Learning from Tajikistan

Once again it is the mavericks, the outside the box thinker,s that make the difference. And while Tajikistanwas so not on my radar screen, it is now, thanks to Jammie Wearing Fool.

Not the headline. It ought to read, President Rahmon fights for his country's life.

Tajikistan: Is President Rahmon's Government Anti-Islamic? Radio Free Europe

September 8, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- More than 300 makeshift mosques have been closed recently by authorities in the Tajik capital, Dushanbe, with some of those sites subsequently turned into beauty salons or police offices. These and other clampdowns follow a government ban on Islamic head scarves -- hejab -- in schools, compulsory tests for clerics, and a ban on the fundamentalist Mavlavi religious group.

Government scrutiny of mosques and religious activities has intensified all over the predominantly Muslim republic of Tajikistan.

Authorities in the northern Sughd region have set deadlines for the operators of 350 mosques to get proper licenses or face closure.

Registration Hampered By Bureaucracy

Brilliant!

In the eastern Vanj district, authorities have banned the fundamentalist Mavlavi Islamic group, whose practitioners have been accused of harassing locals.

Officials in the southern town of Kurgon-teppa have ordered 13 mosques there to present their registration documents to local prosecutors for checking.

"The authorities are worried about the fact that many people gather every evening in mosques. Because when so many people -- from different parts of society -- get together regularly, it is impossible [to imagine] that they would never discuss the country's political, social, and economic issues."Kalandar Sadriddinov, an imam in a Kurgon-teppa mosque, told RFE/RL's Tajik Service that authorities have introduced a complicated procedure to register mosques. He said operators must get official permission from many offices -- from the fire department to environmental authorities -- before even applying for registration.

"We have to get permission from 12 agencies," said Sadriddinov. "And people in those agencies get suspicious and nervous as soon as you mention 'mosque registration.'"