Tajikistan has been no stranger to significant challenges from Islamist groups, whether political opposition from domestic Islamist parties or threats by homegrown or transnational militant groups. However, long-serving Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon has consolidated power, enabling Dushanbe to clamp down on such Islamist groups, and the political and security challenges these groups pose have decreased substantially over the past decade. Nevertheless, the Tajik government continues to use the potential threats from Islamist parties such as the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan, and militant groups such as the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan and the Islamic State, as a rationale for cracking down on any domestic opposition, Islamist or not. Despite Rakhmon's strong hold on power, crackdowns risk further destabilizing Tajikistan — as a string of security incidents on Sept. 4 showed — just as the country encounters growing economic trouble and increasing attention from Russia and the West.