FORUM 18 NEWS SERVICE, Oslo, Norway
http://www.forum18.org/
The right to believe, to worship and witness
The right to change one’s belief or religion
The right to join together and express one’s belief
==============================
1 September 2011
KAZAKHSTAN: EXPELLED FOR PREACHING IN OWN CHURCH
http://www.forum18.org/
After legal residence in Kazakhstan for 15 years, marriage to a Kazakh
citizen and a two-year-old daughter, Russian citizen Leonid Pan was in
mid-August denied his application to renew his residence permit because he
volunteers to preach in his local Protestant church, according to
documentation seen by Forum 18 News Service. The local Internal Policy
Department had already refused permission for him to become leader of the
church. “How can the Migration Police, without having a Court order, demand
that Leonid leave the country?” church members complained to Forum 18. The
KNB secret police denied to Forum 18 it was involved in the expulsion.
Meanwhile, another Baptist was in August fined nearly five months’ official
minimum wage for holding an unregistered worship service. State
restrictions on religious communities are likely to increase with the new
Religion Law amendments, due in Parliament this autumn.
2 September 2011
KAZAKHSTAN: NEW RELIGION LAW TO “BRING ORDER TO OUR HOUSE”
http://www.forum18.org/
Human rights defenders and members of religious communities the government
does not like have already expressed concern to Forum 18 News Service over
the proposed amendments to make the Religion Law harsher. President
Nursultan Nazarbaev told Parliament on 1 September that the amendments are
to be adopted “in the current session”, which concludes in June 2012. He
complained of unregistered communities which the state does not control,
insisting: “We must bring order to our house.” The head of the government’s
Agency of Religious Affairs, Kairat Lama Sharif, told the media the
amendments his Agency has prepared (which have not been made public) will
soon go to Parliament. Once adopted, the Law will require re-registration.
“We are not expecting anything good from these new developments,” one
Protestant told Forum 18. Ninel Fokina of the Almaty Helsinki Committee
told Forum 18 she fears the new amendments will be “essentially the same
text” as the restrictive previous amendments declared unconstitutional by
Kazakhstan’s Constitutional Council in 2009. The OSCE told Forum 18 the
Kazakh government has not asked for its assistance.
* See full article below. *
31 August 2011
RUSSIA: “THE FANTASY OF THE SPECIAL SERVICES”?
http://www.forum18.org/
Readers of the works of the late Turkish Muslim theologian Said Nursi claim
prosecutors planted “evidence” of how to make explosives during a raid on a
flat in Chelyabinsk where Muslim women meet to pray. Two Nursi readers –
one of whom was running a summer school for local girls also raided – now
face criminal prosecution. Nursi readers described to Forum 18 News Service
claims that they were running schools for future suicide martyrs as “the
fantasy of the special services”. The Department for Especially Important
Cases refused to discuss with Forum 18 why prosecutors had made accusations
that the two women were preparing suicide bombers as if they were fact if
the investigation has not been concluded. Meanwhile, the criminal case
against four Nursi readers in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk has finally
reached court after a 17-month investigation, with the preliminary hearing
today (31 August). Only one of the four has been allowed to use his own
lawyer. In the long-running trial of Jehovah’s Witness Aleksandr
Kalistratov, prosecutors have called as prosecution witnesses two Russian
Orthodox, neither of whom personally knows Kalistratov.
2 September 2011
KAZAKHSTAN: NEW RELIGION LAW TO “BRING ORDER TO OUR HOUSE”
http://www.forum18.org/
By Felix Corley, Editor, Forum 18 News Service <http://www.forum18.org>,
and
Mushfig Bayram, Central Asia Correspondent, Forum 18 News Service
<http://www.forum18.org>
Following unequivocal rulings by Kazakhstan’s Constitutional Council in
2002 and again in 2009 that harsh proposed new Religion Laws already
approved by Parliament were unconstitutional, Parliament is again due to
consider major revisions to the 1992 Religion Law to introduce new
restrictions, Forum 18 News Service notes. President Nursultan Nazarbaev
made the announcement to a joint session of the two houses of Parliament in
the capital Astana yesterday (1 September). He demanded that deputies
consider the amendments “in the current session”, which lasts from 1
September until 30 June 2012. His newly-appointed head of the government’s
Agency of Religious Affairs, Kairat Lama Sharif, told the media the same
day that, once adopted, the Law will require all registered religious
organisations to re-register with the state.
