WASHINGTON (ABP) — When one thinks of international violators of religious freedom, totalitarian communist regimes such as North Korea or China often come to mind — as do theocratic Islamic nations such as Saudi Arabia or Iran.
But members of two federal panels turned a spotlight May 11 on an often-overlooked ex-Soviet state whose violations of religious freedom, they agreed, may be some of the world's worst.
“Overall, Turkmenistan is a severe violator of religious freedom,” said Ron McNamara, deputy chief of staff for the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, also known as the United States Helsinki Commission.
McNamara's group and the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom co-sponsored the briefing for Capitol Hill staff and reporters. It featured three experts on religious freedom conditions in the Central Asian dictatorship.
Despite the fact that Turkmenistan President Saparmurad Niyalov is a signatory to the Organization on Cooperation and Security in Europe, the panelists said the nation has failed to meet the human-rights protections found in treaties agreed to by that group. In particular, the nation essentially bans religious activity by any groups besides the Russian Orthodox Church and a government-approved brand of Sunni Islam.
Officially, “unregistered” religions are illegal, and congregations or groups of religious believers who attempt to hold a worship service without the government's express permission face stiff penalties — both of the legal and extra-legal variety.
However, the requirements for registration are stiff, and no group besides Sunni Muslim and Russian Orthodox groups has successfully registered since registration laws were created in the late 1990s.
According to Felix Corley, editor of the Forum 18 news service, the experience of congregations that have made applications for official registration has discouraged others from doing so. He noted that all members of a congregation have to add their names to the registration application. “The last time around, they came around and they went through all the people on the list and harassed them,” Corley said. ” I mean, they could kick you out of your job, for example, if you're on a state-run job. They could … remove your child from higher education.”
Corley's news agency covers religious freedom issues in Europe. He also noted that the government panel charged with monitoring religious activity in the country and reviewing registration applications is made up of religious leaders — thus having an inherent conflict of interest when it comes to legally authorizing religious groups that may compete with their own.
“[O]f of its senior four officials of this committee, two of them are Muslim clerics, one of them is an Russian Orthodox priest, and one of them is a functionary of the state, which means that, de facto, the Muslims and the Russian Orthodox have a power of veto over any other community functioning in the country,” Corley said.
The council also appoints imams to mosques, rather than the congregations choosing their own leaders.
Lawrence Uzzell, president of International Religious Freedom Watch, said the government interferes in even approved Sunni Muslims' religious practice in other ways. He noted the government's promotion of the Rukhnama — a book of spiritual sayings compiled by Niyalov.
“What our sources in Turkmenistan tell us is that when a Muslim enters a mosque in today's Turkmenistan, he is supposed to pause upon entering, touch the text of the holy Ruhknama, which must be on display … and reverence it in the same way that one would reverence the Koran,” Uzzell said.
He pointed to a government website promoting the Rukhnama in English. The site says the book's author was “a truly prophetic man” and that it is “on par with the Bible and the Koran.”
The book, Uzzell said, is taught extensively in Turkmenistan's public schools. That should be enough to concern anyone — not just religious-freedom advocates.
“If you're utterly indifferent to religion and to freedom of conscience, but just care about the quality of secular education, you have to be concerned about the fact that the Ruhknama is now taking over state education in Turkmenistan,” he said.
The State Department is poised to announce its designations for “countries of particular concern,” or CPCs, under the terms of the 1998 International Religious Freedom Act. Although the independent U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom has recommended such a designation for Turkmenistan for the past four years, so far officials at the State Department have not followed the suggestion.
Earlier this year, Niyalov announced he was loosening some of the registration requirements for religious communities. But Corley, McNamara and others dismissed that as simply window-dressing to avoid CPC designation.
“Despite the moves made by the president in March under intense international pressure, the fundamentals on the ground have not changed. People cannot meet openly for worship if they're in an unregistered religious community,” Corley said. He also noted that only one church has applied since the rules change was announced, and it has heard nothing back about its application.
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