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Uzbekistan: Muslims and Christians victims of literature crackdown

Uzbekistan continues to attack the sharing of information and opinion in religious literature, Forum 18 News Service notes.

In the most recent known cases, contributors to two Islamic religious periodicals - Irmoq (Spring) and Yetti Iqlim (Seven Climates) - are facing criminal charges, allegedly for distributing information on the Turkish Muslim theologian Said Nursi.

Obiddin Makhmudov of Uzbekistan's state Agency of Press and Information told Forum 18 that "I just found out yesterday from the national TV channel that the magazine's [Irmoq's] staff are suspected of having ties with a banned religious organization."

Baptists are being punished for distributing religious literature free-of-charge, in one case being questioned for seven hours without food or water. A different Baptist has been fired from his job as an electrician, after the NSS secret police and ordinary police confiscated his religious literature from his mother-in-law's flat. Asked by Forum 18 why police raided the flat, Police Inspector Alisher Umarov claimed they were "allowed" to do passport control "anywhere and anytime."

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TAGS: Uzbekistan Muslims Christians victims religious literature crackdown persecution

[02/18/2009]

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