Tajik authorities return 1,000 students of religion to the fold.

23/11 Tass 95

DUSHANBE, November 23 (Itar-Tass) - A large campaign is underway in
Tajikistan to bring back home the young people, who illegally study at
religious centres of Egypt, Iran and Pakistan. The number of returnees has
exceeded 1,000 in the past two months," spokesman for the Tajik Foreign
Ministry Davlat Nazriyev told Itar-Tass on Tuesday.
"Returning home is largely voluntary, with full understanding and
cooperation of the authorities in the above states. The campaign only
focuses on students, who are staying in these countries illegally and
study at semi-underground and suspicious schools," Nazriyev said.
He reminded that the campaign to return these students had been
initiated by Tajik leader Emomali Rakhmon.
During his trip across the regions of the republic before the new
academic year, Rakhmon urged parents to recall their children to the
homeland.
"You think they're learning the holy religion of Islam at these
medreses - no, they are making them terrorists and extremists there.
Tajikistan does not need so many mullahs, and the necessary number can be
taught at the existing religious institutions of the country," the
president said.
At the same time, commenting on the president's concern, the spokesman
explained that "only illegal students and underground medreses," were
meant and that those, who "study at prestigious medreses, can continue
their education."
Neither the Tajik Foreign Ministry, nor the government committee on
religious affairs could name the exact number of young Tajiks studying the
fundamentals of Islam abroad.
"It is possible that their number may reach 1,500," Nazriyev said.
The Tajik authorities' concern is understandable, independent
observers said.
The army of fundamentalist preachers and supporters of extremist and
religious movements (such as Tablighi Jamaat, Hizb ut-Tahrir and Salafia
Jihadia) has been growing. Tajik secret services blamed the Islamic
Movement of Uzbekistan for unsettling the situation in the east of the
republic earlier this year, where more than 40 servicemen were killed by
terrorists. Five Islamists have been arrested on charges of involvement in
the terrorist attack in the Tajik town of Khudzhand in September, in which
3 police were killed and 28 were injured.
-0-myz/kud


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