‘Foreign Ideas’ as Extremism in Central Asia · Global Voices
Alexander Sodiqov

On Registan.net, Noah Tucker speculates about what is wrong with the way Central Asian governments deal with religious activity that is not sanctioned by the state:
[I]n former Soviet Central Asia there is little debate that the root problem [of extremist beliefs] is “foreign ideas,” defined so broadly as to become a target of opportunity for both every political purpose and every local policeman or official’s ambition. Any sign of dissent from state policies or ideology <…> can be enough to bring the wrath of the state, sometimes with great violence.