RFE/RL - 12.07.2004

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

RFE/RL Review -- Week of December 4-11, 2004

RFE/RL's Tajik Service dedicated its weekly "Global Link" program on December 7 to a discussion of various religions and reform in Tajikistan. The 30-minute program, produced in Prague, included a report on the recent international Interfaith Conference in Prague and featured interviews with a participant -- Iranian Muslim scholar Mehdi Khalaji and, in Dushanbe, with deputy head of the Islamic Revival Party of Tajikistan, Muhiddin Kabiri. The religious theme of the program was particularly interesting for listeners, in view of a recent ruling by Tajik authorities barring women from prayer in mosques and making pilgrimages compulsory for youth under the age of 18.

Muhiddin Kabiri spoke about secularism in religion, supporting a view expressed at the Prague conference about the need for separation of church and state. The program continued with a special report from RFE/RL's Dushanbe correspondent about relations among various religious communities in Tajikistan that included interviews with the Rabbi of Dushanbe and the heads of the Islamic Center and Orthodox Church.

A sampling by RFE/RL's correspondent of tolerance levels on the street produced a mixed reaction, with some people saying all religions have the same purpose of spreading love and peace and others arguing that Islam is the only faith that counts. Kabiri and Khalaji disagreed in the end on the nature of religious reform, with Kabiri maintaining that reform is inspired from within Islam independently of external social, political and economic trends. Khalaji argued that religious reform is stimulated from the outside by progress in the secular spheres of economy, technology, science and politics.

The program ended with a report on "Bridges" a new U.S. TV station trying to strengthen understanding among Muslims and non-Muslims in the United States.

Audio and text (in Tajik) reviewing the Tajik Service report is available on the service's website, at http://www.ozodi.org/reportsarticle/2004/12/7F2DF4A5-D5B7-409C-ADAC-658699CE8E48.html