A prominent Kyrgyz imam and government critic has been detained for ‘making extremist statements’ – charges his supporters say are politically motivated. EurasiaNet.org reports

On Fridays, Al-Sarahsiy Mosque is usually packed with thousands of worshippers from across southern Kyrgyzstan.

They come to Kara-Suu – a town of 20,000 – to listen to the sermons of Rashot Kamalov, the mosque’s charismatic imam, who is respected for criticising brutal and corrupt officials, society’s moral decline and western pop culture.

However, on Friday 13 February, the two-story mosque near the Uzbekistan border was half-empty and surrounded by police. Government officials introduced a new imam.

Kamalov had been arrested four days earlier for allegedly encouraging militants to fight alongside Islamic State (Isis) in Syria and Iraq, charges his supporters say are intended to silence a prominent critic.

“The imam in custody has not just appealed for the creation of a caliphate but has also been telling believers about the war in Syria and making extremist statements,” Zhenish Ashirbaev, an Interior Ministry spokesman told Interfax on 10 February.

Ashirbaev added that Kamalov is also suspected of belonging to Hizb-ut-Tahrir, an international Islamist group banned throughout the region which agitates for the creation of a state governed by its interpretation of Islamic law but officially disavows violence.

Police “found extremist books and other materials at the suspect’s house and in the mosque,” Interfax quoted the spokesman as saying.

In connection with Kamalov’s arrest, Kyrgyz security forces have fanned out across southern Kyrgyzstan arresting dozens of alleged militants. Security officials say the raids have led to the recovery of illegal weapons and extremist literature, and have disrupted cells that were recruiting Kyrgyz citizens to join Isis.

Kamalov, 36, is the son of Muhammadrafiq Kamalov, a prominent imam who was killed in August 2006 during a joint operation by the Kyrgyz and Uzbek security services. The details of the father’s killing are still murky; Kyrgyz police said Muhammadrafiq Kamalov was a terrorist but presented no evidence to satisfy independent observers. The younger Kamalov began leading prayers at the Al-Sarahsiy Mosque after his father’s death, though he was never approved by the Muftiate, the state-run Muslim board that appoints imams and ensures they toe the government line.

Like his father, Kamalov reportedly permitted Hizb-ut-Tahrir members to worship at his mosque, but he publicly renounced links with the organisation and its aim of establishing an Islamic caliphate. EurasiaNet.org correspondents have heard Kamalov use his sermons to repudiate violence in the name of Islam and to criticise Kyrgyzstanis fighting for various rebel factions in Syria. Kyrgyz officials say 200 Kyrgyz nationals have joined Isis, but it is thought that number may be exaggerated.

In an interview weeks before his arrest, Kamalov said he had received death threats from Isis supporters for his criticism of the terrorist movement.

“I have many enemies because I tell people the truth. I am not afraid of anyone save Allah. They can only take my life, not my soul,” he said.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Imam Rashot Kamalov leads weekday prayers in March 2010 in a room at Kara-Suu’s Al-Sarahsiy Mosque. Kamalov was arrested this month on extremism charges that supporters believe are politically motivated. Photograph: David Trilling/EurasiaNet.org

Supporters dispute the government’s characterisation of Kamalov as an Islamic militant and say evidence against him is being fabricated.

“More than 100 people were present when the police were searching Kamalov’s house, and they saw that the police could not find incriminating evidence,” said Nazgul Suyunbayeva, Kamalov’s lawyer. “These people are calling me and asking why the police are lying.” Several residents of Kara-Suu separately said that police used pressure and intimidation to obtain witness testimonies against Kamalov. Kyrgyzstan’s security services are often accused of exaggerating the threat of extremism.

“He was the only imam in southern Kyrgyzstan who openly criticised authorities and their policies. Other imams would not dare to do so,” said an economics professor in Osh, who knows Kamalov, and believes the charges are politically motivated. He spoke on condition of anonymity, citing fears for his safety. “His independence from the state made him popular [with believers] across southern Kyrgyzstan.”

Suyunbayeva links the imam’s arrest to a late December 2014 meeting between the security services and religious clerics in Osh where he openly criticised the government’s religious policy, especially the common practice of rounding up believers and pressing them with extremism charges, sometimes to extract bribes.

“He said [at the meeting] that people are fleeing to Syria to escape torture by Kyrgyz law enforcement agencies,” Suyunbayeva said.

One western official, who asked not to be named, expressing concern about whether the imam would get a fair trial. “Is it illegal to talk about a caliphate now?” the official asked.

Is it illegal to talk about a caliphate now?

Pointing to Kamalov’s Uzbek ethnicity, some observers say the so-called anti-terrorism sweep might be a cover for a crackdown on civil rights protesters.

Many Uzbek leaders fled persecution in the region following interethnic violence in 2010 that disproportionately targeted the minority Uzbek community in the south. Some Kyrgyz security agents were linked to extrajudicial killings of minority Uzbeks. Kamalov is one of the most prominent Uzbek community leaders left in the country.

Kamalov was briefly detained in early 2011, but under pressure from his Kara-Suu supporters he was released. Since then, the central government has reasserted its authority in the south.

Observers are divided over how much Kamalov’s arrest will affect stability in southern Kyrgyzstan, which is still grappling with the consequences of the 2010 bloodletting. Approximately 500 Kamalov supporters gathered on the day of his arrest, though police managed to disperse them without force. During Friday prayers four days later the streets were still filled with police.

Observers have cautioned that the arrest could be counter-productive for the government’s efforts to curb recruitment of potential Isis fighters.

“Kamalov worked hard to reduce radicalism’s allure,” the economics professor said. “By arresting him, authorities have made things difficult for themselves. Many young believers are disillusioned by the arrest, and they will turn to radicals.”

The reporter’s name has been withheld for security reasons. Osh-based journalist Shokhrukh Saipov contributed to this report