DUSHANBE, June 24, 2009, Asia-Plus  -- A raid of police and security officers on Dushanbe''s Zarafshon neighborhood mosque has resulted in detention of some 40 Salafis, including one of leaders of the Salafi movement in Tajikistan, Mullo Sirojiddin.  

The source at the Ministry of Interior (MoI) said that officers from the State Committee for National Security (GKNB) jointly with police officers raided the mosque in the Zarafshon area yesterday during the evening prayer.  “Some 40 Salafis, including one of leaders of the Salafi movement in Tajikistan, Mullo Sirojiddin, were detained in the raid,” the source said.  According to him, this mosque is a traditional place for gathering of Dushanbe Salafis.

“The detainees were taken to the GKNB office and they are still held there,” the source said, noting that the detainees are suspected of propagating the Salafi ideas.

The source added that charges against them would be brought most likely under the provisions of Article 189 (incitement of national racial, regional or religious enmity) of Tajikistan’s Penal Code.  “If convicted, they could face up to 12 years in prison,” the source said.

We will recall that the Supreme Court of Tajikistan January 9 this year added Salafis to its list of extremist religious groups prohibited from operating in the country.

The movement claims to follow a strict and pure form of Islam, but Tajik clerics say the Salafis'' radical stance is similar to that of the Taliban in Afghanistan.

The Salafis promote a strict form of Sunni Islam based on the early period of Islam and do not recognize other branches of Islam, such as Shi''a and Sufism.  It is frequently referred to as Wahabbism, although Salafis reject this as derogatory.

According to some experts, the Salafi movement has been active in Tajikistan since 2005 and some media say that the movement claims to have recruited more than 20,000 believers aged 25 to 35 in the country.

Leaders of the Salafi movement in Tajikistan are also young men in their 20s and early 30s.  They came to Tajikistan after graduating from Islamic schools in Pakistan, Yemen and Saudi Arabia.