Forum 18 has been unable to get a copy of the text due to be presented to
Parliament. Officials have also refused to explain why the Religion Law
needs to be amended.
Merekegul Karabayeva, press spokesperson of the Agency of Religious Affairs
(ARA), declined to discuss anything with Forum 18 on 2 September.
Telephones of other ARA officials, including both its deputy chairs Marat
Azilkhanov and Ardak Doszhan, went unanswered each time Forum 18 called.
Serik Temirbulatov, the deputy who was a member of the Majilis (lower house
of Parliament) working group which prepared the previous draft in 2008,
said he had not seen the text of the latest proposed amendments. He told
Forum 18 from Astana on 2 September he could only comment when the Agency
of Religious Affairs – which has prepared the text – passes it to
Parliament. He said he did not know when that would happen.
“We are not expecting anything good”
Human rights defenders and members of religious communities the government
does not like have already expressed concern about the planned amendments.
Ninel Fokina of the Almaty Helsinki Committee – who was active in opposing
the previous attempted amendments – fears the new amendments will be
“essentially the same text”. She pointed out that neither she nor society
at large has had the possibility to see and contribute comments on the
text.
Fokina expressed particular concern at the promised re-registration
requirement. “I see re-registration as an effective tool the government is
using to get rid of religious groups it dislikes and regards as
undesirable,” she told Forum 18 from Almaty on 2 September. “It has been a
familiar scheme ever since the 1990s, when the Religion Law was amended for
the first time.”
A member of the Grace Presbyterian Church in Karaganda [Qaraghandy] is
equally concerned. “We are not expecting anything good from these new
developments,” the church member told Forum 18 on 2 September. “When we had
a more or less normal Religion Law, we still experienced problems from the
authorities. Now they want to make it stricter we can expect really
unpleasant things.”
The church member said that in recent months, state officials from various
agencies, “even the fire department officials”, told the church “we belong
to the so-called risk-group organisations”.
Among other religious communities Forum 18 has spoken to who are worried by
the proposed amendments is a member of the Ahmadi Muslim community, who
also expressed concerned over re-registration. “If we have registration,
why should we need to be re-registered?” the representative told Forum 18
on 2 September. “We have been registered in Kazakhstan for 17 years.”
Text already prepared
Lama Sharif told journalists on 1 September that his Agency of Religious
Affairs has already prepared the new draft Religion Law, which contains
“many innovations”. He said it would be presented to Parliament “in the
near future”.
In his remarks to Parliament, President Nazarbaev claimed that it is
necessary to make the Religion Law harsher. “We are not talking about
banning freedom of conscience,” he insisted. “Talk is rather of defending
the state from religious extremism, which all states do, especially those
which have adopted Islam as the state religion.”
Forum 18 notes that Kazakhstan has no state religion and is described in
its Constitution as a secular state. The current Religion Law declares that
all religions and religious communities are equal before the state.
Nazarbaev expressed his anger over what he claims some religious
communities and individuals are doing. “What they want to do, they do,
whoever wants to come here comes,” he told parliamentarians. “They name
mosques after their fathers! What these mosques are up to, no one knows. No
one confirms them, no one registers them! This is a state! We must bring
order to our house. I believe you will approach this question seriously and
we will all do what needs to be done.”
While parliamentarians have some input into the content of Laws, Forum 18
notes that the Religion Law amendments are unlikely to face opposition in
Parliament. The Nur Otan (Light of the Fatherland) party, led by Nazarbaev,
is the only party to have representation in the two-chamber Parliament.
