Brutal #killing of a young man dressed as #Santa Claus in Tajikistan largely went unnoticed by western media. A group of some 30 people shouted "infidel" as they repeatedly stabbed the poor man to death.Parviz Davlatbekov, dressed in a traditional Santa Claus costume, was going to celebrate New Year Eve together with his friends. Unfortunately, he never reached his friend's home in Dushanbe, capital of Tajikistan. Along the way, he encountered a group of Muslim radicals who beat him up and stabbed him repeatedly. All the time, they were shouting "Tu kofir" ("infidel") at this 24-year-old man, just because he was wearing the Santa outfit.
This brutal killing happened in Tajikistan, a country having a freedom of religion written into its Constitution. However, majority of population in Tajikistan is Muslim with Christians representing only 2% of the population. New Year's Eve is official holiday, but the ruling Tajk religious leader, Imam Saidmukarram Abduqodirzoda proclaimed Christmas and New Year's traditions contrary to the Islamic laws.
In this ex-Soviet republic, tradition of wearing "Father Frost" (Russian name for Santa Claus) costume for New Year's Eve is still strong. The decades of traditional celebration of New Year are difficult to erase by proclamation of religious leaders that the New Year is alien to the Muslims. Following the tradition made this young man a victim of religious intolerance.
Still, the Dushanbe police denies religious motive and they are treating this killing as an ordinary, secular crime.With the radical Islamists trying to take control over Egypt and most of the Northern Africa, we seem to forget about many ex-Soviet republics where radical Islam is taking root too.
Tajikistan is northern neighbor of Afghanistan and this country still has rich Uranium reserves. Although, officially, no more Uranium is extracted in Tajikistan mines, question remains, for how long?
This country is one of the main drug trafficking routes from Afghanistan to Russia and rest of Europe. Combine all this with the rise of radical Islamists, Afghanistan and Iran in the neighborhood and you have a powder keg just waiting to explode...