Speaking at a ceremony in Tashkent on 31 August to commemorate victims of Soviet-era repressions, President Islam Karimov noted the need to instill a \"healthy ideology\" in young people, Uzbek Radio reported. In an apparent reference to Islamist extremist movements, he also urged a fight against \"evil forces brainwashing our children, setting them against their parents and trying to bring back medieval times.\" Describing globalization as the worldwide spread of information within minutes, President Karimov said that an \"information assault\" is \"more dangerous than any military aggression.\" An address broadcast on Uzbek television on 31 August, the eve of Uzbekistan\'s 1 September Independence Day, highlighted similar themes. \"In these complex and unsafe times, with such maladies as international terrorism, religious extremism, and drug trafficking posing a threat to humanity, I would hope that the clarion call \'Let us protect and defend our sacred land ourselves\' will drive home to each citizen the need to be always watchful and vigilant,\" the president said. (RFE/RL)