‘Foreign Ideas’ as Extremism in Central Asia
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.
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