DUSHANBE, July 6, 2011, Asia-Plus — 129 returned Islamic students will continue studying at higher educational institutions, madrasahs and high schools in Tajikistan, Abdurahim Kholiqov, chairman of the Committee on Religious Affairs (CRA) under the Government of Tajikistan, told Asia-Plus Wednesday afternoon.
“The Committee has found out that 2,413 Tajik students have studied madrasahs and Islamic universities abroad; 1,098 students that were studying at illegal religious schools have returned following a number of measures taken by the government and 853 others have returned voluntarily, on their own will,” said Kholiqov, “465 other Tajik students are still illegally studying at foreign religious schools.”
According to him, of those returned, 68 students have already been distributed to high schools, 53 other Islamic returned students have been distributed to higher educational institutions and eight others have been distributed to local madrasahs. “Unfortunately, the majority of the returned students cannot tender documents certifying that they were studying religious schools, because those schools do not give them the required documents for some obscure reason,” Kholiqov said.
Two groups are currently working on developing single program and standards for students wanting to study at religious schools in Islamic countries, he added.
We will recall that Khatlon authorities have expressed concern that young people have returned home from Islamic schools abroad to find no jobs or education opportunities. At a meeting of local officials in Qurghon Teppa on June 30, Nusratullo Mirzoyev, deputy head of the State Committee on National Security (SCNS)’s office for Khatlon, said the most important task is to establish the exact number of Tajik students in Islamic countries. Mirzoyev said 250 of the former students who returned home have already left the country again. He said officially they went to Russia as labor migrants but nobody knows their real aims and destinations.
The Khatlon prosecutor Yusufjon Yusufzoda noted that local department for social affairs and religious affairs had not done enough to create jobs or education opportunities for the former students and that most of those who came back to Khatlon have nothing to do.
The meeting concluded that the creation of employment and education opportunities for returned students is the only way to keep them in the province and avoid their returning to Islamic countries or joining extremist religious movements.
