Tweet
FORUM 18 NEWS SERVICE, Oslo, Norway
http://www.forum18.org/
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
========================================== =======
Wednesday 19 August 2009
KYRGYZSTAN: WHAT WILL NEW "COORDINATING COUNCIL ON THE STRUGGLE AGAINST
RELIGIOUS EXTREMISM" DO?
Kyrgyzstan has established a state Coordinating Council on the Struggle
against Religious Extremism, Forum 18 News Service notes. The execution of
Council decisions will be obligatory for the different parts of the
government, but officials are unclear when asked by Forum 18 what they mean
by religious extremism and what the Council will do. It will be led by the
State Agency for Religious Affairs, the Interior Ministry and the NSS
secret police, and will have members from other parts of the government,
the Muslim Board, and the Russian Orthodox Church. Civil society and
religious organisations have reacted with concern, Raya Kadyrova of the
Foundation for Tolerance International pointing out that "unfortunately our
laws give a very wide definition of religious radicalism and extremism."
She suggested that the Collective Security Treaty Organisation might be a
reason for the Council. The Jehovah's Witnesses said they needed to wait
and see what it would do. They noted that some officials have previously
described them as "a destructive movement," but "hoped" the Council would
not listen to such opinions. One Protestant asked why there was a need for
the Council, given the other responsible state organisations.
KYRGYZSTAN: WHAT WILL NEW "COORDINATING COUNCIL ON THE STRUGGLE AGAINST
RELIGIOUS EXTREMISM" DO?
By Mushfig Bayram, Forum 18 News Service <http://www.forum18.org>
Kyrgyzstan has recently transformed its state Interagency Council on
Religious Affairs into a state Coordinating Council on the Struggle against
Religious Extremism, Forum 18 News Service has learned. However, although
the Council will apparently be powerful, uncertainty surrounds what it will
do.
The Decree establishing the Council - signed by Prime Minister Igor
Chudinov on 5 August - states that it was established "for the purpose of
ensuring concerted action and coordination of activity of State agencies
and local governments of Kyrgyzstan in prevention of the spread of and
resistance to religious extremism, fundamentalism and conflicts on
religious grounds". The Decree goes on to state that: "Constructive and
effective mutual relations between State agencies and religious
organisations aimed at efficient solutions of issues related to prevention
of the spread of religious extremism, fundamentalism, and conflicts on
religious grounds, will allow suppressing the ideas of various extremist
and destructive groups."
Kanybek Osmanaliev, Head of the State Agency for Religious Affairs, told
Forum 18 on 18 August that the Secretariat of the Council will be led by
himself, the Deputy Interior Minister, and the Deputy Head of the National
Security Service (NSS) secret police. The members of the Council will be
representatives of the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Defence, Health,
Culture, and Finance, heads of Regional Administrations, as well as
representatives from the state-favoured Muslim Board and the Russian
Orthodox Church.
It appears that much power will be given to the Council, as the Decree
states that Council decisions must be executed by "Ministries, State
Committees, administrative units, and other executive authorities, as well
as local state administrations and local self-government".
What issues will the Council address?
"The reason for the decision was to turn the Interagency Council, which
was more of an amorphous structure to a more effective one to fight
religious extremism," Osmanaliev of the State Agency for Religious Affairs
told Forum 18. "We will meet no less than twice a year and report to the
Vice-Prime Minister," he said. The State Agency will be responsible for
preparing the agenda for each meeting. However, Osmanaliev said that he
"cannot say what exact issues we will discuss, as we are only in the phase
of formulating our policy." He also did not say what principles would serve
as the basis of the Council's policy.
Father Igor Dronov of the Russian Orthodox Church in Bishkek told Forum 18
on 19 August that he is aware of the new Council, but has not yet accepted
the invitation to it. "I cannot say at the moment what issues the Council
will be occupied with," he stated. Reminded of his earlier complaints about
the activity of an earlier conversation with Forum 18 when he complained
about the activity of some Protestant Churches, Father Dronov said "that's
not religious extremism but aggressive proselytism." The new Religion Law
bans - without defining - "aggressive action aimed at proselytism" (see
F18News 13 January 2009
<http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?articl e_id=1240>). Asked if he would
bring these type of issues at the Council, Fr Dronov repeated his previous
answer that he did not know what the Council would be doing.
