Crossroads Asia

Moscow Hypes the Central Asia Jihadist Threat

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Crossroads Asia

Moscow Hypes the Central Asia Jihadist Threat

Wildly overstating the threat Islamic State poses to the region justifies calls for more curbs on civil liberties.

Moscow Hypes the Central Asia Jihadist Threat
Credit: European Commission DG Echo via Flickr.com

There’s a peculiar belief currently coursing through intellectual circles in Moscow. Combining the bubbling traits of nativism and Islamophobia, and playing squarely into the hands of those seeking to amp up the region’s security structures, certain circles have begun pumping up the terror and tenor of the threat posed by the Islamic State.

To be sure, these Russian calls aren’t alone in megaphoning the menace currently swirling northern Iraq. Myriad American and European voices have fallen into lockstep over the purported threat – sometimes existential, sometimes worse – that IS presents. Dozens of nations, including Ukraine, have joined the anti-IS bombing coalition, with chickenhawks aplenty egging on their respective governments.

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