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C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 DUSHANBE 000123 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL:  1/29/2020 
TAGS: PHUM PGOV KISL TI
SUBJECT: TAJIK COURTS EXTORT, JAIL ISLAMISTS AND THEIR PLUMBER 
 
REF: 09 DUSHANBE 95 
 
CLASSIFIED BY: Ken Gross, Ambassador, EXEC, DoS. 
REASON: 1.4 (b), (d) 
¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY:  Tajik courts issued stiff sentences to 
individuals convicted of membership in two outlawed Muslim 
fundamentalist organizations as members of a third banned group 
stand trial.  Dushanbe city court convicted seven individuals 
who follow the banned Salafiya movement, although the convicted 
men deny their membership in an organized movement.  Khujand 
city court convicted 10 members of the Hizb ut-Tahrir movement 
for "attempting to overthrow the government."  An additional 92 
members of the Muslim fundamentalist missionary group, Jamaati 
Tabligh, stand trial in Dushanbe and Khatlon Oblast.  Court 
officials have solicited bribes from family members of the 
accused Jamaati Tabligh members in exchange for acquittal or 
lesser sentences.  Though mainstream Muslim leaders support the 
convictions of Salafi and Hizb ut-Tahrir members, they view 
Tabligh members as harmless missionaries and have called for 
their release.  END SUMMARY 
 
 
 
DUSHANBE COURT: 5-7 YEARS FOR THE SALAFI SEVEN 
 
 
 
¶2. (C) On January 23, a Dushanbe city court sentenced seven 
individuals to prison terms ranging from five to seven years for 
membership in the banned Salafiya "movement" and "incitement of 
religious and national hostility".  The men were arrested in 
July 2009, when government security forced raided an 
unregistered mosque.  Poloff met two associates of the convicted 
"Salafis" in a small Dushanbe mosque on January 27 to discuss 
the case.  Both were middle-class, well-spoken, and claimed 
government links.  Hoji Eraj, whose father works for the 
Ministry of Culture, is a young, unemployed imam.  He escaped 
arrest during the 2009 raid because he was not at the mosque 
that day.  He said the men attending the mosque had never called 
for jihad, criticized the government, or engaged in illegal 
activities.  "Anvar" said he works for the President's 
Administration and is an Islamic scholar.  His brother was 
sentenced to five years.  Both denied the existence of a 
separate Salafi movemente and identified themselves as "People 
of the Sunni Community". 
 
 
 
¶3. (C) According to Eraj and Anvar, court officials questioned 
the accused men regarding their manner or praying and their view 
of other Muslim groups, but did not present evidence of 
anti-government activities.  The judge questioned why the men 
loudly exclaimed "Amen" during prayer (rather than whispering 
"Amen" per common Tajik practice), wore short pants and 
shirtsleeves to mosques, and entered mosques without wearing the 
traditional Tajik hat.  Court officials also asked the 
defendants where they believed God exists (everywhere or in one 
place) to ascertain whether their doctrine is Salafiya.  Anvar 
said court officials gave the defendants little opportunity to 
testify.  At one point, the imam of the group, Eshoni 
Sirojiddin, interrupted the proceedings and yelled, "You are 
asking the defendant about the length of his pants!" 
 
 
 
¶4. (SBU) Eshoni Sirojiddin was sentenced to seven years in 
prison.  Sirojiddin, known for his abrasive style of preaching, 
has denounced Shiites as "kafirs" (infidels), and regularly 
quarreled with Tajikistan's moderate Muslim establishment.  When 
visiting a mainstream mosque, he chided male worshippers that 
allowing a wife to be in public without a hijab is the same as 
allowing her to commit adultery.  He condemned the most 
respected Imam in the country, Eshoni Nurridin, and the head of 
the Islamic Revival Party, Muhiddin Kabiri, as friends of 
"kafirs", because of their positive statements towards Shia 
Muslims.  Ismaili Shia make up the majority in Tajikistan's 
Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast, which was controlled by the 
opposition during the Civil War, and the government and the 
moderate religious establishment have sought to suppress 
anti-Shia rhetoric to prevent a revival of conflict. 
 
 
 
¶5. (C) Eraj said that one of the men convicted was a plumber who 
happened to be working at the home of Mullo Shahobiddin, deputy 
Imam of the raided mosque when police arrived.  He said the 
plumber was unaffiliated with the group, but convicted as a 
"Salafi" and sentenced to five years.  Regarding Sirojiddin's 
quarrels with the traditional clergy, Eraj said "that was a 
dispute between the elders, between people much wiser than us." 
Members of the group did not support any action to harm the 
Shia, but sought to correct what they viewed as an incorrect 
practice of Islam.  He posited that the traditional clergy felt 
 
DUSHANBE 00000123  002 OF 003 
 
 
threatened by Sirojiddin's "rising star". 
 
 
 
TRADITIONAL CLERGY SUPPORT SALAFI CONVICTIONS 
 
 
 
¶6. (SBU) The Imam-Khatib of Varzob District, Domullo Sayido, 
approved of the arrest and prosecution of the Salafis and said 
that the movement risked creating "a split in society.  They 
don't accept any interpretation of Islam except their own."  He 
accused the Salafi movement of sparking fights among members of 
Muslim worshippers because of their unorthodox praying style, 
particularly the loud pronunciation of "Amen".  Sayido said most 
Muslim clergy welcomed the verdicts and expressed surprise that 
the sentences weren't longer.  "Society has turned against them 
and there are very few left who support them."  Imam Sayido 
would not describe the Salafis as "terrorists" or "extremists", 
admitting "it is true that they never called anyone to 
violence." 
 