The Muslim Board and Osmanaliev of the State Agency have, along with Fr
Dromov, welcomed the restrictive new Religion Law. In a written explanation
of the "need" for a new Law - placed on the parliamentary website -
Osmanaliev expressed concern about what he described as the "abnormality"
of a rising number of people changing faith, especially young ethnic Kyrgyz
joining Christian churches. He also complained of "illegal" activity by
"various destructive, totalitarian groups and reactionary sects", among
whom he included the Hare Krishna and Mormon communities, and
"uncontrolled" building and opening of mosques, churches and other places
of worship (see F18News 2 October 2008
<http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?articl e_id=1197>).
Who decided what the Council's membership is?
Asked why representatives of other religious organisations were not
invited as members to the Council, Osmanaliev of the State Agency said the
question should be put to the government.
Suyun Musaliyev, who works for the department overseeing religious issues
in the Cabinet of Ministers, said that the members from the religious
organisations were proposed by the State Agency for Religious Affairs. "If
they [the State Agency] would like to propose a representative of
Protestants, for instance, they could," he told Forum 18 on 18 August. "We
will make a decision on their proposal."
What is religious extremism?
Officials were unspecific when asked what they meant by religious
extremism, and how the struggle against it would be carried out. "It is the
Coordinating Council's duty to expose destructive and extremist religious
movements in the territory of Kyrgyzstan," Musaliyev of the Cabinet of
Ministers responded. Osmanaliev of the State Agency said that "only courts"
in Kyrgyzstan can decide which religious movements are extremist. "So far,
such decisions have been made on organisations like Hizb-ut-Tahrir" (see
<http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?articl e_id=170> for an outline of this
group's views), he stated. "None of the existing and registered
organisations are considered as extremists here," Osmanaliev assured Forum
18. He did not discuss the situation of unregistered organisations, or
those whose registration the new Law threatens.
Asked what would happen if names of existing organisations were claimed in
Council meetings to have negative effects, Osmanaliev would only said that
the Council "would need to make a collective decision" on cases of
extremism.
Reactions from civil society and religious communities
Raya Kadyrova, President of the Foundation for Tolerance International in
Bishkek, pointed to one possible problem in the Council's work. She told
Forum 18 on 19 August that "unfortunately our laws give a very wide
definition of religious radicalism and extremism. For instance, any
criticism by independent Muslim organisations of the work of the Muslim
Board can easily be interpreted as radicalism and extremism." She also said
that she "hoped the Council will also listen to the opinion of Kyrgyzstan's
so-called minority faiths before making any decisions affecting their
activity"
Various religious organisations expressed their concerns to Forum 18 about
the Council. A Protestant Pastor, who wanted to remain unnamed, said he
does not understand why there needs to be such a Council. "We already have
law-enforcement agencies in the country to detect who breaks the laws," he
told Forum 18 on 18 August from Bishkek. The Protestant added that the
State Agency is also supposed to work with religious organisations. "I am
afraid they are trying to tighten the noose around our necks," he
complained. He said he believed that the Council was created to "make life
hard" for the Protestant churches in the country.
Vladimir Gavrilovski of Jehovah's Witnesses said they needed to wait and
see what the Council would do. "It has been re-organised very recently, so
we have to wait to see," he told Forum 18 on 18 August. "Some officials
have spoken about us as being a destructive movement in the past," he
noted. "When we explained our position on different issues, they told us
that they were given wrong information on us." He said he "hoped" that the
Council would not listen to such opinions.
Synarkul Muraliyeva (Chandra Mukkhi) of the Hare Krishna community said
she did not know what the position of the Council on their community would
be. "The NSS secret police has told us that we are a totalitarian sect, and
are in a list with the banned terrorist organisations."
Why is the Council being established?
Kadyrova of the Foundation for Tolerance International told Forum 18 that
the establishment of the Council was "official recognition that the
country's security is under threat from religious extremism." She thought
that a reason for it's establishment may be that the authorities "need to
determine" what the security threats are. She added that the Council may
also have been established "to integrate into national policy a policy
adopted at a recent meeting of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation
(CSTO)." She noted that "the policy of the CSTO is that special attention
needs to be given to religious radicalism and new religious movements, as a
threat to security in the region."
The CSTO, consisting of of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan,
Russia, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, added some Muslim movements to its list
of terrorist and extremist organisations in May 2009. These included
Tabligh Jamaat and Salafism (see F18News 15 May 2009
<http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?articl e_id=1297>), as well as
"Nurdzhular" - as it calls followers of the Turkish theologian Said Nursi.
