UZBEKISTAN Uzbeks without power, Tashkent imam preaches gas shortage is Allah’s will

It encourages the population to accept the situation and to be submissive. Critics: He makes his living trafficking a false religion. For users of social networks, bureaucrats and authorities are to blame for the crisis. The local clergy obey the directives of the government.

Moscow () – In December a serious energy crisis was declared in Uzbekistan. Electricity is rationed throughout the country for a few hours a day and there are long lines of motorists at service stations. Faced with the growing tension in the population, Rakhmatulla Sayfiddinov, the main imam of Tashkent, the capital, known for his “scandalous” statements, delivered a solemn speech in which he called on all the faithful to have sentiments of gratitude and patience.

Sayfiddinov noted that “our ancestors lived without gas and electricity, and you have to accept the will of Allah.” He also stated that local Muslims should not become “the shame of the world”, and vehemently raised the issue on all social media, warning that “panic, riots and protests will not solve the problems”. However, his words only increased the discomfort among the most socially active citizens.

Journalist Umid Soriev wrote on his Facebook page that “once again, at the most delicate moment, the campaign of gratitude and patience is resorted to, diverting citizens from actions in defense of their rights. This campaign must be stopped immediately, we must have the courage to express our discomfort”. In his opinion, the imam “pushes simple people to live in slavery and subjugation.”

The humanitarian activist Musannif Adkham declared in turn that “blaming people who tremble with cold, who spend their nights waiting for their turn at gas stations and wander in the dark, accusing them of ingratitude and inciting them to put up with a situation that seems to have no end “is itself blasphemy, a way of making a living by trafficking in a false religion.” The Telegram channel Platforma.uz stated that today “politicians are turning into smug and intolerant mullahs, while cult servants are engaged in geopolitics.”

Social media users respond to Imam Sayfiddinov that it is not the people who should be criticized, but the bureaucrats and rulers who did not take the necessary measures last summer to prepare for the winter season. The imam, who was appointed last year to the capital’s highest religious dignity, has long sparked heated discussions with his controversial teachings on various social issues.

Already in 2018, as imam of the “Mirza Yusuf” cathedral mosque, he had called in Friday prayers to end the “shameful phenomenon” of male gynecologists, and had lashed out at the malign influence of Turkish soap operas that They talk about the genocide of the Uzbeks. During the homily he also proclaimed that “women who during sexual intercourse with her husband have fantasies about other men, perhaps handsome actors, will end up fathering homosexual children.”

On the other hand, the great imam of Tashkent is not the only spiritual leader in Uzbekistan who incites the population to submission and gratitude during the energy crisis, but he is in tune with most of his colleagues and many believe that they are actually directives issued by the State Administration for Religious Affairs in accordance with the Religion Committee of the Council of Ministers. The Soviet heritage that characterizes all the countries of Central Asia continues to consider religion as an “instrumentum regni”, and this also applies to Islam, more assimilated to the “Byzantine symphony” than to the Mohammedan theocracy, forcing the clergy local to obey the directives of the government.