The Foreign Service Journal, April 2003

peaceful tactics (even if its final vision of the caliphate was radical). After the violence advocated by the IMU in 1999 and 2000 discredited it in the eyes of the broad populace, the HT enjoyed some moral authority and a notable audi- ence as it made continuing reference to Palestinian, Algerian and Chechen Muslims as the victims of infidel aggression. Initiatives for peace, by contrast, were painted as emerging from the peaceful nature of Islam. These depictions rang true for many, for the same rea- son that conspiracy theories developed about the “true” causes of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Because Muslims are inherently peace-oriented, the thinking went, such atrocities must have been committed by non-believers. By late 2001, the U.S. was no longer merely an abstraction; it was a real presence to which radical mis- sionaries could make concrete reference. American personnel, materiél and strategic interests were increasingly prominent features on the Central Asian landscape. Central Asian airspace, transport facilities, and air bases were now facilitating the U.S. presence. Most ordinary Central Asians — as horrified by terror- ism as their American counterparts — welcomed that presence. But, simultaneously, it fed the seething resentments of others — resentments that now had a face to attach to hitherto abstract grievances. Sensing a rise in anti-American popular sentiment, Islamists made frequent reference to the U.S. and its allies in their recruitment literature. HT literature from economically depressed southern Kazakhstan was typical: “People who abide by the shariat of God, restore the religion of Islam and spread it throughout the world will replace the pliant leaders. They will erect a unified caliphate instead of those who helped Jews to assume power.” (The latter reference is to the United States.) Uzbekistan’s Karimov was increasingly depict- ed as a Jew, a Zionist and a puppet of the United States. In undated literature from the IMU (probably from the late 1990s), a drawing depicts the U.S., Russia and Israel as a single venomous snake swallowing the Central Asian states one after the next. F O C U S A P R I L 2 0 0 3 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 39