From the Guardian. My initial reaction was "What the fuck?". Then I remembered what this situation in the former central Asian soviet republics is like.
Still, the family of the deceased has my condolences.
A young man dressed as "Father Frost" – Russia's equivalent of Father Christmas – was stabbed to death in Tajikistan on Monday in an attack police believe was motivated by religious hatred.
A crowd attacked Parviz Davlatbekov, 24, and stabbed him with a knife as he visited relatives in the early hours of Monday dressed as Father Frost, who by tradition brings Russian children presents at New Year. Russian cultural influence remains strong in Tajikistan, a former Soviet republic.
"We have witness statements that say the crowd beat Parviz and stabbed him with a knife, shouting: 'You infidel!'," a source said.
The second source said religious hatred was being investigated as the motive for the crime, which occurred in the capital, Dushanbe. Tajikistan is officially secular, though the vast majority of its 7.7m people are Muslims. Authorities have cracked down on religious freedoms in the last few years and jailed dozens of people for membership of Islamist groups.
President Imomali Rakhmon has ordered students at foreign religious schools to return home and told his security services to tighten control over religious education and mosques in Tajikistan, which he says are often used to foment radicalism.
His critics say poverty and repression in the poorest of the 15 former Soviet republics is pushing many young Tajiks toward radical Islamism. The country, where tens of thousands died in a civil war in the 1990s, shares a long border with Afghanistan. Tokhir Normatov, chief of staff of Tajikistan's interior ministry, said the victim had died in hospital from a loss of blood, but made no comment on the motive for the attack.
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Out of curiosity, were there similar attacks or indication of radicalism before the "Authorities have cracked down on religious freedoms in the last few years"? Or is this a something that has much more history?
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Well, I've found this, the 2011 Tajikistan report from the Human Rights Watch. There's also this report from 2008.
If I understand things correctly, radicalism has been a problem for a while, going back to the civil war that erupted shortly after the dissolution of the USSR.
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To be honest, when it comes to regions with a strong religious majority, a lack of violent hateful religiously motivated activity is the exception rather than the rule.
"It's not evil for God to do it. Or for someone to do it at God's command."- Jonathan Boyd on baby-killing
"you guys are fascinated with the use of those "rules of logic" to the extent that you don't really want to discussus anything."- GC
"I do not believe Russian Roulette is a stupid act" - Embracer of Darkness
"Viagra commercials appear to save lives" - tharkûn on US health care.
Tajikistan had been a sane, secular republic until the collapse of the Soviet Union which led to a massive civil war that left the country devastated. Considering that it was right next to Taliban-led Afghanistan, they jumped at the opportunity. Now, there is a significant Islamist presence, which is not helped by the widespread poverty and government repression.
