DUSHANBE, July 12, 2011, Asia-Plus — 60 of Tajik Islamic students that have returned home from foreign religious schools are currently studying at the Tajik Islamic Institute.
The Islamic Institute Rector Umarali Nazarov told Asia-Plus Tuesday afternoon that documents of eight other students are still under consideration.
According to him, 224 students will graduate from the Islamic Institute this year and some of them will take MA course.
“The Islamic Institute has both paid and so-called budgetary (non-paid) courses,” said Nazarov. “The Faculty of Islamic Enlightenment enrolls students in paid courses at the rate of 2,600 somoni per year, the Faculty of Philosophy of Islam – 2,500 somoni, the Faculty of History of Islam – 2,700 somoni, the Faculty of Arabic Philology – 3,600 somoni, etc.”
The Islamic Institute is the only higher education Islamic institution in the country.
According to data from the Committee on Religious Affairs (CRA) under the Government of Tajikistan, some 2,000 young Tajiks studying at foreign madrassahs and Islamic universities returned home in recent months.
We will recall that a campaign on returning Tajik students home from foreign religious schools began last August after President Emomali Rahmon warned that foreign religious schools are indoctrinating Tajik students with radical Islamic ideology. The president asked parents of students attending religious schools abroad to bring their children back home. Emomali Rahmon made the call via state-run Tajik TV”s Shabakai Avval (Channel One) during a meeting on August 25 with residents of Farkhor district in Khatlon province. The president requested that students go to study religion within Tajikistan instead, because those studying abroad “are all becoming terrorists and extremists.”
