FEB. 7 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) — Nearly all Tajikistan’s 7.5m people are Muslim and the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan (IRPT) is the only political party in Central Asia linked to religion, but over the last few months the authorities have steadily increased pressure on Islam and practicing Muslims.

Last year Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon called for hundreds of students enrolled at madrases in Egypt and Pakistan to return home to stop them from becoming radicalised and the authorities have closed dozens of what they say are unregistered religious schools and mosques. Police have raided the IRPT which they accuse of having links to extremists and its cultural centre burnt down in a mysterious fire.

Wearing a beard is now also a problem. Local media reports are full of accounts of police stopping bearded men on the street and accusing them of being Islamic extremists.

The pressure is linked to the government’s battle against insurgents in the Rasht Valley to the south of the capital, Dushanbe. Since September 2010, when extremists killed at least 25 soldiers in an ambush, Tajik forces have poured into the Rasht Valley to hunt down al-Qaeda-linked fighters.

The authorities say as well as fighting these insurgents in the mountains, they also have to stop them from enrolling recruits from the towns and cities.

But that’s just the problem, say many analysts. They say that poverty and the authorities’ heavy-handedness are driving young men in Tajikistan — which borders Afghanistan and is a key part of the NATO supply chain — to the extremists.