After the Constitutional Council rejected the latest proposed amendments in
2009, officials have repeatedly promised that they would try again. A 2010
document of the ruling presidential Nur Otan Party, a member of the Senate
who was in 2010 working on legal changes, and the country’s 2009 “National
Human Rights Action Plan” have all indicated that proposed restrictions –
rejected to avoid bad publicity while the country was Organisation for
Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Chair-in-Office in 2010 – would
return (see F18News 30 September 2010
<http://www.forum18.org/
No help sought from OSCE
Although the proposed amendments to the Religion Law have already been
prepared, the Kazakh government has not asked for any assistance in
reviewing them either from the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and
Human Rights (ODIHR) or from the OSCE Centre in Astana, ODIHR and the
Centre separately confirmed to Forum 18 on 2 September.
“The OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights stands ready
to provide any assistance to the government of Kazakhstan, upon request, to
help it ensure that the proposed amendments to the Religion Law fall in
line with Kazakhstan’s OSCE commitments,” Thomas Rymer, ODIHR deputy
spokesperson, told Forum 18 from Warsaw.
Both the proposed Religion Law amendments rejected by the Constitutional
Council 2002 and 2009 had been the subject of heavy criticism by the OSCE.
When the OSCE Legal Opinion requested by the Kazakh government in 2008 –
prepared by the OSCE/ODIHR Advisory Council on Freedom of Religion or
Belief – turned out to be highly critical, the Kazakh government tried to
prevent its publication. It was finally made public in February 2009, when
the Constitutional Council had already begun its review (see F18News 4
February 2009 <http://www.forum18.org/
Just the Religion Law to be amended?
Although President Nazarbaev and Lama Sharif of the Agency of Religious
Affairs both spoke only of amendments to the Religion Law, and as long as
no texts have been made public, it remains unclear whether amendments are
being prepared to other Laws relating to religion.
The “Law on Amendments and Additions to Several Legislative Acts on
Questions of Freedom of Conscience and Religious Associations” – rejected
by the Constitutional Council in 2009 – would have amended not only
numerous articles of the current Religion Law, but the Code of
Administrative Offences and several other laws.
Growing power of Agency of Religious Affairs
The new Agency of Religious Affairs (ARA) which has prepared the new
amendments was established by Presidential Decree in May and reports
directly to Prime Minister Karim Masimov. On 7 June Masimov appointed Lama
Sharif, a career diplomat, to head the new Agency (see F18News 28 July 2011
<http://www.forum18.org/
Lama Sharif insisted in his 1 September comments to journalists that his
Agency had been created “to increase the religious literacy of the
population. To explain what the threat of religious extremism and what the
development of normal religion represent.”
Concern has already been expressed over his comments at a press conference
in June that the country had chosen “one nation – one religion” and that
the ARA will “prepare a concept on the ‘Development of moderate Islam in
Kazakhstan'” (see F18News 28 July 2011
<http://www.forum18.org/
Lama Sharif revealed that during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which
coincided this year with August, his Agency had travelled to every Region
of Kazakhstan and conducted “informational analytical work” on the
religious situation. “The reports of the analytical groups note that the
religious situation in Kazakhstan is stable,” he declared.
However, Lama Sharif expressed concern about unnamed “destructive movements
which propagate extremism,” he was quoted by the Tengrinews agency as
declaring. “Of course in this connection the Agency of Religious Affairs
conducts work in the area of warning against these extremist-minded people,
especially among youth.” He insisted that politicisation of religion was
“unacceptable”.
Will only Hanafi Islam be permitted?
