Press Release
Chaos in Bishkek and its Consequences
(Translated)

The Ministry of Health reported that 29 people were injured during the chaos that occurred in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, on the night of May 18. The Pakistani embassy confirmed that 14 Pakistani citizens were injured in this accident.

A number of officials, led by the President, made official statements regarding this incident. At the same time, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif announced on his Twitter page that he was following the incident with concern. On Saturday, the Pakistani government repatriated about 180 citizens from Kyrgyzstan to Pakistan, and arranged special flights for those wishing to leave.

Going back to the timeline of the incident that caused the chaos, on May 13, a conflict broke out between two Egyptian citizens and four local teenagers. The local teenagers then followed the foreign students to their dormitory and a fight ensued, that lead to them being beaten by the foreign students. After the video clip showing this incident spread on online, on the night of May 17-18, hundreds of local youth collectively beat foreign citizens in their residence.

Although this incident was caused by a small amount of chaos, there is no doubt that there were forces that tried to exploit it for their own benefit. In particular, opposition groups distributed materials inciting nationalism and spread false information about the incident that led to the death of people. Their goal was to intensify the protests of the gathered youth and turn them against the authorities.

On the other hand, the authorities refrained from arresting citizens who committed the crime in order to control the emotions of the crowd, and justified this by saying that they implemented the youth’s demand, or rather took measures against illegal foreigners.

The government had officially banned the activities of the TikTok platform in the country, for fear that such young people would unite and the protests in the country would turn against the government, because information, and in particular, video materials that spread quickly on this platform, had become the main tool for forming opposition and the public opinions.

On the other hand, this incident was a major lesson for the government, because, although the government had forcefully suppressed many clans and politicians so far, it had become known that the attitude of law enforcement agencies towards public protest was weak. More precisely, the government witnessed that its efforts on the path to dictatorship did not yield results. Therefore, President Japarov emphasized in his official speech that law enforcement agencies will take strict measures if such mass riots occur again.

In fact, the residents' protest was not only related to the riot that occurred on May 13. More precisely, people's dissatisfaction is growing against the capitalists who use the cheap labor force of foreign migrants in order to obtain more profits, because employers who consider profit as the measure of their lives are accustomed to bringing in workers from abroad for half the wages they pay to the locals. Such a situation has become normal in the capitalist system. It would not be wrong to say that the incident that occurred on May 18 was a manifestation of the people's protest against this unjust regime.

Of course, there is no doubt that the idea of nationalism, which is an arena for the corrupt capitalist ideology, has a major contribution to this event. The colonialists divided Muslim countries into small national states, after the destruction of the Khilafah (Caliphate), and they strengthened nationalism and patriotism in order to maintain their influence there. They aimed to control the peoples under their influence by pitting them against each other. We saw this in the ethnic conflicts organized by Russia in the period between 1990-2010 in our country.

Therefore, Muslims must be affected by every incident on the basis of their faith, so that such bad actions do not happen again. In other words, a dispute or quarrel between two people should not be resolved from a nationalist point of view, but rather it should be from the Islamic point of view derived from the Qur’an and Sunnah, because Islam rejects this concept of pre-Islamic times. The Messenger of Allah (saw) said: «لَيْسَ مِنَّا مَنْ دَعَا إِلَى عَصَبِيَّةٍ» “He who summons others to tribalism does not belong to us” And he said: «دَعُوهَا، فَإِنَّهَا مُنْتِنَةٌ» “Leave it. for it is something disgusting.” And Allah (swt) says:

[يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ إِنَّا خَلَقْنَاكُمْ مِنْ ذَكَرٍ وَأُنْثَى وَجَعَلْنَاكُمْ شُعُوباً وَقَبَائِلَ لِتَعَارَفُوا إِنَّ أَكْرَمَكُمْ عِنْدَ اللهِ أَتْقَاكُمْ إِنَّ اللهَ عَلِيمٌ خَبِيرٌ]

“O humanity! Indeed, We created you from a male and a female, and made you into peoples and tribes so that you may ˹get to˺ know one another. Surely the most noble of you in the sight of Allah is the most righteous among you. Allah is truly All-Knowing, All-Aware.” [TMQ Surah Al-Hujuraat: 13]

But this does not mean that a Muslim hates his relatives and the society in which he lives. On the contrary, Islam commands good relations with the family and society, and Allah Almighty warned against severing ties of kinship in Surah An-Nisa.

The concept of nationalism, which is forbidden in Islam, is a concept built as an alternative to the concept of Muslim brotherhood, and only those who belong to the same nationality are protected, regardless of whether they are right or not. Those who have this concept only want their people to be leaders over all other people, and they place the values of their people above everything else, and in their view, their people are better than other Muslims, even if they commit crimes.

O Muslims! Reject the idea of the Jahilliyah nationalism, but rather adhere to the Islamic Aqeedah (doctrine) that considers all Muslims, descendants of Adam, as brothers! In particular, leave the corrupt capitalist system, which established artificial borders between two brotherly peoples and made Muslims enemies to each other. Our belief does not consider the war in Palestine to be the problem of the Palestinians, nor the poverty in Pakistan to be the problem of the Pakistanis, nor the problems in Kyrgyzstan to be the problem of the Kyrgyz people only! On the contrary, it believes that the problem of any Muslim on the face of the earth is the problem of the Ummah.

O rulers in the Muslim countries! You must also solve the Ummah’s problems. Instead of praising your people and making statements, rise up to solve the problems of the entire Ummah, abandon the remnants of nationalism, and destroy the artificial borders drawn by the colonialists! It is no wonder that this work of yours will save you in this world and the Hereafter!

Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir
in Kyrgyzstan