Uzbekistan’s New Religion Law Adds Pressure on Christians
Christian rights activists say Uzbekistan’s new Religion Law maintains restrictions despite state media claims that it extend freedoms.
Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan: Christian meeting raided by police
A dozen Christians who had met last month in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, were detained after plain-clothed policemen broke up their gathering and confiscated their Christian literature.
Uzbekistan: Christians fined, Bibles seized
An Uzbek court has fined 10 Christians for meeting without the permission of the Uzbekistan state.
Uzbekistan: Prisoners of Conscience
Christians in Uzbekistan are becoming “prisoners of conscience” just for exercising their religious rights.
Uzbek Police Raid Christians’ Homes
A Christian in Uzbekistan has been fined and threatened with further punishment after religious literature was seized from his home during a raid by Uzbek police in August, according to Barnabas Aid.
Christians Can’t Bury Dead in Uzbek State Cemeteries
Christians in Uzbekistan are being blocked from burying their dead in state-owned cemeteries as secular officials bend to pressures from Islamic religious leaders, according to Barnabas Aid.
Uzbekistan: Christian Children’s Camp Raided by Riot Police
Last month, a Christian children’s camp in Uzbekistan was raided by riot police; all the children were subjected to questioning and the homes of the camp’s organizers were searched, according to BarnabasAid.
Uzbekistan: Religious lit under state control
Sharofat Allamova, a Protestant from the Khorezm Region of Uzbekistan, has been sentenced to one and a half years of corrective labor for the “illegal production, storage, import or distribution of religious literature,” according to Forum 18 News Service.
UZBEKISTAN: Holiday Singing, Bible Reading officially prohibited
This month in Uzbekistan, a dozen Bostanlyk policemen raided a gathering of 80 Protestants on holiday together at the Phoenix resort near the capital.
Detained Uzbek Pastor Freed, Flown To Safety
A Protestant pastor who faced deportation from Kazakhstan to his native Uzbekistan and up to 15 years imprisonment for leading an unregistered house church has been flown to safety, his supporters confirmed.
Uzbekistan: Refugee Pastor Facing Up to 15 Years
Uzbekistan is seeking to extradite refugee Makset Djabbarbergenov from Kazakhstan on charges that carry a maximum 15-year jail term.
Crackdown On Evangelicals In Central Asian States
Authorities in three Central Asian nations have launched a crackdown on evangelical Protestant churches and several believers are reportedly mistreated, fined and detained.
Uzbek Math: 2 Bibles = 5 years
In Uzbekistan, having more than one Bible can make you a missionary, and being a missionary in Uzbekistan can get you five years in jail.
Fines for “Unsanctioned Meeting in Private Home”
The Baptist Council of Churches refuses to register their churches with Uzbekistan; the Council views registration as a precondition for exercising freedom of religion to be against the binding international human rights agreements Uzbekistan formally promised to implement.
Pakistan Among World’s Worst Violators of Religious Freedoms
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom recommended that the Secretary of State name Pakistan as a Country of Particular Concern in its 2012 Annual Report.
Baptist Church Raided in Uzbekistan
Secret police officers and other officials raided the Sunday worship service of an unregistered ethnic Korean Baptist Church in the town of Chirchik in Tashkent Region on Feb. 5.
Uzbekistan Churches Banned from Evangelism, Youth Worship
Authorities in eastern Uzbekistan have warned local churches not to allow youngsters and children to attend their worship services and not to carry out missionary activities or “proselytism”, the word for evangelism, local Christians and activists said.
Uzbekistan, Where Fines, Abuse and the Destruction of Religious Literature Abound
Police who raided a Protestant family’s home in Fergana also assaulted the husband as they confiscated a Bible, an Uzbek New Testament, the Proverbs of Solomon and a Koran.
Uzbek Christians Suffer as Regime Tightens Noose
At least four incidents of Christian persecution were reported from the former Soviet country of Uzbekistan this week. According to an analysis and report researched and written by Fernando Perez for the World Evangelical Alliance – Religious Liberty Commission, a Christian woman was beaten into concussion, another woman was fined $1,465 by a court for giving the New Testament to a child, a Christian man was threatened with axe attack by a police official and another man was assaulted by police.
High Price To Pay For Being A Christian in Uzbekistan
Being a Christian in Uzbekistan can be costly. Just ask Galina Shemetova who was ordered to pay a fine of 2,486,750 som, 50 times the minimum monthly pay for giving a colleague a children’s Bible. This amounts to $60,320US, four times the yearly pre-tax salary of a 40 hour-a-week minimum wage earner. Miss Shemetova not only had to pay the fine, but she was also beaten physically by police, a fact known by the Tashkent Court of Appeals.