It remains unclear if the proposed amendments will include the demand of
the state-backed Muslim Board that only Islam of the Hanafi school will be
permitted. Its spokesperson Ongar Omirbek declared in July that it had long
pushed for a more restrictive Religion Law and hoped that it would include
a monopoly among Muslims for Hanafi Islam (see F18News 28 July 2011
<http://www.forum18.org/
Forum 18 notes that Lama Sharif focused in his 1 September statements
mainly on mosques rather than communities of other faiths, while his June
comments about preparing concept of moderate Islam have worried some
Muslims set to be excluded by any Muslim Board monopoly.
Re-registration – only for those that “benefit society”
Although he spoke mainly about mosques, insisting that none would be closed
as a result of re-registration, Lama Sharif insisted the Law will require
compulsory state re-registration for all communities.
Lama Sharif claimed that re-registration is needed because many religious
communities were created before Kazakhstan gained independence in 1991.
“This is why after the adoption of the Law re-registration of religious
associations will be carried out, and we will in addition carry out
thorough religious expert analyses of all religious associations on the
subject of their accordance with basic legislative acts of Kazakhstan and
over what benefit or harm they cause to society,” he was quoted by
Interfax-Kazakhstan on 1 September as declaring.
Repeated amendments to laws on religion
Despite the failures in 2002 and 2009 in proposed comprehensive reviews of
the Religion Law, the 1992 Law has been amended by various Decrees and Laws
eight times since its original adoption (twice in 1995, in 1997, in 2004,
twice in 2005, in 2007 and in 2011). None of the amendments made life
easier for religious communities and many restricted individuals’ and
communities’ rights to freedom of religion or belief.
In particular, “national security” amendments to a variety of Laws in 2005
introduced harsh new restrictions in the Religion Law, including a ban on
unregistered religious organisations. Criticism of these amendments from
human rights defenders, religious communities and the OSCE was ignored (see
F18News 8 December 2005
<http://www.forum18.org/
The 2011 Religion Law amendment – approved on 5 July and which comes into
force on 13 October – adds “other responsibilities” (unspecified) to
existing responsibilities the ARA and local authorities have to control
religious activity.
Also amended in the 2005 “national security” amendments was the Code of
Administrative Offences, introducing penalties for leading or participating
in unregistered religious activity and for religious activity by foreigners
without permission. These penalties have been widely used, most recently in
August, with a fine of nearly five months’ official minimum wage for a
religious service in a private home without state registration (see F18News
1 September 2011 <http://www.forum18.org/
Constitutional amendments in 2007 introduced new state controls on
religious leaders appointed from abroad (such as the Russian Orthodox and
Catholic Churches).
Legal amendments this year removed possible protection for religious
communities attacked by state officials. Amid amendments to the Criminal
and Administrative Codes approved by Parliament on 18 January, Criminal
Code Article 149 supposedly defending parts of the internationally
recognised right to freedom of religion or belief was abolished. Although
it had never been used to Forum 18’s knowledge to defend communities
attacked by officials, observers viewed its removal as symbolic (see
F18News 28 July 2011 <http://www.forum18.org/
The government is still proposing a full revision of the Code of
Administrative Offences. The Government presented its proposed new version
to Parliament in November 2009. The retention in the proposed new Code of
the two Articles which punish religious activity was widely criticised by
human rights defenders and religious communities which have suffered from
these provisions. However, the Government withdrew the proposed new Code
for technical reasons in August 2010, though work on it could be renewed
(see F18News 8 September 2010
<http://www.forum18.org/
For a personal commentary on how attacking religious freedom damages
national security in Kazakhstan, see F18News
<http://www.forum18.org/
For more background, see Forum 18’s Kazakhstan religious freedom survey at
<http://www.forum18.org/
More reports on freedom of thought, conscience and belief in Kazakhstan can
be found at
<http://www.forum18.org/
A compilation of Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe
(OSCE) freedom of religion or belief commitments can be found at
<http://www.forum18.org/
A printer-friendly map of Kazakhstan is available at
<http://education.
(END)
© Forum 18 News Service. All rights reserved. ISSN 1504-2855
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F18News http://www.forum18.org/
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