Radio Liberty is increasingly covering events related to the persecution of LGBT people in the republics of Central Asia. For example, on June 10, Radio Svoboda published an interview with the deputy of the parliament of Uzbekistan Alisher Kadirov, who openly proposed to deport all the representatives of the LGBT community from the country without exception.

When I wrote this proposal on social media, dozens of people approached me and they were members of the LGBT community. They said: “This is correct, we cannot get visas to countries that condemn Uzbekistan for its attitude towards gay people,” Alisher Kadyrov said.

“Despite the fact that this way of life is contrary to Islam and the traditional values and culture of Uzbeks, no radical measures are envisaged against representatives of this community,” he said.

Comment:
Recently, some pages of news agencies have been full of news about the persecution of LGBT people. This is facilitated by two factors. The first factor is that the peoples of Central Asia are Muslims and manifestations of phenomena alien to us are naturally perceived with hostility. Therefore, wherever and whoever openly declares that they belong to LGBT, everyone will react unambiguously, negatively.

For example, in Kyrgyzstan, city dwellers hold rallies, accusing international non-governmental organizations of promoting the LGBT community and imposing incorrect stereotypes, and ask the government to root out the above organizations. Most recently, in Uzbekistan, young men beat up an LGBT rights blogger. In late May, in the city of Shymkent, Kazakhstan, two women LGBT activists wanted to meet in a cafe and discuss LGBT issues in the country. They were attacked by local residents and beaten. To which, the US diplomatic mission in Kazakhstan reacted immediately: “We are deeply concerned about reports of verbal and physical attacks today in Shymkent on members of the #LGBTQI + community. We call on the Kazakh authorities to protect the dignity, equality and universal human rights of all citizens.” And in almost every news about the attack on LGBT people, it was mentioned in one way or another that the attackers were Muslims or religious representatives.

The second factor is directly related to the West. The West claims “personal freedom” and “human rights” as inviolable values, and anyone who wants to be friends with the United States or other European countries must follow laws that respect LGBT rights, etc. These questions are constantly raised in the UN Human Rights Council. Therefore, we see that in the news covering the persecution of LGBT people there are comments from official representatives of Western countries, which once again proves that the West is specifically following such events in our countries.

In Saudi Arabia, Iran, Afghanistan and other countries, the death penalty is applied to LGBT people, but for some reason the United States is silent. Moreover, in 2017, at a vote in the UN Human Rights Council on a resolution condemning the use of the death penalty for homosexual relations, the United States voted against. Why? Maybe because the US has close business relations with these countries!?

It turns out that the noise made in the media about the persecution of LGBT people in Central Asian countries is an order from the West. The United States and Europe are using the persecution of LGBT people as a way of political pressure on the authorities of the Central Asian republics. Putin is gradually losing his influence in the region. Taking advantage of this, some in power want to build relations with Western countries, offering instead of friendship access to natural resources and geopolitical influence in the region. But the West is using the carrot-and-stick method to tame these grief politicians unable to see beyond their noses. The West pokes their faces every time in different kinds of laws, indicating to them, in this way, their place, that they say you are unequal to us, you are only capable of selling natural resources to us for next to nothing. And you will do whatever you are ordered to do.

So our tyrant rulers were trapped in their passions. On the one hand, the people who do not accept Western values, and at the first opportunity are ready to tear apart the LGBT people. On the other hand, the West, which uses these rulers as they want, as long as they need them.

Allah Almighty said the Truth:

[فَإِمَّا يَأْتِيَنَّكُم مِّنِّي هُدًى فَمَنِ اتَّبَعَ هُدَايَ فَلَا يَضِلُّ وَلَا يَشْقَى * وَمَنْ أَعْرَضَ عَن ذِكْرِي فَإِنَّ لَهُ مَعِيشَةً ضَنكًا وَنَحْشُرُهُ يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ أَعْمَى]

“Henceforth if there comes to you a guidance from Me, then whosoever follows My guidance shall neither go astray nor suffer misery. But whosoever turns away from this Admonition from Me shall have a straitened life; We shall raise him blind on the Day of Resurrection”
[20: 123-124]

Eldar Khamzin
Member of the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir