Ahmed Rashid, whose masterful account of Afghanistan's Taliban regime became required reading after September 11, t
849 128 40MB
English Pages 320 [312] Year 2002
AHMED RASHI author
off
the #1
New
York Times bestseller Talib
i
THE RISE OF MILITANT ISLAM IN
CENTRAL ASIA
THE RISE OF Ml
CENTRAL
IN
ASI
HMED RASHID For more than two thousand years, Central
Asia has been a locus of conflict.
Great empires of the past fought to control
the Silk Route, which ran through
the region; more recently, nations have battled over the vast lie
beneath
it.
Now
oil
reserves that
Central Asia pre-
sents important strategic opportunities for international security, but also
poses new threats because rise of militant Islamic
of the swift
fundamentalism
over the past decade.
Ahmed
Rashid,
who
masterfully
explained Afghanistan's Taliban regime in his
previous book, here turns his
skills
as an investigative journalist to
the five Central Asian republics adja-
cent to Afghanistan
— Kazakhstan,
Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan,
and Tajikistan —that were part Soviet Union until its collapse Under Soviet
rule,
Islam
was
of the in
1991.
brutally
suppressed, and that intolerance has
continued with the post-Soviet regimes. Religious repression, political corruption,
and the region's extreme poverty
have created a tant Islamic
fertile
fundamen
and trained by organiz
9
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JIHAD
ALSO BY
AHMED RASHID
THE RESURGENCE OF CENTRAL ASIA: ISLAM OR NATIONALISM? (1994) TALIBAN: ISLAM, OIL
AND FUNDAMENTALISM
IN
CENTRAL ASIA (2000)
JIHAD The
Rise of Militant Islam in Central Asia
AHMED RASHID
A
WORLD
POLICY INSTITUTE BOOK
YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS
NEW HAVEN
& LONDON
©
Copyright
2002 by Yale University.
All rights reserved.
may
This book in
not be reproduced, in whole or in part, including illustrations,
any form (beyond that copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S.
Copyright Law and except by reviewers
for the public press),
without written
permission from the publishers.
Designed by Rebecca Gibb and
set in
Electra
and The Sans
Printed in the United States of America by R. R. Donnelley
types.
& Sons Co.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Rashid,
Jihad
Ahmed.
the rise of militant Islam in Central
:
.Asia
/Ahmed
Rashid.
cm.
p.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 1.
3.
0-300-09345-4
Asia, Central
Islamic
(alk.
paper*
— Politics and government.
fundamentalism— .Asia, Central.
Islam and politics
2.
4.
Jihad.
I.
— .Asia, Central.
Title.
DS329.4 .R38 2002 958'. 0429
— dc2i
A catalogue The paper the
2001006898
record for this book
in this
is
Committee on Production Guidelines
on Library Resources.
10
available from the British Library
book meets the guidelines
98765 4321
for
for
permanence and
durability of
Book Longevity of the Council
FOR ANGELES AND HER LOVE,
AND
IN
WHO WOULD
MEMORY
OF
JOHNNY DAS AND PHILIPPE TOPALIAN,
HAVE LOVED THIS VAST LANDSCAPE OF SKY AND STEPPE
CONTENTS
Preface
Maps
i
pa rt
PA rt
I
11
ix
xv
Introduction: Central Asia's Islamic Warriors
1
Islam and Politics in Central Asia, Past and Present
The
2
Conquerors and
3
Islam Underground in the Soviet Union 32
4 The
First
Islamic
Movements
5
The
Saints:
Past as Present 15
Decade of Independence
in Central Asia
57
Since 1991
Islamic Renaissance Party and the Civil
War
Tajikistan 95
6 The Hizb 7
ut-Tahrir: Reviving the Caliphate 115
Namangani and Uzbekistan 137
the Islamic
Movement of
in
CONTENTS
8
Namangani and
9
The New Great Game? The United
Jihad in Central Asia 156 States, Russia,
and China 187 i
o 11
Central Asia and
An
Its
Neighbors 208
Uncertain Future 228
Appendix:
The
Call to Jihad by the Islamic
of Uzbekistan 247
Notes 251 Glossary 263
Index 269
Movement
PREFACE
I
first
went
to
Afghanistan.
Central Asia in 1988, tracking the chimera of the war in I
ethnic groups,
wanted
who
to learn
for the first
place as arbitrators of their
own
more about
Afghanistan's minority
time in their history were taking their destiny
now that the
pulled out. In order to understand these groups,
I
Soviet
needed
army had to
under-
stand their origins, which lay in Central Asia, then part of the collapsing Soviet Union. Three years apart,
fell
of the five
I
was again
later,
in Central Asia,
new independent states
Subsequent
trips to
when
and
I
the Soviet
Union
finally
witnessed the emergence
there.
