DUSHANBE, April 3, Asia-Plus — Kyrgyzstan’s news agency 24.kg reports that Kyrgyzstan offers establishment of the interstate council for religious affairs within the framework of CIS or the Eurasian Economic Community (EAEC) in order to unify religion laws.
Kanybek Osmonaliyev, the director of Kyrgyzstan’s Agency on religious Affairs, justified the proposal by saying that the CIS member nations have different approaches to religious affairs, according to 24.kg. He claims that compared to neighboring countries Kyrgyzstan’s legislation, for example, is more liberal in terms of attitude to religious organizations. Osmonaliyev, in particular, notes that official Tashkent prohibits missionary work, while in Kyrgyzstan, “a simple registration is enough.” He proposes to harmonize the religion lawns within the post-Soviet area.
In the meantime, Sayfullo Safarov, the deputy director of the Tajik Center for Strategic Studies, told Asia-Plus Thursday afternoon that Tajikistan is a model for neighboring countries in terms of activities of religious parties and organizations.
“The fact that Tajikistan is the only country in Central Asia, which has officially registered religious party [Islamic Revival Party (IRPT)], is an evidence of the fact that we have reached a necessary level of freedom of conscience,” said Safarov, “And other CSI states should attain to our level but not bring us to their level and conditions.” According to him, the proposed interstate council for religious affairs will not be interest of Tajikistan in terms of influence of the CIS member states.
Some Tajik experts rule out the possibility of the establishment of such council, noting that CIS bodies dealing with religious affairs have different status. In some countries, they have status of state committees or agencies, while in others (for example in Tajikistan), they have a status of directorate within the ministry of culture.
