Islamic Revival Party of Tajikistan Outlines New Strategy
Islamic Revival Party has managed to overcome internal disputes and is preparing for tougher political struggle. IRPT’s chairman Muhiddin Kabiri outlined new party strategy.
Addressing a meeting of party activists on January 16, Mr. Kabiri spoke much longer and on a much wider scope of issues than an ordinary opening speech might require. It was obvious for most participants of the meeting that his words were no less than the new plan of actions and an outline of IRPT’s new program.
Muhiddin Kabiri who led the party since the death of its founder Said Abdullo Nuri said the year 2006 was decisive for IRPT. It indeed was. Mr. Nuri died without appointing a successor. After his death, internal power struggle divided the party into two camps: fundamentalists and moderates. The latter took over the party with Mr. Kabiri becoming new chairman. He had to heal the wounds of division to strengthen the party. And he did.
Mr. Kabiri said IRPT is facing a new stage. Explaining how the new party strategy would differ from the old one, he announced that IRPT would take a tougher stand on major political issues. IRPT chairman knows only too well that it is not safe to be very oppositional in Tajikistan. He made it clear that the party will continue to support the government in policies that run “in line with the interests of the state”. However, he also mentioned that postwar security considerations will no longer stop the party from criticizing the government’s failures.
Kabiri also announced IRPT’s new voter outreach strategy. The party that in the past focused exclusively on attracting individuals from religious backgrounds will now seek to recruit new members from among intellectuals and students. In general, Kabiri promised to bring in more young members having modern education and skills.
So Muhiddin Kabiri promised to make the party younger and more critical of the government. But what stands behind this new strategy?
First of all, Islamic Revival Party actually needs to become “more oppositional” to retain what has left of its popularity over the last years. The recent government reshuffles saw the last members of the former United Tajik Opposition lose their posts in the government which had been previously awarded to them as part of the 30 percent quota after the civil war. Besides, the party has been steadily losing popular support because of its support of the government. Now the party needs to change this to retain the status of the leading opposition party.
Second, Muhiddin Kabiri knows that long-bearded Islamic scholars will not find support among the population in Tajikistan. Therefore, he focuses on younger people to strengthen the party and build up its support base for the future political battles.
The innovations are good, although they came much later than they should have come. After the last elections when IRPT did not even field a candidate, Rakhmonov received a mandate to stay in power until 2020. He also enjoys a total control over the parliament through its pocket People’s Democratic Party. In this situation, IRPT’s promise to be more critical of the government will only play in the hands of the regime. Rakhmonov will continue pointing at IRPT every time when the country is pressured for not allowing opposition parties to function. Also as long as IRPT remains the country’s major opposition party, Rakhmonov has a good argument that the only alternative to his regime is Islamic regime. This is a very strong argument indeed since for major external powers in Central Asia an Islamic regime is not an alternative at all.
on January 26th, 2007 at 9:22 am
This guy Kabiri - I don’t trust him. For some reason, I do not like him. He is trying to be with Islamists and be really liberal and democratic at the same time. I think he needs to choose what to stand for. He basically needs to choose the camp.
on January 27th, 2007 at 4:35 am
f*** all of those guys. They are uneducated bigots. A monkey has more brains than our clergy. I have never seen a decent clergyman in Tajikistan. If there is God these guys are all going to burn on the stake.
on January 29th, 2007 at 8:33 am
Gura:
I think you overgeneralize the “Islamists” as you call them. Soem of the in fact are pretty liberal and open to modern views on society and politics. Don’t forget that Kabiri has received Soviet-time education and is now a successful businessman that also requires a lot of modern knowledge and skills.
I believe that Kabiri has a great role to play in Tajik politics. His task now is to moderate the IRPT and turn it into a real political PARTY, not just an association of Muslems having certain views on political matters. In fact, I believe Kabiri has a real chance of shifting the focus of his party’s platform from religion to specific issues that will provide a real alternative to the ruling party and the regime. At the end of the day, Kabiri could also unite the Tajik opposition parties into a single force. This might destroy the incumbent’s unchallenged position and lead to liberalization of the country’s political system.
on January 29th, 2007 at 8:35 am
Horny bastard:
I think you are a little bit too harsh. When I think of IRPT, I try to think of them as a political party rather than a group of clergy. After all the party has chosen as chairman Kabiri, not an Islamic scholar.
on February 3rd, 2007 at 7:49 am
Alexander,
I would disagree! I don’t believe that Islamists could bring about liberalization of our political system. Even if they appear to be pretty liberal and moderate, they will show their real “face” and intentions only when they come to power. At the end of the day, leaders are one thing, their voters and activists in the regions is another thing. IRP members in the regions do not want a more liberal Tajikistan, they want an Islamic state in the country.
on February 5th, 2007 at 6:30 am
Gura:
Well, it is a good point. Maybe you are right. We do not know what would happen if they came to power. But I do believe that their very existence on the political arena of the country helps make the system freer.
on February 7th, 2007 at 3:46 pm
Gura has made an excellent point! Never trust people who mixed religion with government. I see no relationship really. These people are not good for the future of Tajikistan.
on February 9th, 2007 at 5:26 pm
“Never trust people who mixed religion with government. Then people are not good for the future of Tajikistan.”
