 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
PROSELYTISM IN KYRGYZSTAN
Kanatbek MURZAKHALILOV
Kanatbek Murzakhalilov, Expert, State Commission for Religions at the republican government; Director, Studies of World Religions Center (Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan)
In independent Kyrgyzstan the rich and multisided spiritual life of its peoples, including religious confessions, is flourishing as never before. Having firmly resolved to build a democratic society our republic was one of the first in the CIS to pass the most democratic law on the freedom of conscience. It has no rivals in legislations of both newly independent and developed democratic states.
Its constitution registers the freedom of conscience and a secular state as its legal basis. Art 16.11 states: “Each person is guaranteed the freedom of conscience, religion, and religious or atheist activities. Each person has the right to freely profess any religion or do not profess any; to choose, have and disseminate his religious or atheistic convictions.” Art 8.3 says: “Religion and the cults are separated from the state,” while Art 15.2 registers: “None can be discriminated against, the rights and freedoms of no person can be infringed upon for the reasons of birth, sex, race, nationality, language, religion, political or religious convictions or for any other reasons of personal or public nature.”
Social and political changes in the republic are unfolding at a fast pace; difficulties and contradictions apart they have already radically changed both the relations between the state and confessions and the religious situation in the country.
Today, new religious organizations (unheard of in the republic prior to 1991) are present on its religious scene along with the traditional confessions (Islam and Christian Orthodoxy, the latter having 44 churches and parishes of the Russian Orthodox Church, including a nunnery and two Christian Orthodox structures outside the ROC absent prior to 1991, too). Today there are 3 Catholic communities; 2 Jewish ones, 1 Buddhist community; 216 Protestant communities (including 20 missions of foreign confessions, 11 educational centers, 7 centers, foundations and associations); and also 12 Bahai communities. About one thousand foreign missionaries are working in the republic—there were none before 1991.
There is a Spiritual Administration of the Muslims of Kyrgyzstan (SAMK) in the republic with 9 kazyats (territorial structures), 1,600 mosques, 25 Muslim centers, foundations and associations; 3 missions of foreign Islamic confessions, 7 Islamic institutes, 41 madrasahs and 1 Koranic class.
All these organizations can be divided into the following groups:
1. Old religions, new for Kyrgyzstan and its population, more often than not without local ethnic and confessional routes. They came from abroad in the last decade and are………………..
Please fill subscription form to obtain full text of this jounal
 |