Uzbekistan's constitution upholds freedom of religion and
the separation of religion and state, yet in practice the government exerts
harsh control over the life of virtually all religious communities, with
Muslims under the tightest control. At the same time the government also tries
to restrict the spread of Protestant, Jehovah's Witness, Hare Krishna and other
religions regarded as non-traditional in the country. The Russian Orthodox and
Jews experience the least pressure.
Although Uzbekistan is a member of the Organisation for Security and
Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and has ratified the International Covenant on
Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which enshrines guarantees of freedom of
conscience, Uzbekistan's laws and in particular the law on religion of 1998
severely limit believers' rights.
Article 8 of the religion law states that "religious organisations may
acquire the status of juridical persons and pursue their activities after
registering at the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Uzbekistan or at its
local agencies in a manner prescribed by law". In other words, if
believers gather for prayers in unregistered places of worship the authorities
judge this to be against the law and punish those involved - even to the extent
of bringing a criminal prosecution.
When Forum 18 pointed out that this provision of the religion law contradicts
the ICCPR and also OSCE principles, the chairman of the government's Committee
for Religious Affairs Shoazim Minovarov responded: "This part of the law
certainly does not mean that people do not have the right to meet in private
apartments and pray, but they cannot have a leader and none of them may give
religious instruction". Nevertheless, he contradicted himself by
immediately adding: "the police never allow an unregistered community to
hold regular meetings". In practice, the police and secret police, the
National Security Service (NSS, the former KGB), ensure that unregistered
communities do not hold religious meetings.
Article 10 of the religion law requires a minimum 100 signatures for a
religious community to qualify for registration, which many religious groups
simply cannot achieve.
According to Article 5 of the law, "actions intended to convert believers
from one faith to another (proselytism), and any other missionary activity, are
forbidden". Christians trying to convert Muslims to their faith, or whose
community includes people of traditionally Muslim ethnicity, have often been
subjected to persecution by officials and even prosecution. Under Article 9 of
the law, private religious instruction is not allowed, a provision often used
against unregistered groups who meet in private apartments.
Under Article 14 of the law, wearing religious clothing is not allowed in
public places. Although the term "religious clothing" is not defined,
in practice this causes many Muslim men to fear having an obviously Muslim
appearance (wearing a beard and clothes that are traditional to Muslim
countries). Women who wear traditional robes covering their heads can also be
subjected to discrimination. Recently this ban (at least as far as women are
concerned) has not been applied so rigorously: women have been appearing in
public in hijabs (a scarf that covers the hair and neck) and even (though much
more rarely) with their faces hidden. In the past year there have been no
recorded cases of women being expelled from higher education institutes for
wearing headscarves. However, none of the women excluded from higher education
in 1997 and 1998 for wearing "religious clothing" and who have
continued to wear such clothing have been reinstated this year.
The ban on appearing in public in "religious clothing" also affects
religious minorities. Hare Krishna devotees have complained to Forum 18 that
they cannot risk appearing in public wearing a sari.
The limits to religious freedom are reinforced by corresponding articles in the
criminal and administrative codes. Believers are most often subject to Article
202 part 1 (showing an inclination to participate in the activity of illegal
public associations or religious organisations), Article 240 (breaking the law
on religious organisations) and Article 241 (violating the procedure for giving
religious instruction) of the administrative code. All these articles prescribe
punishments ranging from a fine of five times the minimum wage to 15 days'
imprisonment. The minimum monthly wage is currently 5540 soms (42 Norwegian
kroner, 5 Euros or 6 US dollars).
If believers commit these offences more than once, they can be subjected to
parallel articles of the criminal code: Article 216, part 1 (showing an
inclination to participate in the activity of illegal public associations or
religious organisations) and part 2 (breaking the law on religious
organisations) and also article 229 part 2 (violating the procedure for giving
religious instruction). All these articles prescribe punishments ranging from a
fine (of between 50 and 100 times the minimum monthly wage) to three years'
imprisonment.
Uzbekistan operates vigorous censorship of religious literature. Article 19 of
the law declares that "the delivery and disposal of religious literature
that has been published abroad may take place after an expert analysis of its
contents in a manner prescribed by law". A list of literature approved for
distribution in the country has been drawn up by the Committee for Religious
Affairs. Literature that is not on this list is confiscated and even burned. On
15 April a court in Tashkent district decreed that copies of the magazine
Herald of Truth confiscated from local Baptist Aleksei Yermolayev should be
destroyed. Nine days later the magazines were incinerated.
