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Will Jews get compensation when synagogue is demolished?
By Igor Rotar
Forum 18 News Service (28.08.2003)/ HRWF Int. (03.09.2003) - Website http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - The Jewish community in the capital Dushanbe has no idea whether it will get any compensation when its synagogue - the only one in Tajikistan - will be demolished next year as part of city reconstruction plans, Rabbi
Mikhail Abdurakhmanov told Forum 18 News Service from Dushanbe on 26 August.
"This has not been discussed," he said. He stressed that he was not accusing the authorities of demolishing the synagogue deliberately. "A general reconstruction of the city centre is being planned, and unfortunately our building turned out to be in that sector," he declared. "However, the authorities could have held a meeting with the Jews and avoided
demolishing the only synagogue in the whole of Tajikistan."
Rabi Aliyev, chief specialist at the government's committee for religious affairs in Dushanbe, was unable to tell Forum 18 what compensation would be offered if the synagogue is demolished.
The synagogue, built by the local Jewish community at the beginning of the twentieth century, was confiscated by the Soviet authorities in the 1920s. In 1958 the Jewish community was officially allowed to use the building again, but ownership was not transferred back to it and it remains state-owned property. The small synagogue was reported by the Rujen news agency on 18 August to be in a "lamentable condition", owing to the poverty of local Jews in the wake of economic collapse and the civil war in Tajikistan in the 1990s, during which most Jews abandoned the country.
Rabbi Abdurakhmanov told Forum 18 that the demolition of the synagogue is set to take place in 2004 under the terms of document no. 18, dated 23 January 2003, which was approved by a commission of the hakimiat (administration) of the city's Ismail Somoni district. The area where the synagogue is located is the future site for a Palace of Nations.
Rabbi Abdurakhmanov told Forum 18 that only about 150 Jews remain in Dushanbe, with about 30 regular worshippers at the synagogue. He said the community does not have the money to build a new synagogue and that if the current synagogue was destroyed the Jews would have to look for a sponsor.
In the absence of the chairman of the committee for religious affairs, Said Akhmedov, who Forum 18 was told is on holiday, Aliyev seemed uninformed about the plans to demolish the synagogue. "Rabbi Abdurakhmanov visited the committee for religious affairs recently, and said nothing about problems with the synagogue," he told Forum 18 on 26 August. Aliyev said the synagogue is situated "quite a long way" from the proposed Palace of Nations and "in my opinion it does not need to be demolished". But he believed that if the synagogue is demolished, then the authorities will have to offer the Jews a plot of land for the construction of a new one.
Source: F18News http://www.forum18.org/
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Loudspeakers banned from unregistered mosques
By Igor Rotar
Forum 18 News Service (02.09.2003)/ HRWF Int. (03.09.2003) - Website http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - Muslims have been banned from using loudspeakers to read out the call to prayer at all unregistered mosques in the capital Dushanbe under a decree issued by the city executive committee, local Muslims told Forum 18 News Service on condition of anonymity. However, officials denied to Forum 18 that any decree had been issued, merely a "request".
The spokesman for the Tajik muftiate, Said Negmatov, told Forum 18 on 28 August that he had "not heard anything" about a decree from the city authorities and could therefore make no comment.
The imam-hatyb of Dushanbe's central mosque Khabibhon Azimjanov proved better informed. "I have indeed heard about such a decree," he told Forum 18. "In fact it was not even a decree, just a verbal request." He said the order did not affect his and other large mosques, and that the central mosque was still using loudspeakers to broadcast the call to prayer as before.
"It is possible that some old people who find it hard to reach the larger mosques would like the call to prayer to be made using loudspeakers in their mahalla [city district], but times change," Azimjanov added. "Around ten years ago calls to prayer were broadcast on the radio, but that is now impossible!"
The head of the religious affairs department of the city administration, Shamsuddin Nuriddinov, admitted to Forum 18 on 28 August that the authorities had "requested" the leaders of unregistered mosques not to use loudspeakers for the call to prayer.
However, he believes that only registered Muslim places of worship may be regarded as mosques. "According to Tajikistan's law on religion, registration is obligatory and therefore unregistered religious associations are operating outside the law," Nuriddinov insisted to Forum 18. In fact there is nothing in the law on religion about a requirement to register.
Source: F18News http://www.forum18.org/
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Igor Rotar
Forum 18 News Service (05.08.2003) - HRWF Int. (14.08.2003) - Email info@hrwf.net - Website http://www.hrwf.net - Following a speech by President Emomali Rakhmonov stating that three suspected Tajik terrorists have been held by the USA in Guantanamo Bay, the operation of a medressah [=Islamic educational institute] in Northern Tajikistan is being prevented, 152 mosques were closed down, loudspeakers removed from many and 20 per cent of Imams removed from office, Forum 18 News Service has learned. State officials claimed that there were too many mosques. There have also been claims that the authorities compel written confirmation from young couples that they will marry in the 'European manner', with music and dancing. This claim has been denied by the local official dealing with religious affairs.