What about people who mix drugs traffic with government?
on February 11th, 2007 at 6:17 pm
hey guys, could we draw a parallel with Ak party in Turkey. They are also islamists, but nothing terrible happended when they cam to power. Could IRP follow the same path?
I wonder, did IRP had any political and social agenda at all, at least in the past? What they called for when started their activity, say in 1991-1992?
on February 14th, 2007 at 5:01 pm
Well, I think the Turkish AK party (http://www.akparti.org.tr/) is actually Kabiri’s role model for the new IRP. A couple of Tajiks told me that Kabiri is a new type of politician: neither a ‘baradashnik’ à la Nuri, nor a sleazy apparachik like Rakhmonov or Ubaidulloyev.
And I agree with Alick that AK rule was not a disaster for Turkey, as compared to the very secular Tansu Çiller.
on February 14th, 2007 at 5:13 pm
“I wonder, did IRP had any political and social agenda at all, at least in the past? What they called for when started their activity, say in 1991-1992?”
There’s some reference to it here:
English: http://iwpr.net/?apc_state=henirca2005&l=ru&s=f&o=238541
Russian: http://iwpr.net/?apc_state=hrufrca238541&l=en&s=f&o=238542
The Tajik IRP grew out of the Tajik SSR’s section of the all-Soviet IRP. Actually, the latter was opposed to disbanding of the Soviet Union and wanted more rights and religious freedom for the Muslims within the Soviet Union.
If you read German and if you can get the paper online, there is a publication from 1993 that analyzes the IRP’s ustav and programme:
“Die Islamische Partei der Wiedergeburt : eine Studie über Islamismus in der GUS”, Daniil Mikul’skij. - Köln : Bundesinst. für Ostwiss. u. Internat. Studien, 1993
on February 14th, 2007 at 6:44 pm
“What about people who mix drugs traffic with government?”
These are not good either, but the difference is that these people can legally be prosecuted by Tajik law, while religious politicians will have a free hand to do whatever they want because no one (especially in Islam) will question their authority as representatives of God.
With all that power in hand do you honestly believe that we will have a better future? With drug trafficers, etc. in power we at least have some hope of a change for better (sonner or later they could be jailed). With clerics in the government we will be doomed with a structure that no ordinary person can challenge and change no matter how corrupt. In short religion should be kept out of government!!! As far as I see for a good reason…
Question: in case religious clerics become the ruling party in the country what set of rules will they obey? In case the law of a country contradicts Islamic principles/rules (e.g. banking), what will they choose as their governing principle?
Something tells me it is not the
on February 14th, 2007 at 6:46 pm
… not the secular law.
on February 15th, 2007 at 5:34 pm
You write:
“These are not good either, but the difference is that these people can legally be prosecuted by Tajik law, while religious politicians will have a free hand to do whatever they want because no one (especially in Islam) will question their authority as representatives of God.”
–
I just looked at the IRP charter and at Ak party statements. There is nothing about Islam there. Erdogan tells just about traditions which should not be neglected. In similar tones is the IRP stuff. Will they indeed bring crerics to the govenment? Isn’t this an exageration to tell such things? As Russians say, ne delaite iz muhi slona.
In the same time, concerning the IRP program, it is still obscure to me what is their message to the society and to their constituency. I’ve looked through a number of publications about them and didn’t find anything about their program. Everything about participation in the elections, change of leadership and the like. It seems to me this party is still without face.
Who reads ‘Nadjod’? Maybe they write something there about their views of state, society, religion, women an so on. For instance, are they salafists or traditionalists?
on February 15th, 2007 at 6:03 pm
Alick,
The very fact that they don’t have a clear-cut agenda is indicative of what their true intentions might be. Plus I don’t quite get your point. You don’t need religion to tell people how to preserve their traditions. If we managed to preserved our traditions under Soviets, we will not lose the ground now and there is no reason for religion to become tangled into this process. Really, they should leave it outside politics.
From what I am looking at most of their kind are eager to turn Tajiks into Arabs by imposing rule and traditions that are as alien to us as they are to them. Examples include brainwashing women to wear hijabs, not recognizing Navruz as a holiday. Trying to brainwash the youth into thinking that singing and dancing are sinful under what they call “tradition”… should I go on or you still think I am exaggerrating?
These guys and their kind are destroying the very fabric of the society by introducing a divide between the people of Tajikistan. Their call for preserving “traditions” is nothing short of hypocritic as they are in fact the ones who are destroying whatever remains of Tajik national identity. Their goal is to make all Tajiks morph into this homogenious identity they call muslim and it is not acceptable to many (just remember the civil war).
