Uzbekistan Is on a Powder Keg!
By: Ustaadh Ahmad Hadi
(Translated)

Al-Rayah Newspaper - Issue 570 - 22/10/2025

Uzbekistan’s economy collapsed after the dissolution of the Soviet Union and its independence. Millions of Uzbeks left their country in search of work, particularly to Russia, where they became migrant workers, and remained for many years. The state failed to provide job opportunities for them, or reform the economy. It failed to build new factories and plants, and instead demolished those that had existed since the Soviet era.

The state relied on foreign loans and investments to cover its expenses, and began obtaining most of these loans from Russia, the European Union, China, and the United States. Officials competed to acquire these investments and loans through various means, while the people were left to fend for themselves without state support.

The countries that provided loans and exported investments began imposing their own conditions and binding guidelines, seeking to expand their influence in the country. Naturally, Russia has maintained its previous influence, increasing it through new pressures, such as threats to expel migrant workers and fuel economic crises in the region.

Under the rule of former Uzbek President Islam Karimov, until 2016, the country’s external debt reached six billion dollars. Today, in 2025, this debt has risen to 72 billion dollars, the majority of which is from China. China has surpassed Russia in the volume of investments and loans granted to Uzbekistan.

Every state among the states that provide loans and investments, whether Russia, China, the European Union, or the United States, stipulates first and foremost the prevention of the return of Islam within society. For every investment or loan, and every political meeting within organizations such as the Shanghai Organization or the Eurasian Cooperation, is followed by an escalation in fighting Islam and spreading policies hostile to it.

For example, after the last Shanghai Cooperation Organization meeting, authorities in Namangan Province, Uzbekistan, summoned the wives of more than 30 Imams of masajid to the prosecutor's office and forced them to remove their headscarves, threatening to fire their husbands, if they did not. Likewise, campaigns against the khimar and beard in the streets were escalated, and the government adopted the Chinese method of surveillance, installing surveillance cameras, imported from China in every street and place, to recognize the faces of Muslims and track them. At the same time, penalties were tightened on those who teach Deen or call to Islam, without state authorization.

During the 80th Session of the United Nations General Assembly, Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev met with US President Donald Trump, and agreements were signed between the United States and Uzbekistan worth $105 billion in bilateral trade, investment promotion, and the exploitation of the country’s mineral resources. This placed the United States ahead of China and Russia in terms of economic cooperation with Uzbekistan.

After the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan, a large portion of American military aircraft, helicopters, and military equipment was transferred to Uzbekistan. Currently, the Taliban government has demanded that Uzbekistan return this military equipment. Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump demanded that the Taliban government hand over the Bagram military base in Afghanistan to the US, but the Taliban categorically refused. It is not unlikely that the US will abandon its military equipment in Uzbekistan and transform the region into a US military base.

Central Asia, particularly its heartland, Uzbekistan, has become an arena for the ambitions of major powers such as Russia, China, the US, and the European Union. It can turn at any moment into a powder keg that could be detonated by any party, or all of them together.

O Muslims:

Verily, your rulers do not think about your economic well-being, for you are in severe economic hardship, and the major powers desire that you distance yourselves from your Deen and become hypocrites, atheists, and disbelievers as they wish.

So remain steadfast upon your Deen, and do not allow your rulers to achieve these evil intentions. Strive and exert your utmost effort to establish the Second Khilafah Rashidah (Rightly-Guided Caliphate) on the Method of the Prophethood, which will lead you, by Allah’spermission, to the happiness of this world and the Hereafter and the greatest pleasure from Allah (swt),

[يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا اسْتَجِيبُوا لِلَّهِ وَلِلرَّسُولِ إِذَا دَعَاكُمْ لِمَا يُحْيِيكُمْ وَاعْلَمُوا أَنَّ اللَّهَ يَحُولُ بَيْنَ الْمَرْءِ وَقَلْبِهِ وَأَنَّهُ إِلَيْهِ تُحْشَرُون]

“O you who have believed, respond to Allah and to the Messenger when they call you to that which gives you life. And know that Allah intervenes between a man and his heart and that to Him you will be gathered.” [TMQ Surah Al-Anfaal: 24].

And be warned by His (swt) Statement,

[وَمَنْ أَعْرَضَ عَن ذِكْرِي فَإِنَّ لَهُ مَعِيشَةً ضَنكاً وَنَحْشُرُهُ يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ أَعْمَى * قَالَ رَبِّ لِمَ حَشَرْتَنِي أَعْمَى وَقَدْ كُنتُ بَصِيراً * قَالَ كَذَلِكَ أَتَتْكَ آيَاتُنَا فَنَسِيتَهَا وَكَذَلِكَ الْيَوْمَ تُنسَى * وَكَذَلِكَ نَجْزِي مَنْ أَسْرَفَ وَلَمْ يُؤْمِن بِآيَاتِ رَبِّهِ وَلَعَذَابُ الآخِرَةِ أَشَدُّ وَأَبْقَى]

“But whoever turns away from My remembrance – indeed, he will have a depressed life, and We will gather him on the Day of Resurrection blind. He will say, ‘My Lord, why have You raised me blind while I was [once] seeing?’ Allah will say, ‘Thus did Our signs come to you, and you forgot them; and thus will you this Day be forgotten.’ And thus do We recompense he who transgressed and did not believe in the signs of his Lord. And the punishment of the Hereafter is more severe and more enduring.” [TMQ Surah Taha 124-127].