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Tajikistan's President Signs Controversial New Religion Law

By Howard M. Friedman

Tajikistan's President Imomali Rakhmon today signed a controversial new religion law, according to a report from Reuters. Last week the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom criticized the law, saying:

If signed, the law will legalize harsh policies already adopted by the Tajik government against its majority Muslim population, including the closure of hundreds of mosques and limiting the religious education of children. Moreover, the law will impose state censorship on religious literature, restrict the conduct of religious rites to officially-approved places of worship and allow the state to control the activities of religious associations....

The new religion law places onerous restrictions on the Muslim community, such as limiting the number of mosques based on the number of local residents and imposing state interference in the appointment of imams. The preface to the law singles out the Hanafi school of Sunni Islam for its "special role" in the development of Tajikistan's "culture and moral life," downplaying the significance of the Shi'a Ismaili minority, which lives in Tajikistan's Mountainous Badakhshan Region.

The law will also cause difficulties for Tajikistan's other religious minorities by dramatically increasing the numerical threshold for registration requirements, as well as requiring the founders of a religious group seeking registration to certify that they have lived in their territory for at least five years and adhered to the religion. The law also requires that a religious community obtain consent of the Religious Affairs Committee to invite foreigners or attend religious conferences outside the country.

The new law will come into force once it is officially published by the government.

Full post as published by Religion Clause on March 26, 2009 (boomark / email).