Hizb-ut-Tahrir (Islamic Party of Revival outlawed in some countries of the Central Asian region) is becoming ever more active on the territory of Kyrgyzstan. Local secret services maintain that Hizb-ut-Tahrir activists plan a number of mass anti-American and anti-constitutional rallies in the republic in the near future. Experts and journalists who know what they are talking about say that Hizb-ut-Tahrir is well-organized structure where rigorous discipline is maintained. Leaflets and other printed materials are the party's favorite means of ideological struggle and propaganda.

According to Aleksei Malashenko, an expert with the Moscow Carnegie Center and a specialist in Islam, Hizb-ut-Tahrir is a party of the opposition operating on the territories of Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and partially Kyrgyzstan. Hizb-ut-Tahrir always condemns terrorist acts (it condemned the latest ones too) and takes a negative view of all hostilities in general. It counts on agitation and propaganda, on infiltration of the regime. "Open the window leaf and a Hizb-ut-Tahrir leaflet will float in," this proverb was quite topical in Uzbekistan once. The party has a large following in the Ferghana Valley. Perceiving Hizb-ut-Tahrir as a political enemy, the authorities condemn the party as a terrorist organization.

We are going to talk today of a Hizb-ut-Tahrir periodical officially regarded as "extremist literature". The journal is regularly referred to as evidence in trials of "radical extremists" in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan.

Ong Al-Waie [Conscience] monthly (64 pages, A5 format) is distributed in the Uzbek, Kyrgyz, and Russian languages in Kyrgyzstan since 1993. Materials for the monthly are copied from the official website www.al-waie.org. Articles are translated by experienced translators from the Arab into Uzbek, Kyrgyz, and Russian. Some officers of Kyrgyz secret services say that the monthly is printed on outdated equipment in the party's printing works. They do not think, however, that the latter are located anywhere on the territory of Kyrgyzstan.

"At least, we do not have any information at this point that extremist literature is printed anywhere in Kyrgyzstan," to quote an officer of the Osh Regional Internal Affairs Directorate. "We do not even know the exact print run. We suspect, however, that it is no less than 5,000 copies."

Small print on the inner cover of the journal indicates that "ideological journal Al-Waie was officially registered on November 15, 1989. It is published monthly by a group of Moslem students of the Lebanese University with permission from the Ministry of Mass Information of Lebanon (Permit No 166)." Al-Waie has staff correspondents in Australia, Austria, Great Britain, Germany, Denmark, Yemen, Canada, the United States. Editorial office is located in Berlin, Germany. Price in local currency is also given there:

Australia - 2.5 Australian dollars

Austria - 1 euro

Belgium - 1 euro

Great Britain - 1 pound

Germany - 1 euro

Lebanon - 1,000 Lebanese liras

Denmark - 15 Danish crowns

Yemen - 40 rials

Canada - 2.5 Canadian dollars

Pakistan - $1

United States - $2.5

Turkey - $1

Switzerland - 2 Swiss francs

Sweden - 15 Swedish crowns

Hizb-ut-Tahrir followers say that every party member in regional organization must buy every new issue and read it. Party activists say, however, that Al-Waie is not the official publication of Hizb-ut-Tahrir (unlike leaflets), but the party maintains close contacts with the monthly.

"It enables us to publish articles and make statements," a member of Hizb-ut-Tahrir from the town of Karasuu said. "That is why we actively distribute the monthly. It brings our ideas to the people."

Retail price of a single issue in Kyrgyzstan in February, 2005, was 15 soms ($0.37). Hizb-ut-Tahrir members themselves are subscribers. A follower says, however, that in southern Kyrgyzstan the monthly is also distributed among the locals.

The list of subscribes also includes some Kyrgyz media outlets and diplomatic foreign missions. Makhamadzhan Khamidov, a journalist from Osh, says that he reads Ong Al-Waie every now and then to get a better knowledge of the material he is writing about. At one of his press conferences US Ambassador Stephen Young said that "they [Hizb-ut-Tahrir] sometimes mail their publications to the US Embassy, and the US Embassy pays special attention to Hizb-ut-Tahrir activities and publications." It is hardly surprising because not a single Ong Al-Waie issue has yet failed to castigate policy of the US Administration.

The latest Ong Al-Waie issue included articles "Bush's Election and Its Consequences for Moslems", "Euro vs Dollar", "The Pentagon's Dirty Policy", "America and Intrigues". Their authors urge Moslems throughout the world to topple the regimes that cooperate with Bush's Administration. Articles on the international financial system view economic and credit relations in the world as anti-Moslem.

Religious articles are dedicated to analysis of the fetvahs [conclusion drawn by religious scientists explaining some Shar'ah provision or required for the purposes of its application in practice, or else an explanation of some case from the point of view of the Shar'ah law] with references to verses from the Koran. The monthly also offers a review of news from all over the Moslem world. Referring to the contents, specialists claim that Ong Al-Waie promotes political Islam inciting religious zealotry and encouraging civil resistance to the legitimate authorities. Unlike numerous media outlets officially registered in Kyrgyzstan, however, Ong Al-Waie editors do not seem to be encountering any financial difficulties.

Here are several excerpts from the Ong Al-Waie latest issue:

"When a state develops its economy on the basis of military industry, it will become a powerful state. When national economy is centered around heavy industry and engineering industry, it will become a wealthy state. When a state relies on light industry, it will become a poor country and a colony of a more powerful one."

"Personality is revived in ideologies. The umma, the people, will wake up through political struggle."

"In World War II we defended the Russian kjafirs [infidels] from other kjafirs, Germans, even though the Russian kjafirs had murdered and oppressed our ancestors. Liberation of our lands from colonizers and establishment of our Islamic state cost us our potential, our labor, our wealth. There were victims running in millions, there are invalids, widows, and orphans now. What have we accomplished?"

"Turning over the ancient Islamic lands to the kjafirs for their military bases; dividing Moslem countries; joining organizations like the UN, NATO, OSCE or recognizing validity of their resolutions; establishing any friendly relations with countries hostile to Moslems; denying Moslems aid; not being involved in the jihad; separating the faith from the state - all of that is Haram [something banned, a taboo for Moslems]. Establishment of any socialist, democratic, national, patriotic party that does not share ideas of the Islam and membership in such a party is a Haram."