VZCZCXRO8840
RR RUEHLN RUEHSK RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHDBU #1435/01 3511000
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 171000Z DEC 09
FM AMEMBASSY DUSHANBE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 1049
INFO RUCNCIS/CIS COLLECTIVE
RUEHDBU/AMEMBASSY DUSHANBE 2257

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 DUSHANBE 001435 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM PGOV TI
SUBJECT: TAJIKISTAN - MOST MINORITY RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIES COMPLETE 
MANDATORY RE-REGISTRATION 
 
REF: DUSHANBE 575 
 
DUSHANBE 00001435  001.2 OF 003 
 
 
¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY: The Tajik Ministry of Culture says it will 
succeed in re-registering most of the country's 84 non-Islamic 
churches and 300 large Friday prayer mosques before a January 1, 
2010 deadline imposed by the April 2009 Law on Religion. 
However, government officials admit that they will not be able 
to register about half of the country's 3,000 "five-time" prayer 
mosques before the deadline.  Officials say that they will not 
consider late-registering mosques "illegal" and will continue to 
register them in 2010.  In general, the government has not used 
the re-registration process to target religious minority groups, 
though a Dushanbe court declared one Baptist Church illegal due 
to its refusal to register.  One government analyst predicted 
that the government may revamp its entire religion policy in 
2010 to play an even more active role in Muslim religious life. 
END SUMMARY. 
 
 
 
¶2. (SBU) Per the government of Tajikistan's April 2009 Law on 
Religious Practices, all registered religious organizations are 
required to submit applications for re-registration to the 
Ministry of Culture's Department of Religious Affairs (DRA) by 
January 1, 2010.  Organizations that fail to submit 
re-registration paperwork by the deadline, or are currently 
unregistered, may submit "first-time" registration applications 
after the New Year with a new 300 somoni (70 USD) fee. 
Otherwise, the process will remain unchanged.  Among other 
documents, religious organizations must present a list of 10 
founding members, all of whom must be Tajik citizens who 
maintained a local residence for five years.  Once the DRA 
approves registration of a religious organization, it issues it 
certificate with indefinite validity. 
 
 
 
¶3. (SBU) The DRA, which oversees the registration process, 
re-registered nearly all of Tajikistan's 300 large Friday 
mosques and 67 of 84 registered non-Islamic religious 
organizations, according to Idibek Ziyoyev, Head of the DRA. 
The DRA twice met with representatives of religious minority 
groups to explain the re-registration process.  Ziyoyev expects 
that most of the 17 outstanding non-Islamic religious 
organizations will submit re-registration applications to the 
DRA by the New Year, but said that several have 
"self-liquidated" and are no longer active.  The DRA will not 
seek to close religious organizations that do not re-register 
before January 1, but rather seek to register them under the new 
regime. 
 
 
 
¶4. (SBU) Ziyoyev admitted that the DRA is far behind schedule in 
registering the country's 3,000 small "five-time" prayer 
mosques, where Muslims are permitted to recite "Namaz" prayers 
but not conduct Friday sermons.  The DRA has re-registered only 
about half of these, which Ziyoyev blamed on low manpower.  To 
register the mosques, local district officials must assist each 
mosque to complete the re-registration applications and submit 
related materials to the DRA for review.  "It is physically 
impossible for my staff of 18 guys to re-register every mosque 
in the country by January.  We are already working Saturday and 
Sunday.  Many of the applications we receive are full of 
mistakes and we have to send them back."  Ziyoyev admitted that 
the DRA would not be able to re-register up to half of the 3,000 
"five-time" mosques in time, but denied that this would render 
them "illegal" after January.  He said that the DRA will proceed 
to issue these mosques "new" registrations in 2010.  Per the new 
Religion Law, a Friday mosque may only be permitted in a 
residential area with a population between 10,000 and 20,000 
people.  Ziyoyev said that DRA has not denied any 
re-registration application as a result of these new 
restrictions, but admits that unregistered mosques exist that 
violate the new legal restrictions.  "No one has raised their 
voice about these extra mosques, but we will not register them." 
 
