Mosques Threatened with Closure
Wednesday, 7 March, 2007
Mosques Threatened with Closure
Wednesday, 7 March, 2007
Kazak press reported last week that dozens of mosques in the Jambyl region in the south of the country which are trying to register with the authorities are coming up against obstacles in the legal process because they don’t have the necessary paperwork.
If they fail to register before the deadline on April 1, they face fines or closure.
Baurjan Amirbekov, head of religious affairs at Jambyl region’s justice department told NBCentralAsia that mosques are finding it difficult to gain legal status because the local commissions in charge of the process have left them in a Catch 22 situation.
Imams cannot submit paperwork to register their mosque unless it is already registered as a legal entity with the justice department. But, Amirbekov continued, “in order to register with the justice department, they have to submit a lease agreement for the mosque signed by an owner. But there is no owner, so the imam has no one to sign a lease with.”
Most mosques are built with public donations, and in many cases never had architects’ plans or property registration forms.
Amirbekov says the conditions the local commissions are imposing on mosques are in breach of recent legislation that allows previously unregistered buildings to be made legal under an amnesty. That legislation places no restrictions on who is allowed to register property.
“I’d like to emphasise that the clergy in Jambyl are very disappointed and unhappy at being left so little time to legalise their mosques, through the fault of the local commissions,” added Amirbekov.
According to Mukhtar Bashpanov, who manages the central Auliye-Ata mosque in the town of Taraz, there are more than 25 unregistered mosques across Jambyl region.
He says the local clergy and their congregations are becoming increasingly convinced that the process is being delayed on purpose.
“Imams are worried that the local authorities are deliberately putting up barriers to as to reduce the number of mosques after April 1,” Bashpanov said.
(News Briefing Central Asia draws comment and analysis from a broad range of political observers across the region.)
