The right to believe, to worship and witness
The right to change one’s belief or religion
The right to join together and express one’s belief
UZBEKISTAN: Latest moves against Fergana Valley's Muslims
Two new instructions have been issued which will apply in Uzbekistan's part of the strongly Muslim Fergana Valley, Forum 18 News Service has learnt. Unwritten instructions to imams in Namangan have been issued, ordering them not to allow into mosques Muslim men wearing the white prayer caps common in Central Asia. "The authorities view wearing the prayer cap as a sign of religiosity, and want to stop such people having any influence over young people," Tolib Yakubov, head of the Human Rights Organisation of Uzbekistan, told Forum 18. Also, the Rector's Office of Namangan State University has reportedly issued forms requiring those renting rooms to students to confirm that the students are not "extremists," will be kept under "strict control," and will not have contact with "harmful religious tendencies and movements." The Pro-Rector of the University has denied to Forum 18 that such forms have been issued.
In a similar way to the difficulties now faced by Muslim men in Namangan wearing prayer caps, in the mid-1990s the authorities routinely regarded with suspicion any men wearing beards of going to the mosque "too frequently", and women wearing the hijab (headscarf). However, unlike the campaign against beards and headscarves, Forum 18 is not aware of moves against wearing the prayer cap elsewhere in Uzbekistan.
There has also been a new form issued by the Rector's Office of Namangan State University, which reportedly requires those renting rooms to students in the town to confirm that the students are not "extremists". The fergana.ru website gave the text of what it said was the new form, in which local residents renting room to students had to fill out their own details and details of the students, confirm that they live at their address and that in the hours when they are not studying they will be kept under "strict control" with the help of the police and the authorities of the mahalla (city district).
As well as pledging to ensure that the students will not take drugs or drink alcohol, residents have to promise that the students will not have contact with "harmful religious tendencies and movements hostile to the constitutional system of our country". These movements are not identified, and it is unclear whether non-Muslim movements are also covered by this vague formulation. The mahalla leadership and the local police officer also have to sign the form.
Yakubov complained to Forum 18 that these two moves by the authorities in Namangan will put further pressure on peaceful Muslims trying to practise their faith. They are the latest measures to follow the Andijan uprising, which was violently crushed by the authorities in May 2005.
"The guarantee letters reported by fergana.ru are an example of the crudest pressure on religious believers," Yakubov told Forum 18. "The authorities are fighting not against political movements like the banned Hizb ut-Tahrir party, but in fact against religious believers."
The authorities have long been hostile to Islamist movements like Hizb ut-Tahrir, which aims to establish a world-wide Islamic caliphate where non-Muslims would have few rights (see F18News http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=170), and the violent Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan. But the authorities have also harshly restricted the rights of peaceful Muslims who have no connection to either group, as well as believers of other faiths. Many Muslims - especially those who worship outside the framework of the state-controlled mosques - have been accused of being "Wahhabis", a term widely and inaccurately used by the authorities in Central Asia as a term of abuse for devout Muslims.
The Pro-Rector of Namangan State University, Gairat Dajibaev, categorically denied to Forum 18 that his university had issued such forms. "We don't take any forms from those renting rooms to our students," he told Forum 18 from Namangan on 17 March. "I'm hearing from you for the first time that the website fergana.ru has published this slanderous information. I don't read such websites - I only read Uzbek newspapers. They are quite enough for me."
No-one was prepared to comment at the Namangan Regional Administration. The secretary of the administration head told Forum 18 on 17 March to contact Tohorjan Dadahanov, the head of the region's Department for Links with Social and Religious Organisations. However, Dadahanov was reluctant to talk. "I'm too small a person to respond to journalists' questions," he told Forum 18 on 17 March. "Ask the head of the Regional Administration or his deputies." (END)
For a personal commentary by a Muslim scholar, advocating religious freedom for all faiths as the best antidote to Islamic religious extremism in Uzbekistan, see http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=338
For more background, see Forum 18's Uzbekistan religious freedom survey at http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=546
For an outline of what is known about Akramia and the Andijan uprising see F18News 16 June 2005 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=586
A printer-friendly map of Uzbekistan is available at http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/atlas/index.html?Parent=asia&Rootmap=uzbeki
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14 March 2006
UZBEKISTAN: Persecution continues throughout country
Persecution of Protestants continues throughout Uzbekistan, Forum 18 News Service has found. Amongst recent incidents indicated to Forum 18 are the interrogation of a group of 40 Protestants for 18 days, the unlawful imposition of a fine for "security" on one woman, Protestants in a café being ordered by police to state that they were in an unauthorised religious meeting, and nine Pentecostals at a social gathering having permitted religious literature - including copies of the New Testament – confiscated. Fines were also imposed. Iskander Najafov, a Christian lawyer, commented that "I believe it is quite absurd to use the phrase 'unlawful religious activity' of the Syr-Darya Protestants," he told Forum 18. "No-one can prevent people from visiting each other and talking about religious issues!" The head of the Criminal and Administrative Court for Syr-Darya, Akbar Nazimov, was unable to explain to Forum 18 why permitted religious literature was confiscated.
13 March 2006
TAJIKISTAN: Madrasa still closed; state registration to be compulsory?
Pulat Nurov, the Islamic affairs specialist of the state Religious Affairs Committee, has told Forum 18 News Service that, in a planned new religion law, "it will clearly be stated that registration of religious organisations is compulsory." If this proves to be the case, Tajikistan will join Belarus, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan in breaking international human rights obligations by making state registration compulsory. Nurov was speaking to Forum 18 about "inconsistencies" in the current 1994 Religion Law in relation to the continued closure of an Islamic religious school in northern Tajikistan. This madrasa is being barred from operation by the authorities, even though there is no legal basis for the government to do this. Nurov admitted to Forum 18 that registration of the madrasa is not compulsory and that no existing state agency can control the teaching of Islam. "These are the annoying defects of the Religion Law adopted back in 1994," he complained.
17 February 2006
KYRGYZSTAN: Intolerance against Christians highlighted by murder
The recent murder of an ethnic Kyrgyz convert to Christianity, Saktinbai Usmanov, was the culmination of a long series of intolerant incidents, Forum 18 News Service has found. Usmanov was the only Christian in his village. The intolerance was encouraged by the village Mullah, Nurlan Asangojaev, although most of the attackers were themselves drunk, which is forbidden in Islam. Asangojaev arranged for Usmanov to be banned from community events after his conversion, which is very painful for the traditionally community-centred Kyrgyz. He has also barred Usmanov from being buried in the village cemetery. Mullah Asangojaev has since Usmanov's murder told Forum 18 and others that "I can't offer any convincing proof, but I am sure that Saktinbai was killed by Protestants because he wanted to return to Islam." This is strongly denied by Saktinbai Usmanov's son, Protestant Pastor Ruslan Usmanov, who told Forum 18 that this is a "monstrous slander." There are numerous incidents of intolerance, including official hostility, towards Christian converts from Muslim backgrounds throughout Central Asia, Forum 18 has found.