Tajikistan: Predominately Muslim state announces closure of nearly 2,000 'illegal' mosques in 2017

---

Officials claim the 'illegal' mosques were closed at the request of local residents, but have not been able to explain why they only allow mosques with a capacity far below the possible numbers of worshippers.

Times of Ahmad | News Watch | Int'l Desk
Source/Credit: Forum 18 News
By Mushfig Bayram | February 26, 2018

On 5 February 2018 Tajikistan's State Committee for Religious Affairs and Regulation of Traditions, Ceremonies and Rituals (SCRA) claimed that 1,938 mosques were in 2017 forcibly closed and converted to secular uses. However, human rights defender Faizinisso Vokhidova noted that the SCRA's claims that the mosques were illegal is not credible. She also noted that many closed mosques had refused to complain about their closure, even when offered legal assistance in bring court cases. "They were afraid to do so", Vokhidova told Forum 18.

Press conferences were in early January held in various parts of Tajikistan to announce local mosque closures and the alleged reasons for this. Two typical examples were in the northern Sogd Region, in Isfara and in Bobojon-Gofurov District. In both cases, officials claimed the mosques were closed at the request of local residents. In neither case were officials able to explain to Forum 18 why they only allow mosques with a capacity far below the possible numbers of worshippers.

The authorities are highly dismissive of questions about the mosque closures. When Forum 18 on 19 February asked the SCRA official responsible for work with mosques why so many have been closed, he put the phone down and then put on a recorded message with a female voice repeatedly saying: "Who are you, where are you calling, what an idiot". His phone continued to play this message with a male voice the following day.


Read original post here: Tajikistan: Predominately Muslim state announces closure of nearly 2,000 'illegal' mosques in 2017


This content-post is archived for backup and to keep archived records of any news Islam Ahmadiyya. The views expressed by the author and source of this news archive do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of Times of Ahmad. Times of Ahmad is not an organ of the Ahmadiyya Muslim community, nor in any way associated with any of the community's official websites.