Tajik Government Targets “Illegal” Mosques

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. But critics warn that indiscriminate closures will leave many rural communities without a local mosque simply because they have not gone through a formal registration process.

At the beginning of January, ten mosques were shut down by the city authorities in the capital Dushanbe, on the grounds that they were operating unlawfully.

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.

In this predominantly Muslim country, 3,700 mosques have already been granted registration, as have 74 premises belonging to other faiths such as the Russian Orthodox Church.

The fate of some mosques remains uncertain as they have either not applied for registration or their applications are still pending. In the Darvaz district of southeast Tajikistan, for example, the future of 28 mosques is hanging in the balance. Eleven of the applied for registration before the January 1 deadline passed, while the other 17 did not and are thus liable to be closed.

Although Darvaz is in Badakhshan, where most communities belong to the Ismaili branch of Islam, the people here are Sunni Muslims like the rest of Tajikistan. It is also borders on northern Afghanistan, which Taleban insurgents have increasingly been infiltrating from their traditional strongholds in the south of that country.

“There are various reasons why the authorities are worried [about the area]. One is that Darvaz is next door to the Rasht area where some alarming events unfolded recently,” religious affairs expert Sadi Yusifi said, referring to clashes between government troops and suspected Islamic militants last year. (See Tajik Authorities Struggle to Quell Militants on this.) “Another is the fact that Darvaz is a strategic area that connects Badakhshan with the rest of the country, and that borders on Afghanistan. So it’s natural that the increasing number of mosques and the rise in religious sentiment there should become a focus of attention for the authorities.”

Analysts say the Tajik government is nervous about the risks posed by Islamic radical groups and wants to get a grip on how mosques are run, removing those that operate without permission and cutting down on the number that have appeared in the two decades that Tajikistan has been independent.

“The authorities view the increasing number of mosques as incompatible with the secular nature of the state, in other words as the Islamisation of society’s cultural traditions,” a commentator who asked to remain anonymous said. “It’s a phenomenon that has recently become very noticeable in certain regions – for instance, where weddings and other events are accompanied by sermons and no music is played.”

The authorities have avoided talking about threats posed by Islamic radicalism, and instead focus on the need to follow procedures and regulations.

In Dushanbe, an official from the religious affairs department in the mayor’s office insisted that the aim was not to close places of worship, but simply to ensure that buildings were used for their proper purposes. He cited cases where shops and cafes had been turned into mosques without the requisite application being filed with the authorities,

The deputy head of the national-level Committee for Religious Affairs, Mavlon Mukhtorov, said some of the mosques in Darvaz had made errors in their applications for registration, but these could be corrected and they would be allowed to stay open until a final decision was taken.

The government crackdown has met with some supporters among the analyst interviewed for this report.

Islamic affairs analyst Farrukh Umarov argued that there was nothing wrong with attempting to rein in the proliferation of mosques, and said everyone should follow the same rules when it came to putting up new buildings.

To counter suggestions that the Tajik government was in some way hostile to Islam, Umarov pointed out that Qatar and other Arab states were providing funding for a mosque in Dushanbe that will be the largest in Central Asia once it is completed.

However, the government clampdown also has its critics, who say the rural mosques now under threat provide a useful service to remote communities, and it would be better to help them comply with official regulations rather than shutting them down.

Jura Nazriev, chief editor of the local newspaper, Darvoz, said many villages in Darvaz district were too far from the nearest town for people to be able to get there if their local mosques closed, especially since mountain roads were closed throughout the winter.

Residents of Darvaz are unhappy at the prospect of no longer having somewhere to meet for prayer.

One man who gave his name as Karim said, “They say the mosques are operate illegally, but I’m not interested in the law. I am obliged by Sharia [Islamic law] to pray five times daily, so I’m against any kind of arguments from the authorities about closing mosques down.”

Muhiddin Kabiri, who heads the opposition Islamic Rebirth Party, says he agrees that mosques should register with the proper authorities. “But they need to be helped to do so, and not subjected to bans and restrictions,” he added.

Kabiri believes the tough line on religious issues being driven by hardliners in government.

“It seems to me that at the moment, it’s the hawks who have the upper hand in determining the relationship with religion; they like attacking things,” he said.

There is certainly evidence that government is worried about the ways Islam is practiced. This month, the government’s religious affairs committee announced that it was working with theCouncil of Clerics, the state-approved Islamic structure in Tajikistan, to compiling a list of some 60 topics deemed suitable for sermons, and will soon distribute the list to the imams or prayer-leaders of mosques across the country.

The Asia Plus news agency reported earlier in January that police in Dushanbe detained about 30 men who had beards, and photographed and fingerprinted them before releasing them. Police said the measures were part of a sweep designed to uncover extremists.

Late last year, the authorities ordered hundreds of Tajiks studying at madrassas and Islamic universities abroad to return home, warning that they were at risk of falling prey to advocates of terrorism and extremism. (See Tajikistan: Islamic Students Told to Come Home.)

Aslibegim Manzarshoeva is an IWPR-trained journalist in Tajikistan.

This article was produced jointly under two IWPR projects: Building Central Asian Human Rights Protection & Education Through the Media, funded by the European Commission; and the Human Rights Reporting, Confidence Building and Conflict Information Programme, funded by the Foreign Ministry of Norway.

The contents of this article are the sole responsibility of IWPR and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of either the European Union or the Foreign Ministry of Norway.