AZERBAIJAN: Catholics "shocked" by undiplomatic warning

Fr Daniel Pravda, head of the small Catholic community in Azerbaijan, said he is shocked by the reported warning by the government's senior religious affairs official that he has been conducting "illegal religious propaganda", an offence under Azerbaijani law punishable by deportation. "I don't know what Rafik Aliev means by propaganda, but all I do is serve our Catholics," Fr Pravda told Forum 18 News Service. According to the local media, Aliev issued the warning to visiting Vatican foreign minister Archbishop Jean-Louis Tauran on 24 September. Forum 18 was unable to reach Aliev to find out whether he had indeed warned Fr Pravda, if so why he had done so and why Azerbaijani law bans foreigners and people without citizenship from conducting "religious propaganda" in defiance of international human rights conventions.

25 September 2003

GEORGIA: Will non-Orthodox faiths ever get legal status?

The lack of legal status for non-Orthodox religious communities has led to difficulties carrying out their activities, especially over building and opening new places of worship, minority religious leaders have complained to Forum 18 News Service. "Of course this is not right," declared Pentecostal Bishop Oleg Khubashvili. "There is no religion law so there is no legal status. We want legal recognition as a Church." True Orthodox priest Fr Gela Aroshvili believes the Orthodox Patriarchate will never allow other religious communities equal rights. "When the Patriarchate got its concordat it became a monopolist and was able to obstruct everyone else," he told Forum 18. But Metropolitan Daniil (Datuashvili) of the Patriarchate rejected suggestions that his Church opposes legal status for other faiths. "On the contrary, the Orthodox Church wants all of them to get legal status as religious organisations."

25 September 2003

GEORGIA: Catholics fail to break Orthodox monopoly

The Catholic Church failed in its bid to become the second religious community to gain legal status when the government abruptly cancelled plans to sign an agreement with the Vatican on 19 September. Catholic officials stressed that the Church needs the agreement. "For the past decade they kept saying a law on religion would be adopted which would grant such recognition, but it never happened," a Catholic official told Forum 18 News Service from Tbilisi. "That's the reason for the agreement." The government's change of mind followed complaints from the Orthodox patriarch and street protests. "These demonstrations were organised by the Orthodox Church, which stirred up the students by telling them the agreement was part of a plot by European and Masonic agents," Orthodox priest Fr Basile Kobakhidze told Forum 18.

23 September 2003

CHINA: Xinjiang religious freedom survey, September 2003

In its survey analysis of the religious freedom situation in the Xinjiang-Uighur Autonomous Region of north-western China (previously known as Eastern Turkestan), Forum 18 News Service reports on the pervasive state control over the religious life of native Muslims, who make up about half the local population. Mosques are strictly controlled by the authorities and all the imam-hatybs are state-appointed. Posters on mosques declare that children under 18 cannot attend, while an unofficial order bans employees of state-run companies from attending under threat of dismissal. Only approved religious literature can be sold. Despite Xinjiang's impressive recent economic growth, Forum 18 found that tension between local Muslims and the Chinese government has not been relieved.

18 September 2003

CHINA: Xinjiang's Ismailis cut off from international Ismaili community

China's tens of thousands of Ismaili Muslims - ethnic Tajiks concentrated in the north western Xinjiang region - are isolated from the rest of the worldwide Ismaili community, Forum 18 News Service has learnt on a visit to the remote region. The Chinese authorities allow only one Ismaili mosque to function in Xinjiang's Tajik Autonomous District, and children under 18 are not allowed to attend. The mosque's state-appointed imam, Shakar Mamader, admitted that the Chinese authorities do not allow the Aga Khan, the hereditary leader of the Ismaili community, to provide aid to China's Ismailis. "There is absolutely no need for such help as the central government provides very substantial funding to the region," he claimed to Forum 18.

11 September 2003

BELARUS: Local re-registration barely begun

Ten months after the highly restrictive religion law came into force and the compulsory re-registration process began, Forum 18 News Service has learnt that only a small proportion of religious organisations have re-registered. Only 27 of 140 have re-registered at national level, while progress is especially slow for those that must re-register with the local authorities. "Things aren't moving at the local level," Bishop Sergei Khomich, head of the Pentecostal Union, complained to Forum 18. As the new law criminalises unregistered religious activity, re-registration is essential to the continuing legal operation of individual religious organisations.

