Around 6 AM on Thursday, 04/01/2024, the morning calm shattered for about ten Muslim households in the city of Tashkent due to a “visit” from individuals banging on doors! The truth is that people wearing official uniforms and masks forcefully entered these homes and conducted searches. They went through religious books one by one, looking for something in them. When they found nothing, they took the homeowners with them. Instead of the head of the family, who wasn’t at home that day, a family member had to go to the Ministry of Internal Affairs without any reason. It’s worth noting that the homeowners were young Muslims, all members of the Hizb utTahrir, an Islamic political party, and they had spent between 20 to 22 years of their youth in prisons and were released in recent years.
Surprisingly! For what crime did they suffer such injustice while their families were filled with joy and happiness? The elderly in the families were heartbroken, mothers’ hearts almost stopped, and children screamed and cried out of fear?! These oppressed individuals, who recently left prisons after a quarter of a century, embracing their children and grandchildren, had their hands shackled again! When the current president released several hundred Muslims who had been imprisoned for many years due to the previous tyrant’s hatred, it brought joy to many young and old. But how do we understand such an operation carried out by the Interior Ministry’s agents, completely contradicting Mirziyoyev’s recent steps and statements?! Most astonishing is that those who searched their homes would have gone where they were told if they had been simply subpoenaed through a summons. So why use such a frightening scenario? To instill fear among people?! What will be the view of the neighborhood and the families’ neighbors regarding these young people?
The initial assumptions about this are: Firstly, there may be external pressures on the government from Russia and other kufr countries to follow some recommendations in the framework of combating terrorism and extremism. Secondly, it may be aimed at instilling fear in the hearts of young people who are increasingly turning back to Islam. Otherwise, what is the need for such a fear-provoking “performance”?! Another important thing here is that official channels like Kun.uz and Qalampir.uz, and even bloggers, have not spoken about this! This has caught the attention of the local population. And we cannot say that they were unaware of these operations because that completely contradicts the ethics of journalism; how can journalists, who immediately discover a car accident in a remote area of our country, remain unaware of such an event that happened in the capital?!
For this reason, we expect them to write a detailed comment on such arrests organized against Muslims in our country.
Another note is that any leader is never free from internal enemies, and perhaps there are those trying to tarnish the reputation of the new ruler of the country, the majority of whose population is Muslim, to dig a pit of the former tyrant’s secrets for him! They are trying to establish the idea in the minds of Muslims that “this leader’s stance toward Muslims is the same as his predecessor’s”! Time will surely tell. But we want to believe that today’s government head is keen not to be a successor to yesterday’s tyrant in execution, oppression, and family destruction operations, and we want him to remember the terrible consequences of repression! But who knows if this is his choice?!
[وَسَيَعْلَمُ الَّذِينَ ظَلَمُوا أَيَّ مُنقَلَبٍ يَنقَلِبُون]
“And those who have wronged are going to know to what [kind of] return they will be returned.” [Surat Ash-Shu’ara:227]
Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir in Uzbekistan
Press Release
24 Jumada II 1445 – Saturday, 6th January 2024
No: 09 / 1445
(Translated)