Kyrgyz prisoners increasingly support Hizb-ut-Tahrir

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BISHKEK — Political expert Kadyr Malikov has drawn attention to a recent sharp increase in the number of Kyrgyz prisoners who support the underground Islamic party Hizb ut-Tahrir, which is banned in all Central Asian republics, Russia and Arab nations.

Malikov, a political scientist with a PhD in Islamic studies at the University of Madrid who is also Director of the Centre for Religion, Law and Politics, an independent analytical research facility, told journalists that the role of Islam as a unifying social force is growing in Kyrgyzstan, and that its influence in politics will also increase.

As for the activity of organisations deemed extremist, Malikov said that they have “survived the crisis” and “moved to a new level.” In his view, Hizb ut-Tahrir has varied its strategy in response to local conditions. “The party has stepped up its work through prisoners. According to information from various sources, the number of its supporters in prisons run by the Main Penal Correction Department of the Ministry of Justice has risen sharply,” Malikov said. “Prisoners who join cells of this party have virtually everything [Hizb ut-Tahrir] needs for ideological training.”

He believes the situation’s “main danger … is the fact that convicts in penal colonies simply have no alternative information on Islam. It is possible that many who have become party members in prisons could enlist as militants after leaving prison as a result of their ideological training and fanatical allegiance to the ideas of Hizb ut-Tahrir.”

He points out that “the state has neither the money nor the capacity to separate people convicted of extremism from the rest of the prison population.” Dr Malikov also warned that religious extremists “are planting members of the Hizb ut-Tahrir party in government bodies, including security agencies.”

[24.kg, Ferghana.ru, AKIpress.org]