The authorities in the town of Isfara, 100km east of Khudzhand, the principal town in the northern Tajik region of Sogdi, are continuing to prevent the operation of a medressah [=Islamic educational institute] in Isfara district, the vice-chairman of the local branch of the Islamic Renaissance Party told Forum 18 News on 28 July. "It is the only medressah in Isfara district," Mukhamadali Abdumalakov remarked. "According to the Tajik law on religion, it is forbidden to teach religion without a graduate certificate from a religious institution. The question arises - who is going to teach people religious doctrine, if the authorities have closed down the only functioning medressah in the district? There have already been cases in which people were fined for teaching religious doctrine illegally."
The authorities closed down the Isfara district medressah last July. In the same month Tajik President Emomali Rakhmonov stated in a speech that three suspected terrorists held by the United States at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base came from the Isfara area, and expressed concern about the possible appearance of civil strife in northern Sogdi region motivated by radical Islam .
Control over Muslim religious life in Isfara district was imposed after the president's speech. According to Rakhmonov, at least 33 of Isfara district's 152 mosques were closed down. To justify this, state officials explained that the area had too many mosques, and that some had not been properly registered. The authorities also ordered the removal of over one fifth of the district's imams, who were accused of political activity.
Isfara district is an exceptional area in northern Tajikistan since, as a whole, the population is more devout than in other districts in Sogdi region. Thus, in the Tajik parliamentary elections in 2000, the Islamic Renaissance Party won a large majority in and around Isfara district. In one village, Chorku, the same party gained 93 per cent of the vote.
Although the mosques which were closed are functioning again, said Abdumalakov, the authorities continue to prevent the operation of the medressah. In his view, this is not the only instance in which the authorities are exerting pressure on believers. Approximately a year ago loudspeakers through which the faithful are called to prayer were removed from every mosque in the district apart from the central one, he said. He also maintains that the authorities compel written confirmation from young couples that they will marry in the 'European manner', with music and dancing. "According to the canons of Islam, stage music is unacceptable. But the authorities literally force people to incorporate stage music into their wedding celebrations," said Abdumalakov.
"All the documents necessary for the registration of Isfara medressah have now been collated," Dzhamuluddin Rakhmonov, the official dealing with religious affairs in Isfara district, told Forum 18 on 29 July. According to Rakhmonov, the documents would soon be sent to the Tajik capital Dushanbe and then, after they had been scrutinised by the Council for Religious Affairs attached to the Tajik government, the medressah would be able to begin functioning. Rakhmonov also claimed that loudspeakers had been removed from only a few mosques. "This was done for the convenience of believers. Calls to prayer were being sounded at different times from different mosques, with a time difference of several minutes. A Muslim is supposed to drop everything when he hears the call to prayer. It turned out that Muslims hardly had any time for their personal affairs due to this lack of co-ordination in the timing of the calls to prayer." Rakhmonov also categorically denied that the authorities interfered in wedding celebrations. "That's nonsense. I have personally attended Muslim weddings where there was no music," he said.
"The repercussions of President Rakhmonov's speech last year continue to be felt to this day," Negmatullo Mirsaidov, editor-in-chief of Tajikistan's Varorud Information Agency commented to Forum 18 in Khudzhand on 30 July. "In Kanabadam district [30km north of Isfara], for example, ten mosques remain closed."
Igor Rotar
Source: http://www.forum18.org
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Authorities concerned at publicity over Jehovah's Witness fines
by Igor Rotar
Forum 18 News Service (23.05.2003)/ HRWF Int. (27.05.2003) - Website http://www.hrwf.net - Email info@hrwf.net - International and local media interest in the case of two Jehovah's Witnesses fined in April for leading a religious meeting in the town of Tursun-Zade, 60 kilometres (35 miles) west of the capital Dushanbe, has provoked serious concern among the local authorities, Forum 18 News Service has learned from sources in the town. The authorities had hoped that the case against them C first reported by Forum 18 on 28 April - would go unremarked by the outside world.
The two Jehovah's Witnesses - Grigori Putenkov and Sukhrob Maksudov - have complained that a local television station portrayed them as criminals in a report broadcast on 30 April. "Our town is quite small and this programme has damaged our image," Maksudov told Forum 18 on 21 May. "We do not think of ourselves as criminals."
However, a producer at Tursun-Zade denied that the report had been biased. "We heard about the court case against the Jehovah's Witnesses from a broadcast by the Tajik service of Radio Liberty, which in its turn quoted Forum 18," Firuz Khalikov told Forum 18 from Tursun-Zade on 21 May. "We found your site on the Internet, translated the article from English and on the basis of that we showed an objective, neutral television report."
On 20 April several police officers raided the flat where around 40 local Jehovah's Witnesses were meeting, instructing all those present to write statements. Putenkov and Maksudov were taken to the town's police station, where officers started to insult them and struck Putenkov several times. On 24 April the town court fined each of the two men five times the minimum monthly wage (some 57 Norwegian kroner, 8 Euros or 8 US dollars) under Article 211, part 2 of the administrative code, which punishes "violation of the law on giving religious instruction" (see F18News 28 April 2003).
Maksudov reported that on 3 May he and Putenkov lodged an appeal against the town court sentence to the Supreme Court in Dushanbe. "We hope the authorities will not take it out on us because our case has unexpectedly received such wide publicity," he told Forum 18. "We do not seek confrontation and hope that in the end we will come to an understanding with the authorities."
No date has yet been set for the Supreme Court hearing, but the Jehovah's Witnesses expect it to be in about a month's time.
Source: http://www.forum18.org
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