 
 
¶7. (SBU) The government did not arrest Muhammadi Rahmatullo, 
generally acknowledged to be the founder and leader of the Tajik 
Salafiya movement.  When Muhammadi Rahmatullo and his followers 
began attracting public interest in 2005, the government 
supported them and offered the group space in the Dushanbe 
Central mosque.  Religious observers have speculated that the 
government's initial tacit support for Salafis had been based on 
the group's usefulness as a counterweight to the IRPT and to the 
traditional Muslim leadership (Reftel).  With Eshoni 
Sirojiddin's controversial statements, the government may have 
decided that he and his followers had gone too far.  Sayido said 
the State Committee for National Security infiltrated and 
monitored Sirojiddin's "Salafi" mosque for six months prior to 
the 2009 raid. 
 
 
 
COURT OFFICIALS SHAKE DOWN JAMAATI TABLIGH MEMBERS 
 
 
 
¶8. (SBU) Ninety-two members of the banned Jamaati Tabligh Muslim 
fundamentalist missionary group face charges of "membership in 
an extremist organization" (56 in Dushanbe City Court, 36 in 
Khatlon Oblast).  Members travelled to mosques and homes to tell 
Tajiks to pray the "Namaz" and wear traditional Muslim attire. 
The group received funding from India and Pakistan.  The 
government banned Jamaati Tabligh in 2006.  In April 2009, the 
government raided a mosque and arrested 123 men accused of 
membership in Jamaati Tabligh. 
 
 
 
¶9. (SBU) Badriddin Sulymonov, a Tajik businessman living in 
Almaty whose brother is standing trial, said court officials 
demanded bribes from the moment of the arrests.  Suspects who 
paid between 2,000 and 5,000 dollars were released or charged 
with lesser crimes.  The state prosecutor requested sentences of 
two to six years imprisonment.  Family members expected verdicts 
on January 28, but the judge adjourned the trial to review the 
cases.  Sulymov reported that court officials, including the 
judge and prosecutor, demanded nearly 30,000 dollars for his 
brother's acquittal.  Sulymov paid the money and expects that 
his brother will be released with a fine.  "Why do you think 
they (the court officials) adjourned for the day, instead of 
reading the verdicts?  They need more time to gather their 
harvest (bribes)." 
 
 
 
JAMAATI TABLIGH: JUST GOOD KIDS TEACHING PEOPLE TO PRAY 
 
 
 
¶10. (SBU) Traditional clergy and influential Muslim leaders 
broadly support Jamaati Tabligh's activities and consider them 
peaceful missionaries unfairly categorized as extremists.  IRPT 
leader Kabiri and influential Islamic/Political leader Hoji 
Akbar Turajonzoda have called for their removal from the 
extremist black list.  Turajonzoda publicly called for the 
inclusion of Jamaati Tabligh members in President Rahmon's 
October 2009 amnesty.  IRPT leader Kabiri asked, "What is their 
wrongdoing?  That they are far from politics and didn't know 
that Tajikistan banned them in 2006?  Right away we employ 
repressive measures instead of explaining to them that their 
organization is illegal here."  Varzob Imam Sayido concurred 
 
DUSHANBE 00000123  003 OF 003 
 
 
that mainstream Muslim leaders supported Jamaati Tabligh and 
called for members to be released. 
 
 
 
HIZB UT-TAHRIR: TEN GET LONG TERMS IN SUGHD 
 
 
 
¶11. (SBU) On January 26, Khujand city court sentenced 10 members 
of Hizb ut-Tahrir to 8-15 years for "inciting religious enmity" 
and "attempting to overthrow the government".  Most mainstream 
Muslim leaders in Tajikistan view Hizb ut-Tahrir, which calls 
for the establishment of an Islamic Caliphate, as a foreign, 
"Uzbek" movement.  They generally support the ban on Hizb 
ut-Tahrir, which they view, like the Salafiya movement, as a 
foreign, divisive, ideology.  The movement's support base is in 
the Sughd Oblast, but has not appeared to be a major political 
force.  The "Salafiya" movement is more widely discussed in the 
media and appears to have greater influence among Tajik youth. 
 
 
 
¶12. (SBU) COMMENT:  The government's crackdown on "extremist 
groups" stems from its fear of Islamic radicalism from 
Afghanistan and knee-jerk repression of religious practices that 
it views as foreign, such as the loud exclamation of "Amen" 
during prayers.  Though anti-Shia statements made by the Eshoni 
Sirojiddin were reprehensible, the government presented no 
evidence that he or his followers were members of a Salafiya 
movement or that such an organized following even exists in the 
country.  The government has rather used the charge of 
"Salafism" to jail imams, such as Eshoni Sirojiddin, whose 
sermons created social discord, or Muslims whose worship 
practices the government equates with radicalism.  The corrupt 
handling of the Jamaati Tabligh trial further erodes the 
government's credibility in managing religious affairs.  The 
traditional clergy have so far given the government a free hand 
to detain members of groups they considered heterodox, but may 
take issue with the imprisonment of a large number of Jamaati 
Tabligh missionaries, whom they support.  Post will monitor 
prominent Muslim political and religious leaders' reactions to 
the likely convictions of those Tabligh members who can't buy an 
acquittal.  END COMMENT 
GROSS