On the 27th August, ‘Buzzfeed News’ published the findings from its investigation based on thousands of satellite images of the region of ‘Xinjiang’ which revealed a “vast and growing infrastructure for long-term detention and incarceration” of Uyghur, Kazakh and other Muslims by the tyrannical Chinese regime.

Since the fall of the communist power and the independence of Kyrgyzstan, the country is trying to create the impression that Kyrgyzstan is a secular state which is no longer influenced by the idea of ​​atheism and guarantees everyone their right of belief. But in reality, it looks different. In recent years the number of mosques, Islamic educational institutions and madrassas has increased.

It is no secret that the Kyrgyz regime has not much to do with Islam. Instead it is known for its amicability to Russia and Putin, and its enmity towards Islam and the Muslims. As such it adopted the Article 299-2 in the Criminal Code in 2010, which prohibits the possession of extremist material according the role-model of a Russian counter-extremism law.

In 2018, Human Rights Watch found that Article 299-2 of the Kyrgyz criminal code, the most widely applied charge in relation to the possession of extremist material and carries a sentence of between three and ten years in prison even if there is no incitement to violence or distribution has resulted in hundreds of people being convicted and imprisoned.