[Tajikistan is roiling with discontent, NOT due to outside interference, but because of the government crackdown on religious activity not sanctioned by the State. At the center of that state repression of Islamic faith is the highly respected Turajonzoda family, led by the elder brothers, who are beloved Imams at a mosque near Dushanbe, which draws worshipers by the thousands for nearly every service.
The government campaign to control all religious worship in the country is a sneaky plan to fill the new gigantic mosque being built by the meddling Qataris for the Tajik State (capacity 150,000) , and to strike a blow against the remnants of the IRP, the Islamic Renaissance Party (formerly led by Akbar Turajonzoda).
(SEE THE FOLLOWING: State Islam, Outsiders Compete For Influence In Central Asia ; Where did bombers in Tajikistan? ; A strange car accident. Leader of the Islamic Party of Tajikistan, M. Kabiri tried to kill? ; Operation "Mukanna" ; US unhappy with "anti-Islamization in Tajikistan" ; Tajik Muslims bristle over anti-fundamentalism efforts ; Religious differences did not lead to unity )
(In particular, the following article on Turajonzoda is a MUST READ: Tajik Mufti Who Sees Through Anti-Islamist Western Subversion, Targeted By Tajik Court). In keeping with American plans to introduce its fake "Islamists" into Tajikistan (SEE: America’s “Islamists” Go Where Oilmen Fear to Tread), the real Islamists are first being neutralized and sequestered. By harassing, jailing, intimidating, even killing Tajikistan's true religious leaders, the religious masses are being agitated and deprived of leadership at a time of great religious testing. Shaitan has big plans for Tajikistan and spiritual leaders like the Turajonzoda brothers are all that stands in the way.]
Hoji Akbar Turajonzoda
Nuriddin Turajonzoda
Tajikistan mosque raided, worshippers detained, imams removed
Over fifty officials from the police, NSC secret police, Prosecutor’s Office and the state Religious Affairs Committee raided a high-profile mosque near Tajikistan’s capital Dushanbe during Friday prayers on December 9. They accused the mosque leaders, who are Sunni, of marking a Shia Muslim commemoration, insisting that only Hanafi Sunni rituals should be observed.
Two brothers from the prominent Turajonzoda family which ran the mosque were fined, while nine other mosque members were held for ten days with no court hearing, mosque members complained to Forum 18 News Service.
The Religious Affairs Committee also removed the mosque’s imams and downgraded its status.
Police imposed a cordon on Fridays during successive weeks’ prayers. But Deputy Chief of Vahdat Town Police, Alisher Abdurasulov, denied to Forum 18 that anyone was detained without trial or that the village was cordoned off to prevent worshippers reaching the mosque. Asked why he and other officials raided the mosque, Chair of the Religious Affairs Committee, Abdurahim Kholikov, told Forum 18: “I have the right not to answer you.”
The Muhammadiyya Mosque is located in Vahdatobod (formerly Turkobod), a village of about 200 people in Vahdat District, 11 miles from Dushanbe. It is run by Haji Turajonzoda and his brother Imam Nuriddin Turajonzoda.
Nearly two months after officials restricted the activity of a leading mosque only hundreds rather than thousands of worshippers can now attend Friday prayers.
No sermons are allowed and the mosque’s imams cannot return to lead the community.
A Dushanbe-based journalist told Forum 18 that thousands of people from Dushanbe and even from the city of Kulyab, 200 kms (125 miles) south-east of Dushanbe, used to travel to the mosque for Friday worship. “Imam Nuriddin is a very well known Muslim preacher in Tajikistan, and Tajik Muslims love his sermons.”
Akbar Turajonzoda was an independent Senator in Tajikistan’s Parliament between 2005 and 2010. He served as Tajikistan’s Mufti from 1988 to 1991, and as the second-in-command of the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan and the United Tajik Opposition from 1993, until his expulsion from the party in 1999. He also served as Tajikistan’s Deputy Prime Minister after the civil war ended in 1996.
Trouble began for the mosque on December 6 when the state-backed Council of Ulems issued a fatwa (religious ruling) against the Muhamadiyya Mosque and its leaders which was distributed to all mosques across Tajikistan.
The fatwa stated that the Council of Ulems “is not against observing the rite of Ashura by the Shia” but said “it is surprising to see that the Turajonzoda family, well-known in religious circles and who consider themselves Hanafi Muslims, observed it in the Turkobod Mosque on 2 December.” This “may lead to schism between Muslims”, it warned, adding that the Tajik people, “which adheres to the Hanafi movement, never in its history observed the rite of Ashura, and thereupon this deed of the Turajonzoda family fully contradicts Hanafi teachings.”
The Council of Ulems’ decision also called on the authorities to inspect the religious activity of the Turajonzoda family to see whether it “fits in the frames of the Religion Law.”
