"We have had many meetings and many explanations from local government officials [in Central Asia] about how Gulf State money floods into that region and acquires either radio stations, television stations, newspapers, increasingly how also imams come from another part of the world and change the indigenous Muslim faith or ideology to a new ideology," Royce said on Tuesday.
The chairman added his concern that the pattern of radicalization in Central Asia "is also happening across southern Russia." He warned that the rise in extremist recruitment "is going to be the next big problem because of the rate at which this is happening."
During the hearing, US scholar Leon Aron cited statistics that Russian speakers, many from former Soviet states in Central Asia, comprise the second largest language group in the Islamic State terrorist group outside of Arabic speakers.
According to US estimates from 2015, Daesh has recruited foreign fighters from at least 86 countries, including the United States and Europe.
