DUSHANBE, September 3, Asia-Plus — The Sughd regional prosecutor’s office has given a month to leaders of local unregistered mosques to complete their paperwork, Asia-Plus has learned from Tavakkal Fayzulloyev, an aide to the Sughd chef prosecutor.
According to him, a deadline for the unregistered mosques’ imam-khatibs to complete their paperwork on officially registering the mosques with the Sughd regional justice directorate is October 4.
Fayzulloyev noted that according to the preliminary data, more than 300 mosques have been functioning in the province without proper registration. “We intend to request the Council of Clerics (Shuroi Ulamo) to take measures to resolve the issue of preparing documents necessary for official functioning of the mosques in Sughd,” the aide said .
He added that authorities of some districts and cities in the region had raised the mosque registration problem earlier and necessary measures have already been taken there to carry out a paperwork of registration of mosques.
Fayzulloyev said that no one unregistered mosque has been closed down or destroyed in the province so far. “I believe such actions will not take place in Sughd,” said the aide, “Imam-khatibs should complete the paperwork for registration of the mosques within a month and we will provide them assistance with that.”
More than 1,000 Muslim religious organizations now function in northern Tajikistan. They include 937 regular and 78 main (Friday) mosques as well as 9 madrasahs.
