An influential U.S. government body has once again recommended the State Department classify Tajikistan as home to some of the world’s worst restrictions on religious freedom.
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) – a bipartisan American group that advises the State Department, the president and Congress – said in its 2015 report, released April 30, that Dushanbe “suppresses and punishes all religious activity independent of state control.”
For the third year running, USCIRF recommends that Tajikistan join two other post-Soviet republics – Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan – on Washington’s official list of Countries of Particular Concern (CPC). CPC are “either perpetrating or tolerating some of the worse abuses of religious freedom in the world.”
So far the State Department has ignored the recommendation.
This year USCIRF says worshipers in Tajikistan face tough times that only seem to be getting worse. The regime of strongman President Emomali Rahmon, the report argues, systematically interferes in the religious lives of citizens:
Numerous laws that severely restrict religious freedom have been implemented in the country since 2009. […] Tajik officials monitor mosques and their attendees for views they deem extremist or statements critical of the government; place restrictions on Muslim religious dress; control the age and the numbers of hajj (religious pilgrimage) participants; and indirectly control the selection and retention of imams and the content of sermons.
There is little due process in a system that seems designed to conflate religious practice with terrorism, the report notes:
Tajikistan’s extremism law punishes extremist, terrorist, or revolutionary activities without requiring acts that involve violence or incitement to imminent violence. Trials under these charges lack due process and procedural safeguards. The Tajik government uses concerns over Islamist extremism to justify actions against individuals taking part in certain religious activities.
Elsewhere in the former Soviet Union, the USCIRF includes Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Russia on its “Tier 2” watch list.