Most Tajiks are not especially religious (at least not in your bigoted terms)

Meaning: if they are religious, this does not mean that they are Islamists.

This point is then taken up when I suggest that you imply an equation between Islamism and Muslim religiosity.

I fail to see the contradiction. I am sure others will be puzzled too.

You might as well drop it now, Abdullah – as you really do not want to make yourself look any more ridiculous than you have already achieved; and secondly, because I really do hate to see people engaging in such blatant self-harm.

Many thanks – I look forward to blasting it out this evening!

Abdullah,

I am not sure how you find a discrepancy between the quotes you make of my comments above – other than one conjured up in your mind in a desperate attempt to try to prove what ever deranged point you are trying to make.

Can I suggest adult literacy lessons?

Most Tajiks are not especially religious (at least not in your bigoted terms)

Illiterate.

An MP3 of “No Terrorist” by Dub Scientist is making its way to you now!

Abdullah,

An interesting implication actually is your equation of “Islamist” with “religious Muslims”.

Abu Faris 1.55pm

Most Tajiks are not especially religious (at least not in your bigoted terms) – it must really bug you that they have repeatedly rejected Islamism as an option for their future.

Idiot

An interesting implication actually is your equation of “Islamist” with “religious Muslims”.

You need to get out more, sunbeam.

And your implication that religious Muslims WOULD be interested in “Islamism” is an interesting confession

Actually, I made exactly the opposite implication. Are you on drugs, or can you simply not read?

In fact, I contributed background information countering the OSCE claims that the last Tajik parliamentary and presidential elections were fair. Opposition to the regime in Dushanbe is largely from democrats in Tajikistan – who make it perfectly clear that they want no truck with the Taliban warlords and other clerical fascist hyenas who hang about the edges of Tajik civil society (and are heavily involved in the heroin trade – very Islamic!).

Most Tajiks are not especially religious (at least not in your bigoted terms) – it must really bug you that they have repeatedly rejected Islamism as an option for their future.

ROFLMAO. Abu “Front Page” Faris thinks Tajikstans elections are free and fair. LOL

And your implication that religious Muslims WOULD be interested in “Islamism” is an interesting confession

Funny you missed it.

The fact that you know absolutely nothing of the Tajik government, nor of its origins in the Tajik Civil War is apparent. It might enlighten you to learn that the Tajik government includes elements of the former so-called Islamic opposition in Tajikistan.

A dear Tajik friend of mine, who lived through the Tajik civil war (including watching her father being used as sniper “bait” after he had been mortally shot on the streets outside her tower block in Dushnabe), described the difference between the “Islamic” and non-Islamic warlord bands that plagued the country in the early ’90s as follows:

The Islamists at least were not drunk when they smashed down your front door, killed your men and raped you and your sisters.

Most Tajiks are not especially religious (at least not in your bigoted terms) – it must really bug you that they have repeatedly rejected Islamism as an option for their future.

What a pity Gita didn’t feel able to raise this issue direct with Moazzam Begg. If she had instead of briefing against him, she would have discovered that he’s a great supporter of women and a promoter of their rights.
There is a campaign underway to demonise him and I would have thought, coming from such an excellent human rights background, Gita would have stopped and asked questions first from the man himself instead of joining in the witch-hunt.
I am a committed feminist and a Muslim as well as being a patron of Cageprisoners which is an excellent human rights organisation and global resource used and respected by international lawyers, journalists, human rights organisations and activists.
The very last thing Cageprisoners wants to do is silence Gita – but she should now take the opportunity to meet with Moazzam Begg and air her concerns – real or imagined – face-to-face. I am sure he would welcome the opportunity for some real transparency.
But at the moment he is the victim in all of this not the person who went briefing the media with wild allegations … allegations which I note are now repeated in this forum without any reference to facts. Are we dispensing with the whole concept of innocent until proven otherwise?
The US and the UK have had a chance to charge him but they didn’t – ask yourself why? Or are we opting for trial by media these days?
Moazzam has, at last, been able to give his initial response through the Cageprisoners website – if you want to make a more informed judgment I suggest you go to http://www.cageprisoners.com

I know, I know!

Moazzem Begg in his deranged article “Jihad and Terrorism”, which appeared on the Cagedprisoners website, 15/07/2008, in footnote 15.

Begg goes on to elevate the status of jihad, in typical Islamist fashion, concluding that jihad is

an inseparable component of Islam

which, of course, it most certainly is not.

http://www.cageprisoners.com/articles.php?id=25420

What an interesting level of priorities you have.

The approximately 900 remaining Tajik Jews are for the most part elderly, poverty-stricken and subject to anti-Semitic attacks and persecution. Community centers working with the Joint Distribution Committee and other Jewish organizations send food packages and try to care for the aged. The Jewish community of Tajikistan is barely able to function and relies on the aid of world Jewish organizations for support.

Only one synagogue remains in the country and is located in Dushanbe. However, in the summer of 2004, the Tajik government announced its intent to demolish the 100-year-old structure to make room for a presidential palace. The community of 500 Jews in Dushanbe, as well as the world Jewish community, and the U.S. and Israeli embassies in Tajikistan intervened to prevent the destruction of the historic synagogue, but in early 2006 the government demolished the mikve and several classrooms. Despite pleas from the Jewish community and international organizations, the remaining structures were due to be demolished to make way for a new presidential palace. The city has offered alternate sites at the edges of the city but won’t provide compensation for the buildings and the community is too small and poor to build a new synagogue.

UNESCO had written the Tajikistan authorities to halt the construction project, calling the synagogue’s destruction a “contradiction with existing international standards for the protection of cultural heritage.” UNESCO never received a reply from the Tajikistan government and repeated the appeal, but it appeared too late to stop the destruction. Tajikistan’s lone synagogue was demolished in June 2008 to make way for a park. The government has promised to allocate land for a new synagogue, though details on the plan are sketchy.

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vjw/Tajikistan.html

“Sketchy” in Tajik governmental terms means “non-existent”.

I met Afghan Jews in Tajikistan a few years ago, whose ancestors had fled the anti-Semitic pogroms in Afghanistan in the 1870s. They stood in the same crowd as me as we watched the Tajik authorities demolish the Old Synagogue in Dushanbe, thus depriving the ancient Tajik Jewish community of its last place of worship.

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vjw/Afghanistan.html

Q. Who said this:

In his magisterial discourse on jihad during the soviet occupation, Defence of the Muslim Lands, the charismatic scholar, Sheikh Abdullah Azzam resurrected the famous 13th century fatwa of Ibn Taymiyyah which states: ‘As for the aggressive enemy who destroys life and religion, nothing is more incumbent [upon the believer] after faith than his repulsion.’ Al-fatawaa al-kubraa, Ibn Taymiyyah.