Muslims from the suburb of Rafik Mumin in Namangan, a city
in Uzbekistan's section of the Fergana valley, have complained that the
authorities have repeatedly refused registration for a local mosque on various
pretexts. Speaking to Forum 18 News Service in the city in early May, the
Muslims, who asked not to be identified, said they have applied annually to the
authorities for registration of the Donobad mosque which was closed down in
1998, but so far in vain. In their latest application, the believers sent all
the documents required for registration to the city administration at the end
of last year. On 28 March the deputy leader of the city hakimiat
(administration), N. Abdullaev, wrote back to the Muslims, declaring that
"it is pointless to register the mosque, because several mosques near it
are already functioning".
Under Uzbekistan's 1998 law on religion, it is illegal for an unregistered mosque
to function. Although a mosque is registered by the regional justice
department, prior to this believers must obtain agreement to the registration
from the administration of the mahalla (a small district of a city) as well as
from the town authorities (or from the district in rural areas).
"Ever since most of the mosques in Uzbekistan were closed down in 1998,
the authorities have used various pretexts to reject believers' requests to
register mosques," Gulyam Halmatov, chairman of the Namangan branch of the
Independent Human Rights Organisation of Uzbekistan, told Forum 18 in the city
on 6 May. "The authorities routinely give unofficial instructions to
mahalla committee leaders to refuse registration to mosques," he
maintained.
Although formally the leaders of mahalla committees are elected by the local
population, they are in practice appointed by the town authorities and
therefore carry out their will unquestioningly. The system is virtually
identical to that of Soviet times, when deputies at all levels were formally
elected by the people. To illustrate his point, Halmatov pointed to Namangan's
Abdullah Haji Ishan mahalla, whose residents have for several years been unable
to register a mosque because the leader of the mahalla committee has refused to
give her consent.
However, mahalla leader Nahmuda Najimidinova denied that she was obstructing
believers' demands. "No-one has asked me for consent to the registration
of a mosque in the district," she told Forum 18 on 7 May in Namangan. She
insisted that she knew nothing about residents of the Abdullah Haji Ishan
mahalla wishing to open a mosque. Yet only the day before Forum 18 had met
residents - who asked not to be named - who confirmed that they had asked
Najimidinova several times to approve the registration of a mosque.
Muslims at other closed mosques in Namangan have complained of the denial of
registration (see F18News 8 April 2003).
"I personally have received no complaints from believers in Namangan
region, so it is hard for me to comment on the circumstances you have
cited," the chairman of Uzbekistan's committee for religious affairs
Shoazim Minovarov told Forum 18 from the capital Tashkent on 7 May. "The
law on religion does not say anything about functioning mosques not being able
to operate near each other. It is probably easier for the authorities on the
spot to understand the circumstances."
Minovarov went on to describe the Namangan region as a "distinctive
part" of Uzbekistan. "Prior to 1998 there were twice as many mosques
as schools and of course we could not put up with that situation."
The Fergana valley is the most religiously active area of Uzbekistan. Even in
the Soviet era there existed an entire network of underground mosques and
Islamic schools, medressehs, which existed outside the control of the communist
government. At the beginning of the 1990s the Chechen terrorist Salman Raduyev
studied at one of these underground medressehs.
The population of Namangan region is much more religiously active even than
those in other regions of the Fergana valley. On public transport separate
accommodation is unobtrusively provided for men and women. Halmatov calculates
that about ten per cent of local men have, albeit unofficially, more than one
wife and this is not publicly condemned.
In 1991 detachments of an Islamic police force operated here, intent on
eradicating crime in accordance with Shariah law. The punishment for thieves
who had been captured was extraordinary from the point of view of western
jurisprudence. They were seated back to front on an ass and paraded through the
town and tied to pillars in the town squares with passers-by spitting in their
faces. Offenders were also whipped in the mosques. The leader of this Islamic
police force was Tahir Yuldashev, one of the current leaders of the Islamic
Movement of Uzbekistan, which tried by military means to establish a state of
the Muslim faithful - a Fergana emirate.