Worrying about radical Islam, Tajik authorities are continuing to target ‘illegal’ mosques.
“45 mosques have been shut down in Isfara for not meeting sanitary requirements and poor state,” Isfara Mayor Dilshod Rasoulzoda told reporters in Isfara on January 24.
“Local residents have proposed to convert these mosques into social facilities such as kindergartens, first aid stations, libraries, etc. But for this there is necessary permission of the Committee on Religious Affairs (CRA). Besides, it is necessary to renovate them,” the mayor said.
Rasoulzoda also noted that 153 residents of Isfara had been studying religious schools abroad. “All of them have been returned home,” the mayor said.
According to him, several residents of Isfara are illegally participating in military conflicts in other countries. “All of them were recruited by extremist and terror organizations in Russia while they were working there as labor migrants,” Rasoulzoda stressed.
As of January 1, 2018, the population of the northern city of Isfara is estimated at 261,500 and the city now has one central mosque, 100 "five-time" prayer mosques and 11 Friday prayer mosques (larger facilities built for weekly Friday prayers).
A government campaign to shut down unofficial mosques in Tajikistan appears to be driven by fears some of them may be used to preach Islamic fundamentalism.
The authorities cite a law on religion passed in 2009 which included the requirement that only purpose-built premises can qualify as places of worship, and set specific criteria for whether a community is entitled to build one. The law also sparked a process where religious institutions of all kinds had to re-register with the government.
