Wars in Muslim countries stem from poverty, lack of education - leader of CIS' only legal Islamic party
DUSHANBE. Nov 17 (Interfax) - The Muslim countries that are currently at war are led by dictators and have a very low level of living standards and education, which is the cause of these wars, says Mihiddin Kabiri, the chairman of the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan (PIVT).
"The main cause of problems in the Islamic world is the poor education of Muslims," Kabiri said at his traditional weekly meeting with young people on Monday.
"Today, most wars are taking place in the Islamic world. In these Muslim countries, poverty is rampant, they are ruled by dictators and have numerous political problems," said the PIVT leader, who is also a member in the country's parliament.
In particular, he cited the examples of Iraq, Syria and Egypt which saw governments replacing one another as a result of upheavals or for other reasons over the past decade, though the leaders of these countries had remained in power for decades.
"We have always maintained that we are being pushed towards wars, we are being armed against each other, but we can never say why we are fighting, why we are confronting one another," Kabiri said.
Tajikistan has been ruled by its perennial leader Emomali Rahmon since 1992. The People's Democratic Party led by the president holds a constitutional majority in parliament, whereas PIVT has just two seats in the lower house. The next parliamentary elections in Tajikistan are due in February 2015.
"At times Muslims lack courage to admit this: wars are due to poverty, due to the 'unchangeability' of government, due to lack of education. We forget about the golden age in the Islamic world, when world science, culture, education could not do without representatives of the Islamic world," said the leader of the Tajik Islamic party.
PIVT numbers over 40,000 supporters and is the country's second largest party. PIVT is the only opposition party represented in the Tajik parliament. It is also the only legally operating Islamic party in any post-Soviet state. PIVT insists that it does not seek to transform secular Tajikistan into an Islamic state.