In Their Words: Islam and Extremists

Same woman as the last two posts. I asked her if she ever felt that she experienced any inconveniences or hardships because of her religion.

No. Not really. Maybe if I lived in another country somewhere, I would feel that way. Here, be basically have Islam. I haven’t felt it. But I’m amazed that…and, of course, maybe I just don’t understand it…but in Islam…in Christianity, there are probably a lot of different denominations…in Islam there are also a lot of divisions. And it upsets me that… I consider myself a peaceful Islamist. But there are certain movements…I can’t even remember what they’re called…extremists. Hizb-u Tahrir [a somewhat extreme multinational Islamist organization that was recently banned in Kyrgyzstan]. Here in Kyrgyzstan groups like that are even arrested. It turns out they distributed some pamphlets here in Talas, but we try not to take things like that. They encourage violence, hatred of other people, that’s not for me. We try not to read or even take things like that. Our religion, Islam, I feel, should…the Q’uran only talks about peace. Everything has peaceful intentions. But to hate a person…extremist movements like that…I just can’t approve of that.

I asked her why extremists do what they do.

I don’t know why. Maybe they force them to do it. And there’s…maybe there’s a foundation for that hatred. Or maybe they buy them off with money, I don’t know how. They even say that…those that attacked your twin towers…that they loaded them up on drugs, those suicide attackers. Those a just junkies, I feel. A fully conscious person wouldn’t go do something like that. How could you? You’ve been given life. You need to…I don’t know. I don’t understand it.