Mosque Scheme Taxes Kazaks

Gaziza Baituova

IWPR Contributor

Monday, 21 February, 2005

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Officials in the Kazak city of Taraz appear to be pressuring cash-strapped civil servants and local businesses to fund the building of a four million US dollar mosque.

The huge Aulie-Ata facility in the centre of Taraz, in southern Kazakstan, will tower above the city and house more than 1,300 worshippers when complete.

But this grandiose project has so far been financed almost entirely by “donations” from the region’s public sector workers and small businesses.

Teachers, doctors and others paid from the state budget were among the first to be tapped for mosque-building money.

Though many are non-Muslims, they were docked three days worth of pay so construction could begin. Since then, the civil servants have seen their wages dipped into a further three times to fund the scheme.

“With our small incomes this is a lot of money for us,” said teacher Elena Melnikova. “How much longer will we have to finance some else’s ambitions?”

Headmistress Tamara Korotkova has given up her salary for the past two months but is concerned her school is still well short of the 660 dollars it was asked to collect.

The head of the city’s board of education, Berik Sarsenbaev, denies anyone is forced to contribute, saying money is given entirely voluntarily. “No one gives any orders,” he said. “Staff gather the money themselves.”

But the pressure to “donate” has, if anything, increased since mosque construction ground to a halt about four weeks ago due to lack of funds to pay the builders and project organisers. More than 3.2 million dollars is still needed to finish Aulie-Ata.

To that end, local business owners recently received an “invitation” from the city administration to contribute to the mosque building.

Each firm was told how much it should consider offering up, with amounts ranging from 7,750 to around 2,300 dollars. Most felt unable to resist since they rely on the goodwill of city authorities to stay in business.

Driving the fundraising is new regional governor Boribai Jeksembin, who told local journalists in October that he favoured directly approaching potential donors for contributions.

Jeksembin also admitted at the press conference he is determined a project started by his predecessor not falter under his administration.

“Construction must not be stopped now, because then tomorrow everyone will start complaining that the former [governor] of the region was good, that he started this good deed, and Jeksembin came along and closed everything down,” he said.

At a recent meeting hosted by city mayor Bolat Sauranbaev, business owners were reprimanded for missing deadlines to make donations. Complaints that they couldn’t afford to pay were ignored, local journalist Denis Konyushikhin told IWPR.

As discontent has grown, Jeksembin appointed mayor Sauranbaev to investigate claims that donations are being forcibly collected for Aulie-Ata. He said he found no wrongdoing.

Additionally, teachers including Saltanat Amirbaeva recently appeared on the local state television channel to say they had given up their salaries voluntarily - but it appears that the authorities had ordered them to do so. “I had to say this in front of the camera,” Amirbaeva told IWPR.

At the root of the problem, critics say, is that funding this hugely expensive project has been left entirely to the city. No money has come from elsewhere in Kazakstan or from other countries.

“The city of Taraz undoubtedly needs a main mosque. But why can’t investors from rich Muslim countries be brought in for this important project?” said a local official who wished to remain anonymous.

“Especially as the actions of my colleagues violate Kazakstan legislation, and they are also exceeding their official powers.”

Gaziza Baituova is an independent journalist in Kazakstan.