The New Face of Tajikistan

Sadly, the news of March 2024 has given a hospitable country a shameful new look. What are the reasons for this new face of Tajikistan? What new values have some adopted to create a new way to look at the people of Tajikistan?

Adoption of Extremism

We moved to the land of Tajikistan back in 1996 with our four-month-old son. Reminiscences of the civil war still surrounded us – the lessons of these days of religious extremism seeming took hold during the decade or more we lived there. I remember the President of Tajikistan saying that one cannot wash away shed blood with more blood. The mood of the country was toward moderation and getting their feet back on the ground.

Photo was taken from a screenshot of ABC ^[1]https://www.cbsnews.com/news/moscow-concert-hall-attack-isis-russia-what-we-know/">news article about this subject^[2]https://www.cbsnews.com/news/moscow-concert-hall-attack-isis-russia-what-we-know/

On returning a few years ago, I chuckled when I met Kulobis, who now boasted about how religious they were—seeking to be the examples for the country. How the memories of those from Gharm or Karfarnihon were forgotten—they were the religious ones in the 1990s. Now, a new way to save face came about—to be more externally religious than others.

Now, some Tajiks have embraced a religion that values killing as they frame everything and everyone as fighting against them. A value that does not reflect what it means to be Tajik. My heart is saddened when reading the news, and my prayers motivate me to write about better values.

What about God is Love

 In my time with the social system called Internats, we sought to help bring humanitarian aid, educational ethics, and values that honor God, others, and self. Besides the stories and poetry that the children and teens learn, we also sprinkled key verses that taught an ethic. One key verse was 1 John 4:8.

God’s Word says, “Anyone who does not love.” He is concerned about our actions, choices, and values. Have we adopted a perspective that does not love? No matter what you believe, if your beliefs and faith land on the side of hatred, then there is a problem. Is this the new face of Tajikistan? The increased vandalism against Tajik migrants and the unjust prejudice forming about them are the fruit of what I call negative values like killing, destroying, and instilling fear.

The verse continues, “does not know God, because God is love.” So anyone who hates, kills, does not love others – these people do not know God. Despite bragging to have religion – God says if we do not love others, we do not know him. Knowing him changes our behavior toward others – a reaction that benefits them, not harms them. God says that He is love. We know that the Injil in John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that he gave…” God loves us by his creation, by giving and providing salvation.

God is Love?

Do we really know what God is Love means? Love consists of a giver and a receiver.

The words of C. S. Lewis give us thought to what this means: “All sorts of people are fond of repeating the Christian statement that ‘God is love’. But they seem not to notice that the words ‘God is love’ have no real meaning unless God contains at least two Persons. Love is something that one person has for another person. If God was a single person, then before the world was made, He was not love.”^[3]https://dfisher2014dotcom.wordpress.com/2015/01/20/god-is-love/ I love these words because God’s love not only instills how we live and behave toward others but also gives us ponder to who he is. The Father, Son, and Spirit from eternity past loved each other without rivalry, tension, or competition. Their eternal unity defies our human understanding. God is Great because God is Love!

Love Gives and Provides Hope

The verse continues: In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. We know that God loved, and in this love, he gave to provide for our salvation. We do not deserve his grace or mercy. He chose in his sovereignty to manifest – show knowledge about himself. Love does not seek dominance but will find it. Love willingly suffers wrong but pays for the wrongs of others.

One day, I sat with a Kulob poet, and over tea, we shared books. In Mohammad Ghoib’s book, it said:

«Роҳи муҳаббат раҳи дуру дароз, ҳаст дар ин роҳ гарон бори ноз» (Муҳаммад Ғоиб)

The road of love is a long, arduous one paved with value and precious sacrifice.

His words spoke about a love that is continuous and gives value. A zeal without knowledge or love does not benefit the world. In my book, it said:

 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.  Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

(Injil, 1 Corinthians 13:4-7, ESV)

I know those of other faiths or beliefs would not buy into my thinking. However, what does your belief produce? What kind of fruit hangs on your religious tree? In the end, does it seek to harm, destroy, and stimulate fear? If one’s values cannot face one’s enemies honorably and with respect, then what use is that faith? Do we have to destroy our enemy to claim honor for ourselves and our religion?

My appeal to my beloved Tajiks

I desire success and provisions for your family. My heart longs for migrants to work freely in the societies that invite them. I hope that others will not suspect Tajiks of arrest and harassment as the first response from authorities. I rejoice when you are able to leave your residency without fear of interrogation and deportation. All these things are taking place and have become the fruit of crooked values.

I love the words of Bedil, an Indo-Persian poet (Бедил, 1642–1720)

“Ростон аз сӯҳбати каҷтинатон
каҷ мешаванд.
Кафш гардад, з- ихтилори пои каҷ
Ночор каҷ.”

The right way from crooked words will not lead straight.

Our walk from our crookedness will desire defect.

Here is what the God of Love says:

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you.  You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.

Jeremiah 29:11-13