Jihadists from Tajikistan were involved in an unusually high number of terrorist attacks or foiled plots linked to the Islamic State last year.
The suspect is Attack on concert hall There were Tajiks near Moscow last month. It follows bloody attacks by Tajiks in Iran and Turkey, while several plans in Europe allegedly involving Tajiks have been thwarted.
Hundreds of men in Tajikistan, a small, impoverished Central Asian country controlled by an authoritarian president, have joined a branch of Afghanistan’s Islamic State known as the Islamic State. Islamic State Khorasan Province, or ISIS-Kanalysts said.
They identify three main reasons why Tajiks are easily recruited.
Poverty fuels dissatisfaction
Tajikistan is one of the poorest countries in the world, prompting millions of workers to seek a better life elsewhere. In a country of 10 million people, most workers (estimated at more than 2 million) are working abroad at any given time.
Most migrants end up in Russia, where rampant discrimination, low wages, poor prospects and isolation leave some vulnerable to jihadist recruiters. For example, the mother of the concert hall attack suspect said their son faced problems in Russia, such as wages being too low to pay rent and the numerous licenses required to drive a taxi.
The iron law of dictators
From 1992 to 1997, the country fell into a brutal civil war. President Emomali Rahmon, 71, has ruled Tajikistan since 1994 and has extended his term.
The civil war ended with an agreement that allowed opposition groups, including the moderate Islamist Ennahda Party, some representation. But the group was declared an extremist group in 2015, and opposition leaders have been killed, imprisoned or exiled.
As Tajikistan has become an increasingly authoritarian country, the government has exerted tighter controls on how Islam is practiced, forcing some Tajiks to adopt extremist views.
no religious freedom
Restrictions on religious freedom include harsh campaigns targeting public signs of piety. Beards are sometimes forcibly shaved off in public, or headscarves torn off. The powerful Committee for Religion, Tradition, Celebrations and Rituals oversees all aspects of worship, including the construction of mosques and the printing of books. Men and women under the age of 18 are prohibited from praying in mosques, and collective religious education at home is prohibited.
The combination of poverty, authoritarian rule, and lack of religious freedom has created a fertile environment for an orchestrated online recruitment campaign targeting Tajik men. The effort glorifies the merits of those who have died fighting for ISIS-K, the group that has inherited the Islamic State’s ambitions to fight the West.
