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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