Muslim Hate of Jehovah's Witnesses
Source editor vandalizes church
New York | October 22, 2005 12:01:13 AM IST
The editor of The Source magazine admitted to vandalizing a Jehovah's Witness assembly hall in New York's Harlem neighborhood.
Dasun Allah, editor of the hip-hop magazine, told the New York Post he tagged the building to expose the religion's hypocrisy.
Police were called to the scene where Allah had painted a number of cryptic symbols, but the graffifi had been painted over by then, the Post said Friday.
Allah, 32, said he was kicked out of his Jehovah's Witnesses church more than 13 years ago and now belongs to the Islam-based Nation of Gods and Earths.
They said I didn't fit the criteria, because, to put it lightly, I wasn't a choirboy, Allah said.
(UPI)
UZBEKISTAN: Mahalla and Mullah block Jehovah's Witness registration
This article was published by F18News on: 1 December 2005
By Igor Rotar, Forum 18 News Service
The latest instance known to Forum 18 News Service of a religious minority being barred from gaining state registration – thus rendering its activity illegal – is a Jehovah's Witness community in the Uzbek capital, Tashkent. Following open hostility against the community from the head of the city's Yaksarai district, a subsequent meeting of local residents (the Mahalla committee), presided over by the local Mullah (Islamic clergyman), reversed a decision to allow a Jehovah's Witness congregation to apply for state registration. Under Uzbekistan's complex registration procedure, which institutionalises obstacles to religious minorities, the approval of both the Mahalla committee and the head of the district administration is necessary before a religious community can even apply for state registration from the Ministry of Justice. The Mahalla committees, theoretically independent but in practice under state control, are used to maintain controls over religious believers of all faiths.
Jehovah's Witnesses in the
capital Tashkent have complained to Forum 18 News Service that, in November,
Valim Muladjanov, the Hakim (administration chief) for the city's Yaksarai
district, revoked a decision taken a year ago to allow a local congregation to
apply for registration. A subsequent meeting of local residents, presided over
by the local Mullah (Islamic clergyman), blocked the application from going
ahead, rendering continuing religious activity by the community illegal. The
Jehovah's Witnesses – who have been allowed to register only two communities in
Uzbekistan – have been trying in vain for many years to register in Tashkent.
Under Uzbek law, a religious community only has the right to operate if it has
been registered with the Ministry of Justice. Uzbekistan's registration
procedure institutionalises discrimination against religious minorities as, in a
complex procedure, all applications must have the prior written consent of the
committee of the Mahalla (a local self-governing agency that administers a city
sector and is the lowest level of government) for the district in which the
religious community intends to open a place of worship. This permission must
also be certified by the Hakim, or head, of the district administration.
Significantly – and in defiance of Uzbek international human rights commitments
- the government has banned all unregistered religious activity and participants
in such activity risk penalties under the Administrative or Criminal Codes.
The Mahalla committee where the Jehovah's Witness congregation is based approved
the registration of their place of worship at the end of 2004. However, it
remains unclear why Muladjanov demanded new written permission from the Mahalla
committee, Andrei Shirobokov of the Jehovah's Witnesses told Forum 18 from
Tashkent on 24 November. Additionally, speaking in the presence of the head of
the Mahalla committee, Muladjanov declared that he personally opposed the
registration of Jehovah's Witnesses.
Forum 18 tried to reach Muladjanov at the Yaksarai district administration to
find out why he had revoked the earlier Mahalla committee approval and was
demanding that it be considered again. However, on 1 December his aide Alisher
(who did not give his last name) said that Muladjanov was away on a work trip.
Alisher claimed to know nothing about the case.
Shirobokov told Forum 18 that, the day after Muladjanov's openly declared his
opposition to Jehovah's Witness registration, the head of the Mahalla invited
Jehovah's Witnesses to a residents' meeting, presided over by the local Mullah.
All those who spoke at the meeting said that Jehovah's Witness teachings were
against Islam and that therefore Mahalla residents did not want a Jehovah's
Witness place of worship on their territory. "This Mahalla's population is made
up mostly of Uzbeks. Let them open their church in a Russian Mahalla," people
told the Jehovah's Witnesses at the meeting.
Shirobokov insisted the meeting was prompted by the authorities, pointing out
that a year earlier the same Mahalla committee agreed to the registration of
their community. "The authorities are actively exploiting the Mahalla system of
self-government which is theoretically independent, but is in fact completely
controlled by the authorities," he complained to Forum 18. "Although the Mahalla
leadership has changed since last year, we shouldn't have to keep going to them
for permission."
Begzot Kadyrov, from the government's Religious Affairs Committee, told Forum 18
that the Jehovah's Witnesses had already complained to him about the Mahalla
meeting. But he defended the power of the Mahalla to veto the opening of places
of worship of faiths the people do not like. "If residents of the Mahalla don't
want a Jehovah's Witness church on their territory, we cannot make them change
their minds," he told Forum 18 from Tashkent on 24 November. "The Mahalla system
is an ancient institution of Uzbek society. Mahalla residents have together
resolved their own problems for many years. Current Uzbek laws reinforce the
Mahalla system of self-government at a juridical level."
Although the Mahalla leadership is formally elected by local residents, in
practice it is appointed by the government and is often used as an instrument of
state control. Mahalla committees have long played a role in supervising,
controlling and restricting religious activity and often refuse to approve
religious communities' registration applications, whether for mosques, Christian
churches or places of worship of other faiths. The Mahalla's are also used to
control Muslims.
Until last January, Mahalla committees even had to approve which local Muslims
could go on the haj pilgrimage to Mecca. In late October, the head of a Mahalla
in Tashkent's Mirobad district, Olga Bedrina, was sacked for having allowed a
Full Gospel Church to function.
Shirobokov also maintains that "NSS [National Security Service] secret police
officers tell us [Jehovah's Witnesses] openly that our work is not wanted in
Uzbekistan." He stated that Jehovah's Witnesses in Karshi [Qarshi] in central
southern Uzbekistan are in the most difficult position of all their communities,
their situation having deteriorated sharply since August. "For example, a police
officer struck Jehovah's Witness Guzal Buzurukova while she held a small child
in her arms," he told Forum 18. "He told her husband that he would imprison him
if he did not renounce his faith."
Kadyrov said he knew nothing about the incident in Karshi. "Of course, if a
policeman did strike a woman, that is a matter of concern. Why didn't the
Jehovah's Witnesses tell us about it straight away?" he told Forum 18. "I'm
always telling them that they should contact us as soon as they encounter
problems with the police. But in fact we often only find out about the Jehovah's
Witnesses' problems during court cases."