 
 
 
¶5. (SBU) Abdullo Rahnamo, religion analyst for a 
governmentthink-tank, said local officials are unlikely to risk 
confrontation with the influential Islamic clergy by closing 
unregistered mosques.  Abdullo admitted that there is widespread 
opposition within the government to many of the restrictions in 
the Religion Law and predicted that officials will ignore many 
of its provisions.  He said the January 1 deadline for mosque 
re-registration will likely be extended, albeit informally. 
"The government does not want to get into confrontation with 
Imams before the elections."  Abdullo is drafting a new 
"Conception of Religion" to be released next year.  Rahnamo's 
draft confirms the role of Hanafi Islam in the Tajik society, 
 
DUSHANBE 00001435  002.2 OF 003 
 
 
establishes a new Ministry of Religious Affairs and a national 
Islamic education center, puts imams on the state payroll, and 
softens objectionable elements of the April 2009 Religion Law. 
The goal, according to Abdullo, will be "for the state to 
participate in the population's move toward Islam.  The people 
have already become more Islamic and the state is two or three 
years behind the people." 
 
 
 
MINORITY RELIGIOUS GROUPS 
 
 
 
¶6. (SBU) DUSHANBE SYNAGOGUE:  Leader of Dushanbe's only 
synagogue, Mikhail Abdurahmonov, said that he has not yet 
submitted the community's re-registration application as he must 
first resolve a "bureaucratic question" regarding documentation 
of land donated by presidential brother-in-law Hassan 
Asadullozoda after the government bulldozed the former synagogue 
to build the "Palace of the Nation" (reftel).  Abdurahmonov said 
DRA officials repeatedly have called the synagogue to urge him 
to submit the relevant paperwork so that the Jewish community 
can be re-registered before January 1.  Abdurahmonov believes he 
will be able to resolve the outstanding land documentation issue 
and complete re-registration before the deadline. 
 
 
 
¶7. (SBU) UNION OF EVANGELICAL CHRISTIAN BAPTISTS (UECB):  The 
80-year old Church of Evangelical Christian Baptists in Dushanbe 
reported no problems in re-registering with the Minister of 
Culture.  All six UECB-affiliated churches have completed 
re-registration.  Church pastor Andrei Werwai reports that an 
additional eight additional UECB churches, hitherto operating 
with the approval of local officials, will need to submit 
first-time registration applications to the Ministry of Culture 
after the New Year. 
 
 
 
¶8. (SBU) BAPTIST HOUSE OF PRAYER:  Andrei Chumachenko's 
un-registered Baptist Congregation, unaffiliated with the UECB, 
has refused to apply for registration as a religious 
organization as a matter of principle.  "We have no organization 
and only gather to pray, sing songs, and worship, so we 
shouldn't need to register."  In addition, Chumachenko said that 
by applying for registration, the church must commit to not 
proselytize within private homes.  "If a non-believer invites us 
to his home, of course we will proselytize."  A district court 
declared the church illegal on October 26 because of its refusal 
to register.  The congregation has appealed the decision and 
argue that they are "not a religious organization".  Chumachenko 
said that since the ruling the congregation has gathered to pray 
as usual in its worship hall without incident.  "No one has come 
to check on us."  The church has existed in Dushanbe since the 
early 1960's, when it broke off from the larger UECB, which it 
considered to be compromised by Soviet authorities. 
 
