TAJIKISTAN'S NEW LAW ON RELIGION - USHERING IN A NEW ROUND

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 DUSHANBE 000347 SIPDIS STATE DEPARTMENT FOR SCA/CEN E.O. 12958: DECL: 3/19/2019 TAGS: PGOV PHUM KISL TI SUBJECT: TAJIKISTAN'S NEW LAW ON RELIGION - USHERING IN A NEW ROUND OF PROBLEMS? REF: A. (A) 2008 DUSHANBE 1523 ¶B. (B) 2009 DUSHANBE 209 ¶C. (C) 2009 DUSHANBE 346 CLASSIFIED BY: Tracey A. Jacobson , Ambassador, EXEC, DOS. REASON: 1.4 (b),(d) ¶1. (C) Summary: Parliament has passed a new Law on Freedom of Conscience and Religious Associations (Religion Law),and President Rahmon is poised to sign the bill into law. The law is full of internal contradictions, and codifies numerous restrictions that government officials have been preemptively enforcing. As the government attempts to put a positive spin on its passage, the law has been met with a chorus of criticism from a wide spectrum of society. The intent of the law is to curb extremism; however, if the authorities implement the most controversial provisions of the law, they will likely get the opposite. End Summary. MOCK CONSULTATION AND LEGISLATIVE PROCESSES ¶2. (U) The lower house of parliament, the Majlisi Namoyandagon, passed the Religion Law on March 5 without any substantial debate. The vote was taken while a key representative, Chairman of the Islamic Revival Party Muhiddin Kabiri, was out of town. The upper house, the Majlisi Milli, passed the bill on March 12 with little debate. One of the few dissenters, Hoji Akbar Turajonzoda, said the law "contradicts Tajikistan's Constitution and international norms." During the consideration process, numerous groups had unsuccessfully attempted to obtain copies of the bill. Olim Salimov, the Deputy Head of the Parliamentary Committee on International Relations, said that "Parliament cannot reveal the text to anyone until it is signed by the President...We have already had enough public debates. What we need is to finally adopt it." ¶3. (U) Salimov is right to the extent that various versions of the law have been discussed over the last two years. Complaints from civil society appeared to have staved off passage of the law for some time. Ministry of Culture officials claimed that civil society had "taken part in the two-year long preparation" of the law, although there are only a few instances where the concerns of religious groups, political parties or international experts were taken into account. Minister of Culture Mirzoshokhrukh Asrori said the law was necessary because of "religious radicalism, nihilism, and foreign Islamic movements." CODIFYING EXISTING POLICY - AND STIFLING THE RELIGIOUS COMMUNITY ¶4. (SBU) The law has numerous internal contradictions. Article 4 of the law guarantees freedom of religion, and the right to "freely chose, spread and change one's religious faith, as well as to act in accordance with one's faith." Much of the rest of the law outlines the significant degree to which the government can control, limit or restrict those rights. The law is a codification of many of the restrictions that the government has already imposed in an attempt to control all aspects of religious life. As we outlined in reftel A, this policy has had the opposite of its intended effect: excessive government intrusion has hurt the government's credibility in religious matters. ¶5. (SBU) The law does not treat all religious groups uniformly. The preamble contains language recognizing the "special role of hanafiya Islam" (the traditional form of Sunni Islam practiced by most Tajiks),which government authorities have described as "decoration, with no legal consequences." EmbOffs, however, have recently spotted signs at numerous mosques throughout the country reading "The sermons in this mosque can be conducted only within the framework of the Great Imam [Hanafi]." ¶6. (SBU) The law specifically defines the types of religious organizations that can exist in Tajikistan, and regulates mosques differently than it does other houses of worship. The law establishes population quotas for communities where mosques are located. Friday praying mosques can function in districts with populations of 10-20,000 people; five time praying mosques can function in districts with populations of 100-1000 (the quotas are higher for Dushanbe). Imam-khatibs and imams of mosques are selected by "the appropriate state bodies in charge of religious affairs." ¶7. (SBU) All religious organizations - including mosques - must go through a registration process, and as with NGOs, religious organizations must provide voluminous amounts of information in order to comply with registration requirements. Registration DUSHANBE 00000347 002 OF 002 can be denied for providing "incomplete" information; it can also be denied if the "name of the organization insults morals and manners, national and religious dignity of citizens." Government officials are vested with broad authority to interfere with religious activities; religious associations may not "hamper the participation of the related authorized state bodies in their arrangements. Worshipping and performing other religious rites or rituals must be carried out "according to the procedure of holding meetings, rallies and demonstrations...prescribed by law." In reftel C, we outlined specific examples of how the government violates principles of separation of church and state that are enshrined in the new law. HOW WILL TAJIKISTAN REACT? ¶8. (C) Comment: The law obviously contravenes international standards on human rights and religious freedom and Tajikistan's own Constitution. The difficulty of even obtaining a copy of the law when it was being discussed in parliament shows how flawed the legislative process in Tajikistan is. None of the imams we met with in reftel B would find any of the provisions of this law acceptable; they have ignored or circumvented government controls in the past, and they will continue to do so. The law technically gives the government the pretext to disperse the crowds that attend their mosques; will the government use this power? In some parts of the country, particularly in Sughd, the density of mosques is greater than the law allows; will the government close some of them? The degree of backlash to this law may be directly related to the intensity with which government officials enforce the new law. As we reported in reftel C, some imams foresee a period of instability, but if enforcement is uneven, or if the religious community adapts to the new regulations as it has in the past, conflicts can be averted. Religious organizations must re-register with the government before January 1, 2010, so we may see some early indications of how this plays out in the near future. End comment. JACOBSON