DUSHANBE, October 12, 2010, Asia-Plus — A new chairman of the Shuroi Ulamo (Council of Ulems, a group of scholars and imams that provides interpretations of religious practice) has been elected.
“The board of the Islamic Center of Tajikistan met today and the 47-year Saidmukarram Abduqodirzoda was elected chairman of the Shuroi Ulamo,” the Shuroi Ulamo Executive Secretary Salomatsho Shokirov told Asia-Plus Tuesday afternoon.
According to him, the board meeting also endorsed the new Charter of the Islamic Center that would be submitted for re-registration to the Committee on Religious Affairs under the Government of Tajikistan. “The new charter has been adopted in accordance with the new religion legislation,” Shokirov stressed.
Saidmukarram Abduqodirzoda had previously worked as head of the department for religious examinations within the Committee on Religious Affairs. Before that, he had headed the department on religious affairs at President’s Executive Office.
The Shuroi Ulamo’s previous chairman Sheikh Amonulloh Nematzoda died of cancer on September 6 aged 74.
The Shuroi Ulamo replaced Tajikistan”s muftiat (religious administration) when it was dissolved in the late 1990s.
In the Soviet Union, the Central Asian republics were overseen by a Central Asian Directorate of Islamic Affairs. Tajikistan created its own muftiat in 1993, two years after the country gained independence.