Muslims who follow Nursi's approach to Islam have been attracting
increasing state hostility in the former Soviet Union. Increasing numbers
of Muslims following his approach have been jailed in Uzbekistan (see eg.
31 July 2009 <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id= 1333>).
Translations of many of his writings are banned in Russia, and those
thought to possess them have been raided (see F18News 16 July 2009
<http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?articl e_id=1328>).
The Kyrgyz legal background
Since a repressive new Religion Law came into force in January, religious
communities of all faiths have experienced increased official hostility.
One example of this has been that unregistered communities of Protestant
Christians, Hare Krishna devotees and Ahmadiya Muslims in many parts of
Kyrgyzstan have been ordered by the authorities to stop meeting for worship
(see F18News 13 August 2009
<http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?articl e_id=1336>).
Officials have claimed to Forum 18 that they have formed a Commission to
resolve three controversial provisions of the Religion Law: restrictions on
sharing faith and distributing religious literature, and the high threshold
of members required before religious communities can register. Separately,
a legal challenge to the Law was mounted by Protestants (see F18News 27 May
2009 <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id= 1301>). The
Constitutional Court on 24 July dismissed the complaint, in a ruling signed
by Judge Chinara Musabekova. She stated that the "concrete constitutional
rights of the applicants have not been violated." (END)
For background information see Forum 18's Kyrgyzstan religious freedom
survey at <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id= 222>.
More reports on freedom of thought, conscience and belief in Kyrgyzstan
can be found at
<http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?query=&a mp;religion=all&country=30>.
A survey of the religious freedom decline in the eastern part of the
Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) area is at
<http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_ id=806>, and of religious
intolerance in Central Asia is at
<http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_ id=815>.
A printer-friendly map of Kyrgyzstan is available at
<http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpedition s/atlas/index.html?Parent=asia&Rootmap=kyrgyz& gt;.
(END)
© Forum 18 News Service. All rights reserved. ISSN 1504-2855
You may reproduce or quote this article provided that credit is given to
F18News http://www.forum18.org/
Past and current Forum 18 information can be found at
http://www.forum18.org/
http://www.forum18.org/
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
========================================== =======
Wednesday 19 August 2009
KYRGYZSTAN: WHAT WILL NEW "COORDINATING COUNCIL ON THE STRUGGLE AGAINST
RELIGIOUS EXTREMISM" DO?
Kyrgyzstan has established a state Coordinating Council on the Struggle
against Religious Extremism, Forum 18 News Service notes. The execution of
Council decisions will be obligatory for the different parts of the
government, but officials are unclear when asked by Forum 18 what they mean
by religious extremism and what the Council will do. It will be led by the
State Agency for Religious Affairs, the Interior Ministry and the NSS
secret police, and will have members from other parts of the government,
the Muslim Board, and the Russian Orthodox Church. Civil society and
religious organisations have reacted with concern, Raya Kadyrova of the
Foundation for Tolerance International pointing out that "unfortunately our
laws give a very wide definition of religious radicalism and extremism."
She suggested that the Collective Security Treaty Organisation might be a
reason for the Council. The Jehovah's Witnesses said they needed to wait
and see what it would do. They noted that some officials have previously
described them as "a destructive movement," but "hoped" the Council would
not listen to such opinions. One Protestant asked why there was a need for
the Council, given the other responsible state organisations.
KYRGYZSTAN: WHAT WILL NEW "COORDINATING COUNCIL ON THE STRUGGLE AGAINST
RELIGIOUS EXTREMISM" DO?
By Mushfig Bayram, Forum 18 News Service <http://www.forum18.org>
Kyrgyzstan has recently transformed its state Interagency Council on
Religious Affairs into a state Coordinating Council on the Struggle against
Religious Extremism, Forum 18 News Service has learned. However, although
the Council will apparently be powerful, uncertainty surrounds what it will
do.
The Decree establishing the Council - signed by Prime Minister Igor
Chudinov on 5 August - states that it was established "for the purpose of
ensuring concerted action and coordination of activity of State agencies
and local governments of Kyrgyzstan in prevention of the spread of and
resistance to religious extremism, fundamentalism and conflicts on
religious grounds". The Decree goes on to state that: "Constructive and
effective mutual relations between State agencies and religious
organisations aimed at efficient solutions of issues related to prevention
of the spread of religious extremism, fundamentalism, and conflicts on
religious grounds, will allow suppressing the ideas of various extremist
and destructive groups."
