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Kazakhstan attacks human rights defenders for criticizing draft law

As a law severely restricting freedom of religion and belief awaits Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev's signature, Justice Ministry representatives attacked local human rights groups for criticising the new Law, accusing them of "openly lying," reports Forum 18 News Service.

Denying that the Law will impose restrictions, Ministry officials claimed that "benevolent conditions" have been created for religious communities. The Law has been condemned by many religious leaders, such as Protestant leaders and Murat Telibekov of the Union of Muslims.

Fr Vsevolod Chaplin of the Moscow Patriarchate pointed out to Forum 18 News Service that, under the proposed Law, "if a young person is walking past and goes into a mosque during prayers, the imam could be arrested." Fr Chaplin pointed out that he was himself a believer at the age of 13, against the wishes of his parents, which would be forbidden by the Law.

Pope Benedict XVI has made an apparent oblique criticism of Kazakh policy, writing to the Kazakh Ambassador to the Holy See that "it is incumbent upon the State to guarantee full religious freedom, but it also has the duty of learning to respect what is religious, avoiding interference in matters of faith and the conscience of the citizen."

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TAGS: Kazakhstan human rights defenders criticizing draft law persecution Vsevolod Chaplin Pope Benedict XVI

[12/26/2008]

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