How could a person portrayed as a terrorist by the Tajik state also be seen as a mujahid
fighter in Islam and be a cousin all at the same time? Is this just a matter of perspective and
conceptualization? To believe in the protection of concepts to safeguard groups and individuals
from the uncertain character of the world is to deny the existence of chance and the
contradictions in life. This book uses approaches from existential anthropology to enquire into
the question of how concepts and experiences relate. The focus is on the way the notions jihad
mujahid and terrorism were used during a military intervention in Tajikistan in 2010. The book
includes long-term ethnographic material popular pamphlets on Islam and an internet analysis
of the conflict offering new insights into how concepts and experiences relate. Since the end
of the Soviet Union the people from the republic Tajikistan have struggled to find a place in
the larger Muslim world a painful process unfolding in relation to global events discourses
and politics. The primary readership for the book will come from academia and policy makers.
The book presents novel material on a fascinating and highly important topic the nature of
ostensibly Islamist political violence against the state in Tajikistan. John Heathershaw
