On October 13, Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev signed into law a new bill regulating the activities of religious organizations, both domestic and international. This law, whose adoption by the Parliament’s lower and upper chambers took only a few weeks, has quickly become a source of serious controversy, with its detractors constantly referring to the discriminatory effect of its several clauses, in a country with a multitude of religious confessions.

The most controversial provision of the newly adopted law is contained in Article 7, which states that public authorities and state-run organizations should no longer be open to any kind of religious rituals, for example including Muslim prayers, still practiced even by some high-ranking officials. The Supreme Leader of Kazakhstan’s Muslim Authority, mufti Absattar hadji Derbisali, believes that the law “On religious activities and associations” may cause “irreparable damage to the unity and solidarity of Kazakhstani Muslims.” In his view, the interdiction of Muslim prayers in public bodies will only empower the forces opposed to the current regime and trying to impede an effective fight against terrorism and extremism. The mufti also deplores the fact that the official opinion of the Muslim Authority, which claims to represent the interests of not less than 72 percent of Kazakhstani citizens, was not taken into account in the process of legislative consultations.

Another stumbling block is linked to the brand new requirement for all religious organizations to re-register their permits with local authorities, whilst the latter now have a stricter legislative base to apply. According to official statistics, Kazakhstan is home to almost 4,500 religious associations, some of which are sponsored from abroad and pursue clearly identified missionary purposes. As of now, 78 religious groups are strongly opposed to re-registration and depict themselves as victims of an unfair legislation restricting people’s freedom of worship. A similar critique is offered by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights as well as by Freedom House, whose 2011 report classifies Kazakhstan among “not free countries”. At the same time, Kazakhstan’s Government has promised an unbiased nationwide review of all existing and duly registered religious organizations, in some cases with the involvement of foreign experts. The new law stipulates that local religious associations should have at least 50 members, whereas regional and national ones should demonstrate the membership of 500 and 5,000 people respectively. Many small groups known as sects will probably be left with no possibility to renew their permits.

Freedom House also reminds that all previous attempts of the Kazakh Government, namely in 2002 and 2009, to introduce restrictions with respect to religious associations have failed completely. In those two instances, the Constitutional Council deemed the proposed bills to be in violation of the Constitution’s Articles 14 and 39 that collectively prohibit any discrimination on the basis of origin, social, professional or financial status, race, language and ethnicity. This time, the Constitutional Council preferred not to veto any of the law’s provisions.

Following two explosions in Kazakhstan’s West and the capital city of Astana in May 2011, Nazarbayev decided to create another government agency in charge of religious oversight and the propagation of “healthy” religious values. The Agency for religious affairs was born on May 18 out of the former Committee for Religious Affairs of the Ministry of Culture. Staffed with 20 permanent personnel, the Agency has since then received considerable funding to develop its operational capabilities, but has also been implicated in a series of scandals, for example when the Agency’s Chairman accused one of the members of Parliament of being affiliated with Salafi teachings. The deputy promised to sue his opponent in court, drawing strong public support from disgruntled imams all across the country.

The decision to elaborate a different legislation aimed at precluding unauthorized religious activities was announced by the President himself at the September 1 opening of a new parliamentary session. “We are not talking about limiting the freedom of worship. Our goal is to protect the country from religious extremism, as is done by all nations, especially by those having adopted Islam as their official religion,” said Nazarbayev. He also added that “inter-religious solidarity must be maintained as Kazakhstan’s highest domestic priority.” During his recent visit to the South Kazakhstan region, Nazarbayev reminded the population of the need to preserve a unique Kazakh reading of Islam, exempt from all sorts of extraneous elements as offered by the more conservative traditions of some Arab countries.

The head of the Center for military and strategic research under the Ministry of Defense, Rafik Tairov, believes that “religious extremism in Kazakhstan is a real problem which demands profound analysis and well-thought solutions.” In Tairov’s view, the main reason for the expansion of non-traditional beliefs is a social crisis linked with the difficulty of self-identification almost 20 years after gaining independence.