The Troubled Heart of Asia

As a result of Stalin's gerrymandering, the Ferghana Valley is divided between Uzbekistan, Kyrghyzstan and Tjikistan. After the fall of communism its generally conservative and religious population turned back to their Muslim roots. The Uzbek government, headed by ex-apparatchik President Karimov, fearing the rise of political Islam, reacted by leading a crackdown on Islam as a whole. Today ordinary Muslim behavior such as public prayer, wearing beards or dressing in Islamic garb can result in arrest, charges of extremism and up to 18 years in prison. A UN envoy recently...