Central Asia led to
my first book,
published in
1994:
The Resurgence of Central Asia: Islam or Nationalism? The ques-
tion
posed
I
— whether the newly independent Central Asian regimes
would build
a
democratic order that used ethnic nationalism
as a
binding force or whether Islamic fundamentalism would take place is
— was one that
in part
an attempt
I
could not directly answer
to
In the Introduction
at the time.
its
This book
answer that early question. I
explore the complex
often perceived simplistically in the
West
meaning of jihad — so
as a
holy war
— and
how
PREFACE
new jihad movements arose. But Westerners are not the only people who misconstrue the idea of jihad. How the new fundamentalist and militant Islamic movements have distorted its greater meaning of an inner struggle to be a good and devout Muslim has the
much
to say
Part
I
about the conflicts currently tearing Central Asia apart.
lamic movements
munist
and
deals with the history of Central Asia
era.
from the sixth century B.C. to the
Only by going back
in the past
its
indigenous
Is-
end of the Com-
can we understand the
present: the history of ethnic conflict, the growth of Islam, and the crucial part
played by geography.
dependence
in
regimes have achieved— and Part
II
is
I
also
summarize the
each of the Central Asian
how they have
decade of in-
failed.
phenomenon of radical three biggest movements—
Islam in Central Asia. Focusing on the
Movement
gins, beliefs, influence,
that
first
examining what the
an investigation into the new
the Islamic Renaissance Party (IRP), the the Islamic
states,
emerges from
of Uzbekistan
and
activities.
this discussion
Hizb ut-Tahrir (HT), and
(IMU) — I
outline their ori-
The most important
that although these
is
discovery
movements
began with different ideologies, agendas, and support bases, the ation in Central Asia
— in
particular the
even the most moderate Islam
—
the orbit of other radical Islamic
Osama
bin Laden's Al Qaeda.
ble speed in
what
is
pulling
is
ments and the international community
them
like the
into
Taliban and
they are spreading with incredi-
basically alien territory
of Central Asia, offering
them together and
movements
And
situ-
government repression of
little
because the local govern-
alike
have failed the people
but massive repression, unem-
ployment, poverty, disease, and war.
The two
largest
underground Islamic movements, the Hizb
Tahrir and the Islamic
Movement
crecy.
They
views,
and allow no photographs of their
leader
Juma Namangani become such
issue
ut-
of Uzbekistan, are shrouded in se-
few press statements, give only a handful of leaders.
a mythical,
How
has the
inter-
IMU
even heroic, figure
PREFACE
in the Central
knows
more
The
what he looks like?
elusive
hardly anyone even
Namangani and
search for
the even
HT leaders— whose very names are unknown —
part of what this
book
is
about. So
tective story, with clues that lead
inconclusive theories,
Since
when
Asian Islamic underground
it is
if it
sometimes reads
is
a large
poor de-
like a
nowhere, mysterious evidence, and
because the ending has yet
be written.
to
my first visit have traveled to Central Asia dozens of times, am away from that beautiful, stark land have folI
and even when
I
I
lowed the events there with th?n obsession.
The
vast,
a fascination that has
become
little less
empty landscape dotted with oases of
brant populations and political ferment, sitting on the world's
untapped natural energy
great
Westerners as
more
it
was
to
reserves,
Europeans
Asia, but
importance
its
now
almost as
that
no one
last
unknown
Middle Ages. In
in the
the Europeans recognized
so:
between Europe and
is still
fact,
vi-
to
it is
as the bridge
travels the Silk
Route, Westerners have relegated Central Asia to the realm of legend.
The bloody
region for less well
civil
a decade have been poorly covered — and even — by the international media. Yet, as the world
more than
understood
finally recognizing,
Asia, the
wars and political unrest that have plagued the
Middle
You can
is
Central Asia
East,
vital to future stability in
South
China, and Russia.
ask questions in Central Asia, but don't expect straight
answers. Often you will get
ments of illumination, such I
is
was covering the
Sunday lunch
civil
in the
war
no answers
as the
one
at all.
that
in Tajikistan.
As
There
came I
to
me
are only
was enjoying a
garden of the Dushanbe
home
mo-
in 1993 while
leisurely
of a well-known
Tajik journalist, a firefight broke out at both ends of his street that
eventually developed into a three-way battle. As bullets zipped into the shrubbery,
nobody knew who was
shocking part for
me
was that
killing
my hosts,
whom
or why.
a poet, a novelist,
nalist—the cream of Tajikistan's liberal intelligentsia
But the
and
a jour-
— suddenly
pulled concealed pistols out of their pockets and fired back.
