Pandemic Leads Islamists to Intensify Online Recruitment Efforts in Central Asia, Experts Say

Paul Goble

            Staunton, July 12 – Since the pandemic lockdowns began in Central Asia, radical Islamist groups have not reduced their activities but shifted them from face-to-face contacts to online activities, simultaneously making it easier for the authorities to track them and spreading their influence still further, Ivan Larin says.

            On the Rhythm of Eurasia portal, the Russian journalist says that those who expected the Islamists to go to ground because of the lockdown were wrong. In fact, they have become if anything more active online than ever before (ritmeurasia.org/news--2020-07-13--ekstremizm-centralnoj-azii-v-rezhime-onlajn-49908).

            Radical Islamist groups have used the Internet for some time, but the coronavirus pandemic has given them new reason to think that this channel is especially useful for them. People have more time to go online and read various sites, and they are under greater stress and thus more willing to accept the arguments of the extremists, Larin says. 

            He says that the Islamists have even played up the difficulties the pandemic has created in hopes of destabilizing society and attracting more people to their ranks and have used fake charitable accounts, ostensibly to collect money for pandemic victims, to gather funds for their own activities.

            Counter-extremism agencies in Kygyzstan and Uzbekistan in fact are finding that the extremists are even more active online since the pandemic began than they were before, have launched even more criminal cases, and are urging everyone to be more vigilant, especially when they go online.