Thursday, May 03, 2012 -
Tajikistan’s Supreme Court has banned another Islamic group from operating within the country, a move supported by the country’s largest opposition group.
Jamaat Ansarullah (Community of the Helpers of Allah) is now deemed a terrorist organization. Members of the group were involved in the suicide attack on a northern Tajik police station, which killed three police officers.
The country’s largest opposition group, the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan (IRPT), supported the ruling from the Supreme Court.
“Organizations such as ‘Jamaat Ansarullah’ can be created with the help and support of forces interested in discrediting the Muslims in the eyes of the international community,” the Interfax news agency quoted IRPT Deputy Chairman Saidumar Khusaini as saying.
“A lot of organizations have emerged in the world in recent years, calling themselves in Arabic and declaring something on behalf of Islam. However, those who know Islam must understand the essence of such organizations and distinguish them from followers of traditional Islam.”
The Tajik government is secular, and has called on parents and religious leaders to cut back on the ‘Islamicization’ of the Central Asian state.