We were
PREFACE
stranded in the garden for
six
hours, but
combatants were, although dead bodies
hope
I
ty
this
book helps explain who
and why they are
Asia are
I
never discovered
who
the
littered the street.
combatants
in Central
fighting. Until the international
communi-
today's
understands that the future of Central Asia can affect the future of
the rest of the world, things are unlikely to improve. identify the key players
book
to
answer
all
and the major
I
have
tried to
But do not expect
issues.
This book could not have been written without the help of friends in
this
your questions.
Central Asia who have
government officials, diplomats,
to
many
remain anonymous. They include
journalists,
academics, mullahs, busi-
nessmen, aid workers, and ordinary people. Foreign humanitarian lief
organizations like the United Nations, the
Co-operation and Development tion,
(ACTED),
Agency
the
re-
Technical
for
Aga Khan Founda-
and the Soros Foundation have provided enormous encourage-
ment and support
to
my
my work
sible for
any of
working
in the region
over the years, but they are not respon-
conclusions. Foreign journalists and diplomats
have unstintingly given
me
time, insight, and
information.
Two
people in particular must be singled out for the breadth of
knowledge, experience, and friendship they have shared with over the years
many
— Barnett Rubin
and Olivier Roy.
of their ideas over the years that
mine and which
are theirs.
I
hope they
I
I
me
have absorbed so
no longer know which are
will forgive
me
if
I
appear
at
times to be stealing from them. I
would
also like to
U.N. Tajikistan Office
thank Ivo Petrov and Hiroshi Takahashi of the for
Peace Keeping, and Lakhdar Brahimi and
Francesc Vendrell and their
staffs at
the U.N. Special Mission for
Afghanistan, for their kindness, hospitality, and experience, from of which
I
have learned much. Their support for
light the crises in
practical help
my
all
efforts to high-
both Afghanistan and Central Asia was backed by
— for example, rides in U.N. planes to places that were
PREFACE
otherwise inaccessible. Writers and mountain climbers
Nancy and
John Bouchard emerged from an unexpected quarter
to provide
help and friendship. Frederic Roussel, the constantly active head of
ACTED,
has been a friend of long standing and provided
needed support
would
I
given tral
me
also like to
thank the publications
I
tral
Asia, asking
few questions about what
years
I
have tried
to
whet
Asia. For nearly twenty years
and
I
have given
me
questioned in
ably, they
their appetites for
In
to explain; they
London
more on Cen-
Chanda and Michael
the kind of space to write about Central
my judgments. At times
have done
in a part of the
The Far Eastern Economic Review
I
should
— and have rarely
have returned from
Central Asia and explained that
complicated
Cen-
initially interested in.
Asia that has been the envy of my fellow journalists
ney
which have
for,
was doing
wonderful, long-time editors Nayan
its
Vatikiotis
work
the time, the funds, and the space in print to explore
world that only a few of their readers were
Over the
much-
moment.
at a critical
had
I
a
a story that
just trust
me
long jour-
was
to write
it.
far too
Invari-
so.
the Daily Telegraph and before that The Independent
have had no doubts about the worthiness of covering Central Asia.
The
present foreign editor of the Daily Telegraph, Alec Russell, has
himself
become an
aficionado of the region, and he has given
enormous encouragement.
In Pakistan
I
have
to
of The Nation newspaper for the coverage he has given
from the region and idea that there are
my attempts
to
me
thank Arif Nizami
my
articles
educate Pakistani readers to the
more ways than one
to look at
Central Asia and
Afghanistan.
A special Journal,
thanks
who
asked
is
owed
me
to Karl E.
to write
an
Meyer, editor of World Policy
article
about the
first
ten years of
independence of the Central Asian Republics. Aided by his magnificent managing editor, Linda Wrigley, the Journal published two cles
and graciously gave
me
arti-
permission to use some of that material
here.
Xlll
PREFACE
This book had
just
gone
the Pentagon and the
understand the situation editor Larisa Heimert,
has given
this
so
me
much
new book
editor
how
Central Asia.
in
who
urgently Westerners need to
all
I
would
along insisted that
I
bring both
my
before the public.
Susan Laity
for
my
like to
thank
do
book and
this
constant encouragement, and Liz Pelton, to
when
World Trade Center were attacked. Those
have underscored
tragic events
done
into editing at Yale University Press
who
has
previous book on the Taliban and
And
a special thanks to
manuscript
her meticulous, scrupulous editing and for the
trouble she has taken to learn about Central Asia before tackling the difficult task of editing
my work.
This book could not have been written without the support of my wife, Angeles,
and our two children, who have put up with
deal, in particular ficient
way
to
my constant absences from home. There
thank them.
Lahore
October 2001
xiv
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a great
no
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