DUSHANBE, October 19, Asia-Plus – The constitution provides for freedom of religion, and the Government generally respected this right in practice; however, there were some areas of concern, “Tajikistan: International Religious Freedom Report 2005” released by the U.S. Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor said.
The report, in particular, says that there was no change in the status of respect for religious freedom during the period covered by this report. Government policies reflected a concern about Islamic extremism, a concern shared by much of the general population. The Government monitors the activities of religious institutions to keep them from becoming overtly political. There were no closures of officially registered mosques during the period covered by this report, although the State Committee for Religious Affairs (SCRA) announced that a number of unregistered mosques were operating and closed several unregistered mosques and prayer rooms. Local governments used the registration process to hinder some organizations” religious activity. The Government, including President Emomali Rahmonov, continued to enunciate a policy of active secularism, which it tended to define in antiextremist rather than in religious terms.
The report says that an estimated 97 percent of citizens considered themselves Muslims, although the degree of religious observance varied widely. Overall, active observance of Islam appeared to be increasing. An estimated 30 to 40 percent of the rural population and 5 to 10 percent of urban residents regularly followed Muslim practices or attended services at mosques.
The country has 2,885 registered mosques for daily prayers. So-called “Friday mosques” (larger facilities built for weekly Friday prayers) must be explicitly registered with the SCRA. There are 238 such mosques registered. Only one such mosque is authorized per fifteen thousand residents in a given geographic area. Many observers contend that this is discriminatory because no such rule exists for other religious groups.
There are eighteen madrassahs, twenty Islamic colleges, and one Islamic university. Private religious schools are permitted and must be registered. Parents are allowed to home-school their children; however, parents are not allowed to teach others” children in their home in a group setting.
According to the report, there were eighty-four non-Muslim groups registered with the SCRA. Approximately 230 thousand Christians, mostly ethnic Russians and other Soviet-era immigrant groups, resided in the country. The largest Christian group was Russian Orthodox, but other registered organizations included Baptists (five organizations), Roman Catholics (two), Seventh-day Adventists (one), Korean Protestants, which included the SunMin Church (two), Jehovah”s Witnesses (one), and Lutherans (no data available). Other religious minorities were very small and included Baha”is (four registered organizations), Zoroastrians (no data available), Hare Krishnas (one), and Jews (one).
Christian missionaries from western countries, Korea, India, and elsewhere were present in small numbers. The SCRA estimated the number of Christian converts since independence at up to three thousand persons. Some small groups of Islamic missionaries from Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern states also visited the country during the period covered by this report.
An estimated 0.01 percent of the population was atheist or did not belong to any religious denomination.
