Reuters North American News Service, January 17th, 2008
ASTANA, Jan 17 (Reuters) - Kazakh President Nursultan
Nazarbayev criticised foreign missionaries on Thursday as a
threat to national stability and urged lawmakers to curb their
activities.
The mainly Muslim state of 15 million has positioned itself
as an area of stability in the potentially volatile Central
Asian region. But some rights groups have criticised its
treatment of small groups such as Hare Krishna.
Speaking at a congress of the Nur-Otan party which holds all
seats in the lower house of parliament, Nazarbayev said foreign
missionaries posed a threat to secularity.
"We are a secular state where religion is separated from the
state, but this does not mean Kazakhstan should become a dumping
ground for all kinds of religious movements," said the veteran
leader, without naming any organisations.
"There are tens of thousands of missionary organisations
working in Kazakhstan today. We don't know what their aims are
... We cannot leave it like that and let them do something that
our country does not need."
Nazarbayev often singles out ethnic and religious accord as
one of his main achievements in a largely Muslim country which
has a large Orthodox Christian community.
But Western human rights groups say that religious
intolerance towards smaller groups is on the rise.
The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe
criticised Kazakhstan last year for destroying houses belonging
to followers of Hare Krishna, who practise yoga and
vegetarianism in a village near the commercial capital Almaty.
(Reporting by Raushan Nurshayeva; writing by Olzhas Auyezov;
editing by Tim Pearce)