Kanybek Osmanaliev, Head of the State Agency for Religious Affairs, told
Forum 18 on 18 August that the Secretariat of the Council will be led by
himself, the Deputy Interior Minister, and the Deputy Head of the National
Security Service (NSS) secret police. The members of the Council will be
representatives of the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Defence, Health,
Culture, and Finance, heads of Regional Administrations, as well as
representatives from the state-favoured Muslim Board and the Russian
Orthodox Church.
It appears that much power will be given to the Council, as the Decree
states that Council decisions must be executed by "Ministries, State
Committees, administrative units, and other executive authorities, as well
as local state administrations and local self-government".
What issues will the Council address?
"The reason for the decision was to turn the Interagency Council, which
was more of an amorphous structure to a more effective one to fight
religious extremism," Osmanaliev of the State Agency for Religious Affairs
told Forum 18. "We will meet no less than twice a year and report to the
Vice-Prime Minister," he said. The State Agency will be responsible for
preparing the agenda for each meeting. However, Osmanaliev said that he
"cannot say what exact issues we will discuss, as we are only in the phase
of formulating our policy." He also did not say what principles would serve
as the basis of the Council's policy.
Father Igor Dronov of the Russian Orthodox Church in Bishkek told Forum 18
on 19 August that he is aware of the new Council, but has not yet accepted
the invitation to it. "I cannot say at the moment what issues the Council
will be occupied with," he stated. Reminded of his earlier complaints about
the activity of an earlier conversation with Forum 18 when he complained
about the activity of some Protestant Churches, Father Dronov said "that's
not religious extremism but aggressive proselytism." The new Religion Law
bans - without defining - "aggressive action aimed at proselytism" (see
F18News 13 January 2009
<http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?articl e_id=1240>). Asked if he would
bring these type of issues at the Council, Fr Dronov repeated his previous
answer that he did not know what the Council would be doing.
The Muslim Board and Osmanaliev of the State Agency have, along with Fr
Dromov, welcomed the restrictive new Religion Law. In a written explanation
of the "need" for a new Law - placed on the parliamentary website -
Osmanaliev expressed concern about what he described as the "abnormality"
of a rising number of people changing faith, especially young ethnic Kyrgyz
joining Christian churches. He also complained of "illegal" activity by
"various destructive, totalitarian groups and reactionary sects", among
whom he included the Hare Krishna and Mormon communities, and
"uncontrolled" building and opening of mosques, churches and other places
of worship (see F18News 2 October 2008
<http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?articl e_id=1197>).
Who decided what the Council's membership is?
Asked why representatives of other religious organisations were not
invited as members to the Council, Osmanaliev of the State Agency said the
question should be put to the government.
Suyun Musaliyev, who works for the department overseeing religious issues
in the Cabinet of Ministers, said that the members from the religious
organisations were proposed by the State Agency for Religious Affairs. "If
they [the State Agency] would like to propose a representative of
Protestants, for instance, they could," he told Forum 18 on 18 August. "We
will make a decision on their proposal."
What is religious extremism?
Officials were unspecific when asked what they meant by religious
extremism, and how the struggle against it would be carried out. "It is the
Coordinating Council's duty to expose destructive and extremist religious
movements in the territory of Kyrgyzstan," Musaliyev of the Cabinet of
Ministers responded. Osmanaliev of the State Agency said that "only courts"
in Kyrgyzstan can decide which religious movements are extremist. "So far,
such decisions have been made on organisations like Hizb-ut-Tahrir" (see
<http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?articl e_id=170> for an outline of this
group's views), he stated. "None of the existing and registered
organisations are considered as extremists here," Osmanaliev assured Forum
18. He did not discuss the situation of unregistered organisations, or
those whose registration the new Law threatens.
Asked what would happen if names of existing organisations were claimed in
Council meetings to have negative effects, Osmanaliev would only said that
the Council "would need to make a collective decision" on cases of
extremism.