Put simply, I don’t trust them. Never trusted them and never will. What they say on paper and claim as their agenda will change the moment they get the power.
on February 15th, 2007 at 6:38 pm
The question is whom you talking about when using such words as ‘they’, ‘these guys’, ‘brainwashing’ etc. Is it about IRP? This is what I was wondering about are they pre-occupied by salafist ideas? Or they still consider themselves hanafi?
Once again, I’d be careful in generalisation. There have been so many stereotypes about ‘Islamists’. But if you visit Muslim Brotherhood, Ak party then you’ll see a lot of novel stuff: they say about freedom, pluralism and Ak party even about secularism. That is, they and their concepts undergone evolvement. I don’t think they are a kind of people who say one and do an opposite. Look at Ak party and their progress in Human rights. Nobody expected such things from islamists. So I’d suggest make distinctions between them.
Maybe the lack of ‘face’ in case of IRP is the sign of confusion where to go, to salafism or to a kind of soft Islamism. MB say ‘islam is solution’. In some cases (not in all) this is the case: at least they have been successful in fighting corruption, in social services. Nationalists like Fatah, in contrary, are steeped in corruption.
To make clear, I’m also against obscurantism and extremism. But can’t attribute them to all islamists.
on February 19th, 2007 at 2:38 pm
“MB say ‘islam is solution’. In some cases (not in all) this is the case: at least they have been successful in fighting corruption, in social services. Nationalists like Fatah, in contrary, are steeped in corruption.”
I completely agree with Alik.
BTW, does anyone has a view on what percentage of the IRP leadership and cadres are actually clerics? Kabiri is certainly not one. While it seems that the old guard among Himmatzoda — reported ill as well — is one the wane. What is also interesting to see is that the IRP is trying to break out of its ‘Garmi’ mold.
“From what I am looking at most of their kind are eager to turn Tajiks into Arabs by imposing rule and traditions that are as alien to us as they are to them.”
It’s a common misunderstanding to think that Islam is an ‘Arab religion’ or a synonym for ‘Arabism’. Its *origins* and the Ummah’s haramain (the 2 holy places i.e. Mekka and Medina) are situated in the Arab core indeed. And its lingua franca and the language of the Qu’ran is Arabic.
Yet today, it is believed that only 25 to 30% of the world’s Muslims have an Arabic background. In terms of numbers, the heavyweights in the Ummah are now Pakistan, Bangladesh and Indonesia. Similarly, its most interesting dynamics take place in Turkey and among Muslim diasporas in the West (the advent of so-called Euro-Islam). And it fastest relative expansion takes place in Africa, the former Soviet Union and the West.
So IMO equalising ‘Islam’ and ‘Arabisation’ is as inadequate as
as claiming that Christianity is a ‘Judean-Samaran’, ‘Roman’ or even ‘European’ religion, while Christianity’s cores are now in the US and South America and its most dynamic growth areas in Africa.
If there was any such thing as an ‘Arabisation’ movement then it was not carried by Islamic groups but by the very secular, sometimes Soviet-supported pan-Arabist/nationalist movements of the sixties (Baathist, Nasser, the Algerian FLN) who all ended in disasters.
“Their goal is to make all Tajiks morph into this homogenious identity they call muslim”
My friend, what is ‘Tajik identity’ after all? At the end of the day, it is a very artificial, Soviet-shaped concept. Like most such ‘national identities’, it will erode with globalisation and social mobility. So will nationalism. The void will have to be filled. And like in many other places in the world, the world religions will fill that void.
on May 3rd, 2007 at 8:27 am
What i don’t understand is…you all are looking forward to the IRP as a political party who will challenge the current government, but do you realise the projects it will impose on the country??? What we have is terrible enough, and we don’t need any islamists to make it worse. It is obvious that having a theocratic government in mind for the future Tajikistan is not exactly the best political solution to the economic, social and political turmoil of our country. Islamization of Tajikistan will never ever succeed, all it will leave will be yet more scars of civil wars and of brothers killing each other. Please realise that Russia will never ever allow the islamization of Tajikistan and niether will any of the other central asian countries. An islamic government will only trigger more and more conflicts among regions (due to rising religious fanatism which is a response to the repression of having a religion during soviet rule; as an exampe, take the Gorno-Badakhshan, i am so damn sure once these “islamist reformist” rulers come to power, they will have sunni-ismaili conflicts with the people of the region) and economically, we won’t see any more western investment in our country, which is exactly what we need now. Second point, if Tajikistan became islamized, this will signal a threat to the US and the western world as a phenomenon of “pan-persianism” with Iran and Afghanistan. Iran’s situation is evry very crucial and critical and the smalest movement in the persian region can be classified as a threat. We already share a lingustic and cultural heritage with these two countries, with the addition of a third common point to share…