New Eastern Europe - November-December 2017

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them who are working in Russia, have al-

ready been away from their home coun-

try for a while, and lead a transnational

life. Thus there is no one specific place

for them to go back to. Before joining

ISIS, some may have fought elsewhere –

in Chechnya, for example. There is a pos-

sibility that some might not simply re-

turn home, since this is a transnational

mobile network which moves in multi-

ple directions, not just between home

and one particular battlefield.

But this is not such a straightforward

issue. We do not really know what ISIS

is, nor do we know the group dynamic

or researched the trajectories of people

who have been pushed out of the group.

It is really impossible to draw any direct

or immediate connection between those

leaving the ranks of ISIS and a legend of

coming home and causing destabilisation

in a given country. There may be some

danger of that happening but I think that

the leader who made that statement was

probably trying to urge the international

community to pay more attention to what

is happening in Tajikistan.

The International Crisis Group’s report on

Islamic radicalisation in Central Asia, titled

Kyrgyzstan: State Fragility and Radicalisa-

tion, was met with quite a strong reaction

within the academic community, which con-

demned it as offering a simplified vision of

radicalisation dynamics in the region. What

is your opinion?

I agree with my academic colleagues

who have criticised the report and ques-

tioned many of its assumptions. There

are methodological issues with the re-

port and the questions which were asked.

What we should focus on, first of all, is

questioning these kinds of straightfor-

ward and simplistic assumptions about

the increasing number of Central Asians

embracing radicalism. We need to look

at the connection between the level of

education, social status and economic

opportunities available to these people

as we try to understand the attraction of

radical Islamic ideologies. Some of the

available research shows that many who

have been recruited by ISIS and other

networks are not necessarily uneducated;

some of them may have received quite

decent education. Evidence suggests that

is the case with fighters recruited from

Opinion & Analysis The complex reality of radicalisation in Central Asia, Interviewer: Agnieszka Pikulicka-Wilczewska

Photo courtesy of Bhavna Davé