox churches their second home. Russian media keep covering news about Orthodox religion, but at the same time they say that Russia is a multi-confessional country. The government and authorities should stay away from interfering into religious matters. If it's Mr. Putin or Mr. Medvedev, they should either go preach or do their politics, the same goes for Mr. Zhirinovsky - let it be either show-business or politics. The point is, the head of the government must not favor Christians or Muslims or homosexuals or oligarchs. Instead, the government should control all of them and should not let anyone take the power in their hands, it should be immaculate and i ndependent, then there won't be any problem. What is the difference between the murder of Imam or that of a worker from a tractor factory? If we don't discuss the death of a worker then the death of Imam should also remain the problem of the police.