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Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan 

The origins of the IMU date from the early 1990s, when Juma Namangani, a former Soviet Army soldier who fought in Afghanistan joined forces with Tahir Yuldashav (variant Yuldosh), an unofficial mullah and head of the Adolat (Justice) Party. Their aim was to implement Sharia law in the city of Namangan in Uzbekistan's part of the Ferghana Valley.

Alarmed by Adolat's demands to transform Uzbekistan into an Islamist state, the government banned the Adolat Party in March 1992. A period of repression followed, forcing many Islamic militants to flee the Ferghana Valley. Namangani fled to Tajikistan, where he participated in the Tajik Civil War and established a base for his fighters in that country. Yuldashev travelled to Afghanistan, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, establishing links to other Islamic militants. He also made clandestine trips to Uzbekistan, maintaining contact with his supporters and setting up underground cells. By the late 1990s, the IMU was officially formed.

The IMU's stated goal, as posted on the Internet in August 1999, is the 'establishment of an Islamic state with the application of the Shariah' in Uzbekistan.

The IMU expanded its territorial focus to encompass an area stretching from the Caucasus to China's western province of Xinjiang, under the new banners of the Islamic Party of Turkestan in April 2001 and the Islamic Movement of Turkestan in May 2001. Despite the name changes, the group's name continues to be reported as the IMU, and it is listed under this name by the US Office of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism as a foreign terrorist organization.

By the end of the 1990s, the IMU had relocated to Afghanistan and the tribal areas of Pakistan, due to the lack of support for the movement in Uzbekistan and the measures taken against it by the Uzbek government.

More Info:
 
  • Video: Jund Allah Studios presents a new video message from the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan: “Bay’ah of the Transoxianan Mujāhidīn To the Caliph”
  • Video: Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan 

Annotated Biblography 

 

Cornell, SE. "Narcotics, radicalism, and armed conflict in central Asia: the Islamic movement of Uzbekistan." Terrorism And Political Violence 17, no. 4 (n.d.): 619-639. Social Sciences Citation Index, EBSCOhost (accessed April 12, 2016).

  • While the academic debate on security has broadened in recent years, it has failed to cohesively include transnational organized crime and drug trafficking as a security issue. However, especially in weak states in developing and post-communist regions, these phenomena are having an increasingly negative effect on security in the military, political, economic, and societal sense. Security issues in Central Asia are a prominent example of the links between drug trafficking and military threats to security. This is illustrated most clearly by the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), which has been both a major actor in the drug trade from Afghanistan to Central Asia as well as the most serious violent non-state actor in the region. The link between the drug trade and armed conflict is of fundamental importance to understanding the challenges to Central Asian security (Cornell).

 

Karagiannis, Emmanuel. "Political Islam in Uzbekistan: Hizb ut-Tahrir al-Islami." Europe-Asia Studies 58, no. 2 (March 2006): 261. Advanced Placement Source, EBSCOhost (accessed April 12, 2016).

  • This article aims to understand the rise of Hizb ut-Tahrir in Uzbekistan. It begins with a description of political Islam in Uzbekistan, and situates the Hizb ut-Tahrir in the broader context of transnational Islamic mobilization. The article draws on fieldwork and explores how theories of social movements can help explain the emergence of this group. Social movement theories focus on multiple aspects of the origins of collective action, including responses to structural strains, mobilization of resources, responses to political opportunities and framing processes. Although most studies of social movements focus on one or another of these theories, they are employed here together in relation to the emergence of Hizb ut-Tahrir in Uzbekistan. Finally, the article suggests that the group's ideology can be understood as a powerful basis for collective action (Karagiannis).

 

Karagiannis, Emmanuel, and Clark McCauley. "Hizb ut-Tahrir al-Islami: Evaluating the Threat Posed by a Radical Islamic Group That Remains Nonviolent." Terrorism & Political Violence 18, no. 2 (Summer2006 2006): 315. Publisher Provided Full Text Searching File, EBSCOhost (accessed April 12, 2016).

  • Hizb ut-Tahrir is a transnational movement that currently finds support among young Muslims in Central Asia and Western Europe. It presents a complex challenge to both Western and Muslim governments because it calls for the unification of all Muslim countries into a single Caliphate but has consistently rejected violence as a tool of political change. In this paper we focus on Hizb ut-Tahrir in Uzbekistan, a country that is a key U.S. ally in the war on terrorism. Drawing on extensive fieldwork in Central Asia, we find that social movement theories (resource mobilization theory, political opportunities theory, framing theory) cannot explain why Hizb ut-Tahrir has remained opposed to violence under the same circumstances in which the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, the other important radical Islamic group in the region, has embraced violence. We suggest that ideology is crucial for understanding why Hizb ut-Tahrir remains peaceful, and consider several scenarios in which the group might reconsider its ideology and turn to terrorism (Karagiannis).

 

Klebleyev, Aziz. "Islamic Legacy beyond Islam: The Case of Uzbekistan." Administrative Culture 15, no. 2 (December 2014): 143-156. Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed April 12, 2016).

  • This article explores centuries of dominance of Islam in the political systems of countries where Muslims make up a majority, as well as political, economic and cultural exchanges that were fostered by Islam, lead us to suggest the existence of Islamic legacy in public administration (PA). This article examines Ideology of National Independence in Uzbekistan and identifies several mental models rooted in the Islamic legacy. The deficit of legitimacy experienced by the Uzbek government after the collapse of the Soviet Union has created conditions for explicit use of the Islamic legacy to address the legitimacy problem. The internalization on the part of Uzbek civil servants of the mental models rooted in the Islamic legacy has also affected its sense of purpose and coherence as well as Uzbekistan's response to the outside pressure for reforms (Klebleyev).

 

Mann, Poonam. "Islamic movement of Uzbekistan: Will it strike back?." Strategic Analysis 26, no. 2 (April 2002): 294. Publisher Provided Full Text Searching File, EBSCOhost (accessed April 12, 2016).

  • The basic argument in this paper is that the revival of Islam in the post‐Soviet disintegration period, increased contacts with the foreign radical Muslim organizations and suppression of religion on the part of government authorities, led to the creation of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan in Central Asia. Declining socio‐economic conditions gave further impetus to the movement. Post‐September 11, 2001, the movement appears to have lost steam due to the US led ‘war against terrorism.’ This paper examines whether it will bounce back or fade into oblivion (Mann).

 

Sarafian, Gregory R. "Islamic Extremism in Former Soviet Republics." Military Review 81, no. 3 (May 2001): 64. MasterFILE Elite, EBSCOhost (accessed April 12, 2016).

  • Traces the development of the Islamic extremist movement in former Soviet Republics. Influence of the extinction of Marxism-Leninism as the official state ideology on the republics; Economic factors associated with extremism; Information on some militant activities; Security agreements signed between the republics (Sarafian).

 

Stein, Matthew. "Uzbekistan's View of Security in Afghanistan After 2014." Military Review 92, no. 3 (May 2012): 75-81. MasterFILE Elite, EBSCOhost (accessed April 12, 2016).

  • The article focuses on how Uzbekistan views security issues after the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan in 2014. The author discusses Uzbekistan's conflicts with the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), its membership with the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), and its involvement with the New Silk Road economic development programs (Stien).

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