Keston
News Service - 8 April 2002
Posted 12 April 2002 on RELIGIOSCOPE
"Currently
we have no problems in Kyrgyzstan, but we fear that problems
may arise after approval of a new law on freedom of conscience
and religious organisations, which is due to be adopted at
the May parliamentary session," the leader of Kyrgyzstan's
Ahmadiyya community told Keston News Service in Bishkek on
1 April.
Zahur
Ahmad, a Pakistani citizen, cites as evidence the "constant
attacks" on the Ahmadiyya community by representatives
of the country's official Muslim leadership, the muftiate,
and the new position he believes has been taken by the chairman
of the parliamentary sub-committee for religious affairs,
Alisher Sobirov (who drew up the proposed new religion law).
However, while maintaining that Ahmadis are not Muslims, Sobirov
denied to Keston that he wishes to see them banned.
The
Ahmadiyya community was founded in India by Mirza Gulam Ahmad
Kadiani. Ahmadiyya's doctrine is inclusive in nature, seeking
to appeal to Christians, Muslims and followers of other religions.
According to Ahmadiyya's doctrine, the founder of their community
is the repository of the last divine revelation, and is the
embodiment of the Muslim Mahdi, the Christian Messiah and
the Hindu Krishna. In many Muslim countries Ahmadiyya is not
considered to be a Muslim community. In Pakistan, for example,
members of the Ahmadiyya community may not call themselves
Muslims or use Muslim terminology.
Ahmadi
doctrine was brought to Kyrgyzstan at the beginning of the
1990s by preachers from Pakistan. Zahur Ahmad told Keston
that at present the faith has around 100 Kyrgyz followers.
"We
have already become accustomed to the fact that the muftiate
wants to eradicate the activity of Kyrgyzstan's Ahmadiyya
community," Zahur Ahmad maintained. However, he claimed
that recently Sobirov has essentially supported the muftiate's
stance, declaring that the state committee for religious affairs
had made an error in registering the Ahmadiyya community as
a Muslim organisation. He added that Sobirov had referred
to the decision by the Pakistani parliament to ban members
of the Ahmadiyya community from calling themselves Muslims. "This is absurd - Pakistani deputies do not have the
authority to make such a ruling," Zahur Ahmad insisted. "We have been and continue to be Muslims."
"I
really think it is a mistake to call members of the Ahmadiyya
community Muslims, but that certainly does not mean that I
want to ban their activity in Kyrgyzstan," Sobirov
told Keston on 3 April in Bishkek. "I do not think
that problems will emerge for Ahmadiyya after the adoption
of the new law on freedom of conscience and religious organisations."
However,
Kyrgyzstan's chief mufti, Kimsanbai Haji Abdrahmanov, is much
more hardline. "The Ahmadiyya doctrine is a heresy
and has nothing in common with Islam. We think it is vital
to ban Ahmadiyya's activity in Kyrgyzstan," he told
Keston on 3 April in Bishkek.
Igor
Rotar
Source:
Keston
Institute <http://www.keston.org>
