ABSTRACT
Strong spring winds rushed fiercely through bending the willow trees while I was visiting Dushanbe, Tajikistan in April 1992. A driving rain lashed the city. Thunder and lightning filled the darkness. The weather hid a full moon behind a cover of fog. But throughout the first night in the city, I heard the bold declaration, “Allahu Akbar!” echoing over and over again through the storm as it cascaded out across the rooftops of the city. The next day, in the city center, I listened to a missionary, originally from Iran, preaching boldly in front of the Tajik National Government offices. He was calling for the immediate implementation of shariah code as the law of the land. I remember a committed follower falling at the feet of this speaker to kiss the edges of his flowing robe. The missionary responded appreciatively before leading the crowd in a series of impassioned chants: “Death to infidel America! Death to infidel Russia! God is great!”
