As the events of September 11 showed, neglected areas of the Islamic world are feeding grounds for international terrorism. And as Rashid, author of the best-selling Taliban, shows in this important work, Islamic fundamentalism is gaining ground in Central Asia as well as it did in neighboring Afghanistan.
– From Publishers Weekly
Reviews:
Sunday, March 3, 2002 (SF Chronicle)
In the streets of Kabul and Kandahar, the name Juma Namangani had cachet. It still does. Walk into any bazaar in those Afghan cities, and people will tell you that Namangani was a good friend of Osama bin Laden. The two were so close that, two years ago, bin Laden personally gave Namangani at least $20 million to buy arms and equipment. Last October, after the United States began bombing Afghanistan, it was Namangani who directed Taliban forces in the northern Afghan city of Taloqan.
If Namangani’s name doesn’t sound familiar, it should — and that’s why Ahmed Rashid’s new book, “Jihad: The Rise of Militant Islam in Central Asia, ” is an important resource. When Namangani co-founded the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) in 1998, he vowed to overthrow the repressive regime that operates northwest of Afghanistan’s border. Rashid documents Namangani’s legendary daring (kidnappings are an IMU hallmark), his personal life (Namangani likes beautiful women, has at least two wives and is quite temperamental), and his ability to draw recruits from throughout the Muslim world.
Billions of words have been written about Afghanistan since Sept. 11, but the Central Asian republics of Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyztstan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan are also important battle grounds in the global war on terror.
In “Jihad, ” Rashid takes us on a 2, 000-year tour of a region that has always retained interest for explorers and exploiters — from Alexander the Great to Genghis Khan, from Jalal al-Din Rumi to Josef Stalin. As represented by Russia,
the former Soviet Union still looms large — politically, militarily and economically — over the five countries whose names hint at their overwhelmingly Muslim populations.
Moscow, writes Rashid, has abused Central Asia for generations, installing puppet governments, manipulating its natural resources and treating religious leaders there with cruelty and contempt. It’s a vicious cycle made worse by high unemployment and exploding birth rates. The result: A vacuum filled increasingly by radical groups like the IMU and Hizb ut-Tahrir al-Islami, run by mysterious men who’ve become confidantes of bin Laden, half-blind Taliban cleric Mullah Muhammad Omar and the ruthless higher-ups in Al Qaeda. Should Americans worry that Namangani’s gang will send sleeper cells to attack New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco? Will Hizb ut- Tahrir al-Islami (or HT, for short) become the big new name in terrorism?
Probably not. One of the revelations in “Jihad” is that Muslim radicals in Central Asia don’t always share the beliefs of their better-known brethren. HT, for example, (which has its own Web site: www.hizb-ut-tahrir.org) advocates a nonviolent overthrow of the region’s regimes, sparked by peaceful demonstrations and winning mass support. HT also, however, advocates a unification of the greater Muslim world under a caliphate that would impose sharia law, restrict women to home duties and crack down on Shia Muslims, Sufi Muslims, Jews and any other people deemed offensive to “true Islam.”
“We don’t want to kill the Jews, but they must leave Central Asia because they do not belong here, ” an HT leader told Rashid, in what was the first such media interview given to a reporter.
A Pakistan-based correspondent for the Far Eastern Economic Review and Britain’s the Daily Telegraph, and the author of the international best-seller “Taliban, ” Rashid fills “Jihad” with exclusive details that can only come from someone who has covered the region for more than 20 years. The connections he uncovers between Namangani’s IMU and bin Laden are damning and irrefutable. Meetings in Kabul and Kandahar. Sharing militants who would gladly martyr themselves in Tashkent or Dushanbe. In the IMU, bin Laden cultivated a cultlike group that could act as a bridge to Afghanistan’s landlocked, mountainous neighbors — neighbors who were striking deals with American oil and gas companies and looking increasingly to Washington for assistance. At its best, “Jihad” offers an insider’s account of the personalities and problems that continue to swirl in Central Asia and demand concern from the White House. A downside: Dry and encyclopedic details. Passages in “Jihad” read like a scholarly text that presumes readers will automatically pore over minutiae, analysis, arcane facts and unfamiliar names. Then there is the matter of outdated material. Namangani may have been killed shortly after bombing began in Afghanistan last fall. His death is still in doubt (no body has been clearly identified as his), though Gen. Tommy Franks, the commander of the U.S. -led military campaign in Afghanistan, announced in January that Namangani had perished.
Whether Namangani is alive or dead, the conditions that created his organization aren’t going away. By the end of “Jihad, ” Rashid has strong words for everyone with a foot in Central Asia, including Iran, China, Saudi Arabia and the United States.
Rashid’s tome is really a warning to anyone who will listen: The borders that encircle Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyztstan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan won’t contain the traumas and troubles fomented there by fundamentalists and historical failure. HT has widespread support among Muslims in British universities and the IMU had adherents around the globe. Americans can’t afford to ignore Central Asia. Sept. 11 proved that ignorance has a huge price.
No one knows that better than Ahmed Rashid.
From the cauldron’s edge/’Taliban’ author offers rare insight into troubled territories Jonathan Curiel, Chronicle Staff Writer
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