An official of the religious affairs committee Begzot Kadyrov told Forum 18
that "unapproved literature is confiscated only if it is evident that the
literature has been brought in for distribution. Any literature may be brought
in for personal use in Uzbekistan." However, in practice a believer can
face problems even if just one unapproved book is found on him. One of the main
grounds for the case against Jehovah's Witness Marat Mudarisov (who was
convicted in November 2002) was the fact that an unapproved leaflet had been
confiscated from him which, the prosecution alleged, "contained insulting
comments about Islam".
The restriction on the import of religious literature is complemented by
censorship of the Internet. Access is blocked to the website hizb-ut-tahrir.org
(a British-based site of the radical Islamist party Hizb-ut-Tahrir, which is
banned in Uzbekistan), and also a site maintained by Uzbek Muslims in exile
muslimuzbekistan.com (a site hosted in the United States).
According to figures for the first quarter of 2003, the number of Internet
users in Uzbekistan was 310,000 (around one per cent of the population).
Furthermore, the number of people with a home computer linked to the Internet
is probably considerably lower. Given this low Internet penetration, it is
quite sufficient for the government to control access through Internet cafes.
In several Internet cafes, Forum 18 has even come across the sign:
"Viewing of religious or pornographic sites is forbidden".
In accordance with NSS orders, an Internet cafe owner is obliged to ensure that
his customers do not look at "forbidden" information. Although there
are no actual orders as to precisely which websites are banned, in
"suspect cases" the Internet cafe owner must call in NSS officers. If
a customer who has been visiting "unreliable" websites is arrested,
the Internet cafe staff member who called in the secret police will receive a
reward of 45,000 soms (344 Norwegian kroner, 41 Euros or 46 US dollars).
Sometimes NSS officers pose as customers and look at "unreliable"
websites. If the Internet cafe staff fail to react, they can expect serious
consequences and even imprisonment.
In private conversations with Forum 18, officials make no secret that this
harsh control is motivated primarily by the desire to control Muslim activity.
That the government has adopted such a policy is at least explicable. The
underground Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) openly aims to overthrow the
existing regime by force and replace it with an Islamic state. In the summer of
1999 and 2000 armed IMU fighters tried to invade Uzbekistan from their military
bases in Tajikistan.
The Uzbek branch of the international organisation Hizb-ut-Tahrir (Party of
Liberation), which aims for the unification of Muslims worldwide under one
caliphate, is less extreme. Although in the past this party has publicly
condemned the use of violence, its statements have taken on a marked
anti-western tone following the 11 September 2002 terrorist attacks in the
United States. Hizb-ut-Tahrir shares the IMU's hostility to western
civilisation as well as the IMU's inherent anti-Semitism. Its underground
activists have told Forum 18 that countries such as the United States and
Britain are the work of the devil. Secretly-distributed Hizb-ut-Tahrir leaflets
call Uzbek president Islam Karimov "a Jewish kaffir [infidel] and enemy of
all Muslims".
However, a crucial question is whether the Uzbek government's harsh religious
policy will indeed reduce the activity of Islamic extremists or whether it will
rather provoke Muslims to become religious radicals. Whatever the case, today
it is the Muslims, who make up around 90 per cent of Uzbekistan's population,
who are the believers facing the most restrictions.
According to both international and local human rights organisations,
Uzbekistan has locked up around 7,000 thousand prisoners of conscience, all of
them Muslims. The overwhelming majority were formally convicted not only for
their religious activity but also under Article 159 of the criminal code
(undermining the constitutional system). In reality they were arrested either
on suspicion of being "Wahhabists" (a term widely but largely wrongly
used in Central Asia to denote "Muslim extremists") or because they
were found carrying Islamic literature that is banned.
There have been only two cases of conviction of members of religious minorities
under the criminal code. In Tashkent last November, Jehovah's Witness Marat
Mudarisov was given a suspended sentence of three years' imprisonment under
article 156 of the criminal code. The following month, fellow Jehovah's Witness
Mars Munasypov was sentenced in Navoi under article 229 part 2 of the criminal
code (violation of the procedure for conducting religious education) and then
immediately amnestied in the court room.
Prisoners often cannot practise their faith freely. Muslim prisoners have been
punished for praying and fasting during Ramadan. Death-row prisoners wanting
visits from Muslim imams and Russian Orthodox priests have had requests denied,
even for final confession before execution.
The Muslim clergy, unlike the leaders of other faiths, are completely under the
control of the authorities. The leadership of the Spiritual Administration of
Muslims is virtually an agency of state authority. The current muftiate is merely
an imitation of the Soviet system, when religious communities were formally
separated from the state, but in fact were merely compliant instruments of the
communist authorities. Speaking to Forum 18, the muftiate leadership stated
their full support for the authorities' religious policy. It is curious that
these leaders denied such obvious facts as the closure of a number of mosques
and the ban on wearing Islamic clothing in general education institutions.
