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Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan | |
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| Tajik name | Ҳизби Наҳзати Исломии Тоҷикистон |
| Russian name | Партия исламского возрождения Таджикистана |
| Abbreviation | IRPT |
| Chairman | Muhiddin Kabiri |
| Deputy Chairman | Sayidumara Husayn[1] |
| Founded | 6 October 1990 (35 years, 52 days) (underground formation) 26 October 1991 (34 years, 32 days) (founding Congress) |
| Banned | 29 September 2015 (10 years, 59 days) |
| Headquarters | Dushanbe |
| Newspaper | Najot [tg] ("Salvation") |
| Membership(2015) | 40,000 (claimed) |
| Ideology | Islamism Anti-communism |
| Religion | Sunni Islam |
| International affiliation | Muslim Brotherhood |
| Status | Designated as a terrorist organisation by Tajikistan |
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TheIslamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan[a] also known as theIslamic Revival Party of Tajikistan, is a bannedIslamistpolitical party inTajikistan. Until 2015, when it was designated a terrorist organisation,[2] it was the only legal Islamist party inCentral Asia.[3]
The party was established in 1990, and had its founding congress the following year. In 1992, it hosted a conference inSaratov,Russia, attended by Islamists from ex-Soviet central Asia,Tatarstan andBashkortostan. When Tajikistan became independent, the party was banned in 1993. After the ban of the party, majority of opposition forces fled to neighboringAfghanistan where they established the Movement for Islamic Revival in Tajikistan (MIRT), headed bySaid Abdullo Nuri.[4] It fought with theUnited Tajik Opposition and theGarmi people against the government during theTajik Civil War but was legalised following peace accords in 1998. In 1999 it was the second largest party in Tajikistan.
The party's long-running leader,Said Abdullo Nuri, died in August 2006 ofcancer. The party boycotted the2006 presidential election.
At thelegislativeelections held 27 February and 13 March 2005 the party won 8% of the popular vote and 2 out of 63 seats.
At theelections held on 1 March 2015 the Party failed to surpass the 5% vote barrier, losing its only 2 seats in Parliament.
The party was deregistered by Tajikistan's interior ministry in 2015 and then banned a month later, after being designated as aterrorist organisation by the country's Supreme Court. Two of the party's leaders were subsequently sentenced to life in prison by the Supreme Court, after being accused of being linked to an alleged failedcoup d'état attempt led by former deputy Defence MinisterAbduhalim Nazarzoda, who was killed alongside several dozen of his supporters while attempting to forcefully take control over a police station. The party denied being linked to Nazarzoda's attack.[5][6]
A year after its ban, a2016 Tajik constitutional amendment prohibited the establishment of any political party based on a religious platform, effectively preempting any attempt to reorganise the party.[7]
In a 15 August 2018Washington Post story, regional expert Paul Stronski, a Senior Fellow in the Russia and Eurasia program at theCarnegie Endowment for International Peace, said a 31 July 2018attack on seven Western cyclists in Tajikistan was being blamed on members of the party even thoughIslamic State claimed responsibility for the attack.[8] Other news reports noted that the five attackers appeared in a video released by Daesh after the attack pledging allegiance to the group and its leaderAbu Bakr al-Baghdadi.[9]
In 2018, the IRPT, whose leaders were by then based largely out ofPoland, became one of the founding organisations of National Alliance of Tajikistan, an opposition coalition of four Tajik political movements.[10]
In April 2014, the party denounced official harassment and alleged government attempts to undermine their credibility and electoral chances, as parliamentary elections were scheduled in 2015.[11] In the runup to 1 March 2015 legislative elections, a wide-ranging government-induced campaign, to demonise the party and bar its candidates from entering the contest, was reported.[12]
On 28 August 2015, the government of Tajikistan demanded the party halt its "illegal activities" as it attempted to hold a party congress.[13] The party claimed that the government was attempting to close it down.[14]
| Election | Leader | Votes | % | Seats | +/– | Position | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Sayid Abdulloh Nuri | 196,105 | 7.33% | 2 / 63 | New | 3rd | Opposition |
| 2005 | 2 / 63 |  0 | 3rd | Opposition | |||
| 2010 | Muhiddin Kabiri | 268,596 | 8.22% | 2 / 63 | 0 |  2nd | Opposition |
| 2015 | 63,161 | 1.67% | 0 / 63 |  2 | 7th | Extra-parliamentary |
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