Tajikistan: Islamic Renaissance Party banned

On 4 September 2015 Radio Free Europe reported that, in an attempt to eradicate all opposition, the dictatorial regime of president Emomali Rakhmon of Tajikistan has ordered the second-largest political party to end its activities. Rolf, persecution analyst for World Watch Research, says: "The Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan played a prominent role both in the 1992-1997 Tajik civil war and after signing a peace agreement with president Rakhmon"s regime which legalized them and granted them 30 percent of government seats at all levels from village to ministerial. The party was an anomaly. It was the only political party in Central Asia that had a religious base. Now that it is forbidden, the only Islamic alternative for the population to the state-controlled official Islam are extremist movements like the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (which declared itself part of Islamic State) or the Hizb-ut-Tahrir. So far, these extremists have had little success in Tajikistan, but should this change, president Rakhmon may find himself a victim of his own policies - and Christians will pay for that dearly."