 
 
¶9. (SBU) SEVENTH DAY ADVENTISTS:  The DRA re-registered the 
Dushanbe Seventh Day Adventist Church, established in 1990, 
according to Pastor Edvard Dylev.  The Church will file 
first-time registration applications for several new Seventh Day 
Adventist churches operating outside the capital.  Dylev said 
that the re-registration process for the Dushanbe Church was 
relatively easy.  However, the "Development and Progress" NGO 
affiliated with the Church is involved in a long-running legal 
case with the Rasht valley regional government.  The NGO, part 
of Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) International, 
is managed by the Seventh Day Adventist's local leadership. 
After the "Development and Progress" management fired the 
country director for "moral indiscretions," Rasht valley 
officials filed a lawsuit against the NGO for breach of contract 
for failing deliver a coal shipment.  Dylev claims that the 
charges are baseless and that the former country director, who 
has high-level connections, falsified the coal agreement and 
engineered the trial as an act of revenge.  After Tajik 
officials searched the NGO's office grounds, located adjacent to 
the church, and found a Bible, the courts also charged that the 
NGO is a religious organization.   ADRA won its first round in 
court over the coal agreement, but an appellate court ruled 
against the NGO.  ADRA has appealed.  Dylev said that he does 
not believe that the legal action is directed against the 
church. 
 
 
 
¶10. (SBU) BA'HAI COMMUNITY:  The Ba'hai religious community has 
submitted re-registration applications for all six currently 
 
DUSHANBE 00001435  003.2 OF 003 
 
 
registered local assemblies and its National Spiritual Assembly. 
 National secretary Mahnoz Zhanmakhmadova said that several of 
these Ba'hai assemblies could not obtain registration 
documentation from local government officials, but the DRA 
intervened to resolve the issue by providing commensurate 
documents.  Zhanmakhmadova said that the DRA indicated it will 
approve all of the outstanding re-registration applications by 
the New Year.  In addition, Zhanmakhmadova said the Dushanbe 
city government is posting the Ba'hai community's contact 
information on its website for visitors.  The Ba'hai community 
will submit additional applications for new branches after the 
New Year. 
 
 
 
11: (SBU) JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES, JAMAAT AL TABLIGH, AND SALAFIS: 
The government continues to ban activities of the Jehovah's 
Witnesses, the Jamaat Al Tabligh Islamic missionary group, and 
the fundamentalist Salafi sect.  The Jehovah's Witness were 
registered as a religious organization until 2008, when a Tajik 
court declared their activities illegal and nullified their 
registration.  Officials have told the Jehovah's Witnesses that 
since they were banned by court order, they may not re-register, 
according to Jehovah's Witnesses representatives.  On December 
9, a Dushanbe court initiated criminal proceedings against 56 
members of Jamaat Al Tabligh following an April raid on a mosque 
affiliated with the banned group.  Jamaat Al Tabligh members 
claim that their missionary activities are exclusively peaceful, 
but a senior government security official told emboff that 
members of Tabligh attempted to join a militant group in 
Tavildara in summer 2009.  Abdullo Rahnamo said that the 
government is likely to back down on its campaign against 
Tabligh after complaints from prominent Muslim Imams, but 
continue its crackdown against the Salafis, who are considered 
by most clergy to be a dangerous and foreign influence.  Six 
Salafis are awaiting trial in Dushanbe. 
 
 
 
12: (SBU) COMMENT: Embassy contacts indicate that the government 
has so far not used the re-registration requirement to harass 
minority religious groups in Tajikistan.  Bureaucratic 
disorganization, rather than government hostility, has caused 
most of the delays.  The government's residency requirements for 
church founders, however, may impede recently arrived 
missionaries from establishing new churches.  While most 
minority religious groups continue to report a good relationship 
with the authorities, the government continues to take a hard 
line on groups that engage in aggressive proselytizing of a 
"foreign" ideology.  After much discontent following the 2009 
Religion Law, some officials recognize that the government needs 
to seek rapprochement with the country's traditional religious 
leadership.  President Rahmon tried to score points with the 
Muslim community with his declaration Year of Imam Azzam Al 
Hanafi.  It is likely that the government will seek to expand 
such initiatives, play a greater role in Islamic life in 
Tajikistan, and reward Islamic clergy that play ball.  END 
COMMENT 
GROSS