TAJIKISTAN: ALMOST 2,000 MOSQUES CLOSED IN 2017

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TAJIKISTAN: ALMOST 2,000 MOSQUES CLOSED IN 2017

 

Tajikistan has claimed to have closed almost 2,000 mosques in 2017.

Officials claimed they were closed at the request of local residents, but have not been able to explain why they only allow mosques with a capacity far below the possible numbers of worshippers.

 

TAJIKISTAN: ALMOST 2,000 MOSQUES CLOSED IN 2017

 

http://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=2356

 

By Mushfig Bayram, Forum 18

 

On 5 February 2018 Tajikistan's State Committee for Religious Affairs and

Regulation of Traditions, Ceremonies and Rituals (SCRA) claimed that 1,938

mosques were in 2017 forcibly closed and converted to secular uses.

However, human rights defender Faizinisso Vokhidova noted that the SCRA's

claims that the mosques were illegal is not credible. She also noted that

many closed mosques had refused to complain about their closure, even when

offered legal assistance in bring court cases. "They were afraid to do so",

Vokhidova told Forum 18 (see below).

 

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