Imams do not have the right to compose the Friday addresses themselves, but are
obliged to read out texts that have been approved by the muftiate. Formally the
secular authorities have no right to dismiss imams they do not like, but in
fact all they have to do is to write to the muftiate, which will immediately
carry out their wishes. By contrast, there is no such practice in relation to
clergy of other faiths.
Formally the imams are chosen by Muslims themselves, while the muftiate simply
approves or rejects the applicant. But in practice imams are appointed by the
muftiate without reference to Muslims. Additionally, according to Article 8 of
the law on religion "citizens of the Republic of Uzbekistan who have the
relevant religious education may be leaders of religious organisations". But
the phrase "relevant education" is not defined, and in fact imams are
appointed who have only just completed their studies at Islamic school, the
medresseh. The medressehs, Forum 18 observed, are strictly controlled by the
authorities and it is virtually impossible for a student seen as
"unreliable" from the government's point of view to graduate from
them. It is also worth noting that the state does not interfere in the
appointment of clergy of non-Muslim faiths.
Another effective method of control over the imams is their attestation, which
takes place on average two or three times a year. Formally, the muftiate
carries out the attestation, but in practice state officials are almost always
present. The questions posed at the exams often bear no relation to religion.
One imam related how he was asked how many stars there were on Uzbekistan's
flag. Imams who want to pass the attestation also need to know when President
Karimov was born and the words of the state anthem. This sort of attestation
does not extend to the clergy of other faiths.
After the law on religion came into force in 1998, all religious organisations
were required to re-register. Yet the majority of functioning mosques have not
managed to register. On many occasions Forum 18 has come across closed mosques
in various regions of the country, many of them being used as clubs, libraries
and museums, just as in Soviet times.
Speaking privately to Forum 18, many senior officials confirm that the
repression of unregistered religious communities is simply a side effect of the
authorities' harsh policy against Muslims. "We cannot create one law for
Muslims and another for religious minorities," senior officials have told
Forum 18. "So we have to fine ten unfortunate old ladies - Protestants
holding a service in a private apartment - although we fully understand that
they are absolutely harmless to the state."
However, if this point of view is correct, then it is only partially so.
Religious minorities that decide to register their communities almost always
encounter official opposition, which many fail to overcome. For the sake of
fairness, we should note that quite often the difficulties encountered by
believers at registration can be attributed purely to bureaucratic red tape.
However, in most cases the difficulties with registration are a result of a
deliberate official policy of trying to limit the spread of faiths
non-traditional to the country. There is an unspoken directive: "If you
are an Uzbek, then you must be Muslim, if you are Russian, you must be
Orthodox."
The authorities are conducting a particularly harsh campaign against religious
minorities that they regard as trying to convert Muslims to their own faith.
The most striking example is the case of the Jehovah's Witness Mudarisov. A
Tatar by birth and a Tashkent resident, he actively preached Jehovah's Witness
doctrines. In July last year he was arrested by the NSS, and shortly afterwards
a criminal case was brought against him under Article 156 of the criminal code
(incitement of national, racial or religious hatred). But the investigation
failed to prove that he had incited inter-racial hatred. The accusations seemed
ludicrous: the investigator claimed that Mudarisov's guilt was convincingly
proven by the fact that "he preached the Bible, but ignored the other holy
book, the Koran". His suspended sentence last November came despite
pressure from the international community.
Mudarisov's case is disturbing primarily because he was sentenced under the
criminal code. However, there have been dozens of cases where pressure has been
applied to members of religious minorities simply because they are Muslims by
birth. In January the police burst into a private home in the town of Muinak in
Karakalpakstan where two ethnic Kazakhs were reading the Bible. The Protestants
were taken to the police station where they were tortured (gas masks were put
on their heads and the air supply cut off). Officers demanded that they write a
confession that they had been preaching the Gospel to each other.
In private conversations with Forum 18, Uzbek officials justify the harsh
campaign against proselytism by claiming that, given the difficult economic
situation, the conversion of Muslims to Christianity or other faiths could
provoke riots.
This consideration could also explain the almost benevolent attitude of the
authorities towards the Russian Orthodox and Jews. The Orthodox Church does not
try to preach to the Uzbeks, being content with its huge potential flock in
Uzbekistan (around 2 million ethnic Russians) and it supports the government's
battle with religions that are regarded as non-traditional. Judaism is not a
danger to the authorities; it does not seek converts.