Reactions from civil society and religious communities
Raya Kadyrova, President of the Foundation for Tolerance International in
Bishkek, pointed to one possible problem in the Council's work. She told
Forum 18 on 19 August that "unfortunately our laws give a very wide
definition of religious radicalism and extremism. For instance, any
criticism by independent Muslim organisations of the work of the Muslim
Board can easily be interpreted as radicalism and extremism." She also said
that she "hoped the Council will also listen to the opinion of Kyrgyzstan's
so-called minority faiths before making any decisions affecting their
activity"
Various religious organisations expressed their concerns to Forum 18 about
the Council. A Protestant Pastor, who wanted to remain unnamed, said he
does not understand why there needs to be such a Council. "We already have
law-enforcement agencies in the country to detect who breaks the laws," he
told Forum 18 on 18 August from Bishkek. The Protestant added that the
State Agency is also supposed to work with religious organisations. "I am
afraid they are trying to tighten the noose around our necks," he
complained. He said he believed that the Council was created to "make life
hard" for the Protestant churches in the country.
Vladimir Gavrilovski of Jehovah's Witnesses said they needed to wait and
see what the Council would do. "It has been re-organised very recently, so
we have to wait to see," he told Forum 18 on 18 August. "Some officials
have spoken about us as being a destructive movement in the past," he
noted. "When we explained our position on different issues, they told us
that they were given wrong information on us." He said he "hoped" that the
Council would not listen to such opinions.
Synarkul Muraliyeva (Chandra Mukkhi) of the Hare Krishna community said
she did not know what the position of the Council on their community would
be. "The NSS secret police has told us that we are a totalitarian sect, and
are in a list with the banned terrorist organisations."
Why is the Council being established?
Kadyrova of the Foundation for Tolerance International told Forum 18 that
the establishment of the Council was "official recognition that the
country's security is under threat from religious extremism." She thought
that a reason for it's establishment may be that the authorities "need to
determine" what the security threats are. She added that the Council may
also have been established "to integrate into national policy a policy
adopted at a recent meeting of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation
(CSTO)." She noted that "the policy of the CSTO is that special attention
needs to be given to religious radicalism and new religious movements, as a
threat to security in the region."
The CSTO, consisting of of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan,
Russia, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, added some Muslim movements to its list
of terrorist and extremist organisations in May 2009. These included
Tabligh Jamaat and Salafism (see F18News 15 May 2009
<http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?articl e_id=1297>), as well as
"Nurdzhular" - as it calls followers of the Turkish theologian Said Nursi.
Muslims who follow Nursi's approach to Islam have been attracting
increasing state hostility in the former Soviet Union. Increasing numbers
of Muslims following his approach have been jailed in Uzbekistan (see eg.
31 July 2009 <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id= 1333>).
Translations of many of his writings are banned in Russia, and those
thought to possess them have been raided (see F18News 16 July 2009
<http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?articl e_id=1328>).
The Kyrgyz legal background
Since a repressive new Religion Law came into force in January, religious
communities of all faiths have experienced increased official hostility.
One example of this has been that unregistered communities of Protestant
Christians, Hare Krishna devotees and Ahmadiya Muslims in many parts of
Kyrgyzstan have been ordered by the authorities to stop meeting for worship
(see F18News 13 August 2009
<http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?articl e_id=1336>).
Officials have claimed to Forum 18 that they have formed a Commission to
resolve three controversial provisions of the Religion Law: restrictions on
sharing faith and distributing religious literature, and the high threshold
of members required before religious communities can register. Separately,
a legal challenge to the Law was mounted by Protestants (see F18News 27 May
2009 <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id= 1301>). The
Constitutional Court on 24 July dismissed the complaint, in a ruling signed
by Judge Chinara Musabekova. She stated that the "concrete constitutional
rights of the applicants have not been violated." (END)
For background information see Forum 18's Kyrgyzstan religious freedom
survey at <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id= 222>.
More reports on freedom of thought, conscience and belief in Kyrgyzstan
can be found at
<http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?query=&a mp;religion=all&country=30>.
A survey of the religious freedom decline in the eastern part of the
Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) area is at
<http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_ id=806>, and of religious
intolerance in Central Asia is at
<http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_ id=815>.
A printer-friendly map of Kyrgyzstan is available at
<http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpedition s/atlas/index.html?Parent=asia&Rootmap=kyrgyz& gt;.
(END)
© Forum 18 News Service. All rights reserved. ISSN 1504-2855
You may reproduce or quote this article provided that credit is given to
F18News http://www.forum18.org/
Past and current Forum 18 information can be found at
http://www.forum18.org/