DUSHANBE, December 6, Asia-Plus — Tajik MP and leader of the Islamic Revival Party (IRPT) Muhiddin Kabiri considers that that draft law “On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Unions” requires serious improvement and the IRPT has prepared alternative, more lenient draft law on religion.
“At present we are translating the alternative draft law, which is more liberal, from Tajik into Russian and we will introduce it for consideration at the beginning of the next year,” Kabiri said, expressing hope that main provisions of the alternative bill would be taken into consideration and be included into the main draft law.
According to him, the draft law would restrict activities of religious unions. “Thus, it regulates procedure of establishment of religious organizations and the government bodies have wide powers to interfere in internal affairs of religious organizations,” said the IRPT leader, “Now, to be engaged in religious teaching, besides various permits, licenses and patents, one should have a proper education. In other words, imams and imam-khatibs (leaders of mosques) should have diplomas about higher theological education, while the majority of our imam-khatibs and members of the Council of religious Scholars (Shuroi Ulamo) do not have special education. It turns out that all of them should be dismissed?”
According to him, the draft law’s provision prohibiting religious education of any kind for children under the age of seven also causes misunderstanding. According to the draft law, children may be involved in religious education only after the age of seven and only by their own consent.
The IRPT leader noted that he shared concerns of various religious organizations and agreed with their remarks on the religious legislation, in particular those concerning unreasonable interference of government bodies in affairs of religious organizations. “According to the draft law, imams imam-khatibs of mosques will be appointed by resolutions of local authorities,” said Kabiri, “May be that is why many Muslim clerics have taken passive stance in order to not spoil relations with authorities.”
It is to be noted that the draft law on religious freedom has caused lively discussions in Tajik society, including ethnic communities living in the country. Beyond the restrictive nature of the draft legislation, opponents complain that the religious legislation is being made anonymously and full text of the draft law is not readily obtainable.
Viktor Kim, the head of the Association of Koreans of Tajikistan, said that the draft law was in contrary to the country’s Constitution and allows government bodies to interfere in activities of religious organizations. According to him, adoption of this bill would destabilize the situation in the country and cast doubt on observance of human rights and freedom in Tajikistan.
We will recall that the OSCE Center in Dushanbe also organized a roundtable discussions on the draft law “On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Unions” in Dushanbe on November 21. The OSCE-funded event brought together government officials, parliamentarians, representatives of religious organizations, the media, the diplomatic corps, non-governmental and international organizations. Participants discussed international standards in the field, the legislative practices of other countries, and hear from government officials and religious leaders.
The government-sponsored draft law would replace the 1994 Law on Religion, which was amended several times, the last time being in 2001.
