Central Asia: Islam Karimov & Co are the ones radicalising Central Asia

[Lars77]

http://enews.ferghana.ru/article.php?id=2604

Michael Andersen is a political scientist and journalist who has spent many years in Central Asia.

From Wednesday 20 January, and for the next week, the television channel Aljazeera English is showing his film ’(The Myth of) Religious Extremism in Central Asia’. Fergana.ru interviews Michael Andersen about his project.

- Why did you decide to make this film?

- For many years, I have observed how the dictators in Central Asia are using this ’threat’ from this so-called ’extremism’ to oppress anybody who disagrees with them. Just by labelling them ’extremists’ or ’terrorists’.

And how Western politicians are ’buying’ the propaganda of people like the Uzbek dictator Islam Karimov.

That is why I decided to make the film and call it ’The Myth of Religious Extremism in Central Asia’.

[PufPuf23]

1. Worthwhile read and insightful

The West has not only "bought the propoganda" of local authoritarians but provided support to both sides of the conflict at one time or the other. This creates a zone of political instability between Russia and Iran and the ME. Obviously, there are energy and economic as well as politcal elite interests that are conflicted from any perspective. Alas. There are to many posts at DU where all one can say is "alas".

[Lars77]

3. The US are in full support of Uzbek atrocities

The Uzbek dictatorship is one of the most brutal and bloody in the world, but they are in a part of the world few know exist so they can simply get away with it.

The Uzbek people are mostly moslem, but the one good thing Soviet rule brought to them was secularism.

However, they are one of the US allies in the "war on terror" and hosted a US air base there until recently. At the same time, they excercise the death penalty by boiling people alive (and sometimes dumping the bloated, cooked body on the doorstep of the family), one torture method is rape with broken bottles, and one of their major exports is cotton. Which is labour intensive, so when it's time to harvest they forcefully take schoolchildren and use them as child slave labour.

The result is obvious. Locals seeing a common enemy and turning to islamic funamentalism. Uzbekistan shares a border with Afghanistan and there are now Uzbek fighters in Afghanistan fighting coalition troops as a part of the jihad.


Just another legacy from the Bush administration.

[athenasatanjesus]

2. Goes to show the establishment can use anything to repress.NT