QURGHON TEPPA, November 19, 2011, Asia-Plus — The last two of ten Qurghon Teppa residents studying at religious schools abroad have returned home, Jumanazar Saidahmadov, the deputy prosecutor of Qurghon Teppa, announced at a meeting of municipal administrators in Qurghon Teppa, the administrative center of Khatlon province on November 18.
According to him, two residents of Qurghon Teppa – Ikromjon Samiyev and his cousin Jaloliddin Samiyev – returned from Syria, where they were studying at one of religious schools. The students reportedly returned home at insistence of the Qurghon Teppa prosecutor’s office.
“Under the recommendation of the prosecutor’s office Ikromjon Samiyev has been accepted into the Tajik Islamic Institute, while Jaloliddin Samiyev is attending high school,” Saidahmadov said.
He stressed that they were the last two of ten residents of Qurghon Teppa who had studied at religious schools abroad.
We will recall that the return of the Tajik students from Muslim countries began in August-September last year after President Emomali Rahmon said students at illegal Islamic schools too often “fall under the influence of extremists.” Rahmon advised parents to bring their children back to Tajikistan. In August 2010, Tajik President Emomali Rahmon expressed concern that foreign religious schools were indoctrinating Tajik students with radical Islamist ideology. He urged parents of students studying at foreign madrasahs and universities to bring them home.
Speaking at the meeting, Saidahmadov also drew attention of those present to the problems of local mosques and madrasahs. According to him, many of them do not meet requirements of sanitary norms and fire safety. “Administration action has been imposed upon five mosques that failed to meet the sanitary and fire safety requirements,” Saidahmadov noted.
The prosecutor stressed that all imam-khatibs must put their registration documentations to rights; otherwise their mosques will suffer the fate of two mosques that were closed down for lack of official registration.
Saidahmadov also called on municipal administrators and imam-khatibs to closely cooperate with each other and not yield to provocations of extremist and terrorist organizations.
