December 30, 2011
Kyrgyzstan
Kyrgyz Officials Reject Muslim Sect
BISHKEK – Kyrgyz religious authorities have refused to re-register the Ahmadiyya Muslim community, RFE/RL’s Kyrgyz Service reports.
Sagynbek Toktorbaev, a representative of the Ahmadiyya Muslim community in Kyrgyzstan, told RFE/RL on December 29 that the government’s State Commission on Religious Affairs rejected their re-registration.
He said the commission’s decision violates the rights of the some 1,000 members of the Kyrgyz branch of the Ahmadiyya community, an Islamic revivalist movement founded in India in the late 1800s by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad. Some of the Ahmadiyya community’s beliefs are considered controversial with mainstream Muslims.
Yusub Baltabaev, an official with the State Commission on Religious Affairs, told RFE/RL that the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Kyrgyzstan (SAMK) proposed that the activities of Ahmadiyya in Kyrgyzstan be suspended because of its alleged “threat to religious security” in the country.
SAMK official Zhorobay Shergaziev told RFE/RL on December 29 that the Ahmadiyya Muslim community is controversial and does not comply with Shari’a law.
The activity of the Ahmadiyya community, which has its main office in London, was first registered in Kyrgyzstan in 2002.
Ahmadiyya representatives translated the Koran into Kyrgyz and published 3,000 copies of their interpretation, which was not approved by the official Kyrgyz Muslim clergy.
Sagynbek Toktorbaev, a representative of the Ahmadiyya Muslim community in Kyrgyzstan, told RFE/RL on December 29 that the government’s State Commission on Religious Affairs rejected their re-registration.
He said the commission’s decision violates the rights of the some 1,000 members of the Kyrgyz branch of the Ahmadiyya community, an Islamic revivalist movement founded in India in the late 1800s by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad. Some of the Ahmadiyya community’s beliefs are considered controversial with mainstream Muslims.
Yusub Baltabaev, an official with the State Commission on Religious Affairs, told RFE/RL that the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Kyrgyzstan (SAMK) proposed that the activities of Ahmadiyya in Kyrgyzstan be suspended because of its alleged “threat to religious security” in the country.
SAMK official Zhorobay Shergaziev told RFE/RL on December 29 that the Ahmadiyya Muslim community is controversial and does not comply with Shari’a law.
The activity of the Ahmadiyya community, which has its main office in London, was first registered in Kyrgyzstan in 2002.
Ahmadiyya representatives translated the Koran into Kyrgyz and published 3,000 copies of their interpretation, which was not approved by the official Kyrgyz Muslim clergy.
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