10 September 2003

TRANSDNIESTER: Did Orthodox join police in crushing Baptist street library?

Baptist pastor Vasili Timoshchuk alleges that Orthodox priest Fr Igor Konstantyushko confiscated the books from a Baptist street library in Krasnoe on 30 August and called the police to detain the library organiser, Aleksandr Kulysh. "I can't believe this. Fr Igor doesn't command the police. That's a state matter," Orthodox diocesan secretary Fr Dionisy Abramov told Forum 18 News Service, though he admitted he had not enquired of the priest if he had broken up the library or not. Kulysh could now be fined. The authorities of the separatist republic of Transdniester in eastern Moldova have a history of impeding distribution of literature by Baptists and other religious minorities they dislike. The incident came three weeks after Transdniestran customs seized copies of a Baptist journal, which have still not been returned. Forum 18 has been unable to find out why they were seized.

5 September 2003

TRANSDNIESTER: Methodists live "twilight existence," leader claims

The two Methodist congregations in the separatist republic of Transdniester in eastern Moldova live a twilight existence, their leader reports. "We can't rent anywhere for services and we can't afford to buy property. We have to meet semi-legally in private flats," Dmitri Hantil told Forum 18 News Service. He said their local registration applications in 1997 and again in 2000 had stalled as they refused to pay a bribe of at least 500 US dollars sought by Pyotr Zalozhkov, the commissioner of religion and cults. Forum 18 tried to reach Zalozhkov but his phone went unanswered. The Methodists have also sought registration with the Moldovan authorities – so far in vain.

4 September 2003

AZERBAIJAN: "KGB methods" used to break up Sunday school

Local police chief Mukhtar Mukhtarov used "Soviet, KGB methods" in breaking up the Sunday school attached to Baku's Greater Grace Protestant Church on 31 August, one of the church's pastors complained. "Mukhtarov said we do not have the right to teach kids and convert Azeri children," Pastor Fuad Tariverdi told Forum 18 News Service. But Mukhtarov rejected any criticism and blamed the church. "They're acting illegally," he told Forum 18. "There was nothing bad, but this must be done with the permission of the Committee for Work with Religious Organisations." The director of the club where the Sunday school met has told church leaders that he has been threatened that if he lets them in again he will be imprisoned.

3 September 2003

RUSSIA: Moscow Baptist street service broken up

After police broke up an open air Baptist evangelistic service in southern Moscow, a court ruled on 11 August that the singing and praying "disturbed public order and the peace of those relaxing nearby". One Baptist was fined 16 US dollars after police claim he swore at them, a charge denied by local Baptists. "Believers don't swear," Veniamin Khorev told Forum 18 News Service. He described the breaking up of the service as "part of the normal life of our church". As the Baptists refuse to register with the authorities they have no legal status and in practice cannot rent buildings for worship. Their evangelistic events have been disrupted across Russia this summer, with books confiscated, tents taken down, six church members detained for five days and four fined.

2 September 2003

TAJIKISTAN: Loudspeakers banned from unregistered mosques

Unregistered mosques in the capital Dushanbe may no longer broadcast the call to prayer through loudspeakers, local Muslims told Forum 18 News Service, but officials denied that any decree had been issued. Shamsuddin Nuriddinov of the religious affairs department of the city administration admitted to Forum 18 that the authorities had "requested" the leaders of unregistered mosques not to use loudspeakers for the call to prayer. Nuriddinov believes unregistered Muslim places of worship cannot be regarded as mosques and are operating illegally.

1 September 2003

BELARUS: More obstacles to public religious events

Protestants and other minority faiths could find it even more difficult and expensive to hold public religious events under the new law on demonstrations and public events which came into force on 29 August. President Aleksandr Lukashenko reportedly removed proposed exemptions for religious events from the text of the new law approved by both houses of parliament in June. Forum 18 News Service points out that the new law – which formalises the web of controls that already exist over public religious events – adds a new twist, allowing religious groups to be liquidated (and therefore made illegal) if an event they organise causes any harm to the "public interest", even such as any disruption to public transport.