DUSHANBE, January 9, 2009, Asia-Plus  -- I welcome Tajik authorities’ decision to put ban on the Salafiya movement in the country,” member of the Majlisi Milli (Tajikistan’s upper chamber of parliament) and known Tajik cleric Hoji Akbar Turajonzoda told Asia-Plus Thursday evening.

He added, however, that he was strongly against Salafis being faced with criminal prosecution like members of the outlawed religious extremist Hizb ut-Tahrir organization.  They have not yet committed any unlawful acts, Turajonzoda said.

According to him, one of positive moments of the decision to put ban on Salafiya is that people that joined Salafiya through ignorance “will leave this wrong way.”  Salafiya is an imported ideology that could pose a serious threat to national security in the future, he said.

Besides, Turajonzoda considers that along with Salfiya it is necessary to ban activities of a number of religious movements imported from the West as well.