N a z a r e t h / T a s h k e n t – In Uzbekistan there seems to be a small chance of improvements in freedom of worship. A combined delegation of the Baptist World Alliance (BWA) and the European Baptist Federation (EBF) had this impression after a September 8-12 visit to the Central Asian country. The three-member delegation included the Director of the Department for Freedom and Justice of the Baptist World Alliance, Raimundo Barreto (Falls Church near Washington), the EBF representative for religious freedom, Christer Daelander (Stockholm) and the Ukrainian parliamentarian Pavlo Unguryan (Kiev), who also leads the youth work of the Baptists in the Ukraine. Among others, the Baptists met with representatives of the state committee for religious affairs, as well as Baptists, Pentecostals and representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church. As Daelander reported to the EBF Council meeting from September 21-24 in Nazareth, Israel, the committee was given no list of official offenses against the freedom of worship, but instead is seeking through dialog to clear away as many restrictions on religious freedom as possible. In this way, they are targeting individual gains.

Thus, says the leader of the committee, Behzod M. Kadyrov, he could help the second Baptist church of Tashkent to locate its confiscated library. During an inspection in April, Bibles in the Uzbek language had been found in the Russian-speaking congregation, which they did not have the right to possess. Only registered Uzbek churches are allowed to possess Uzbek literature. As a result, the entire collection of 53,000 books and brochures in the church’s Christian library had been seized. Four leaders had been condemned together with the Church to a fine equivalent to 10,000 US dollars. The average monthly income in the country is about 250 US dollars. However, the Baptists refused to pay the fine and went to appeal, where they were defeated. Now they want to bring their case before the highest court of the country. The church’s bank accounts were also frozen.

Kadyrov further confirmed that the Baptists can organize in the future a camp for children, if they follow the hygiene regulations. In 2009 a Baptist children’s camp had been closed because it had supposedly violated these regulations. As a result, in the media heavy reproaches had been leveled against the Baptists, accusing them of somehow subjecting children to Christian brainwashing. The Baptists had rejected all reproaches as unjustified. Nonetheless, the holiday camps have come to a standstill since then.

As Kadyrov further stated, the government welcomes peaceful cooperation among religions. The problems lie not with the state approved Baptists, but with those that are not recognized. As Daelander added, it is hardly possible to get recognition for churches. They would have to submit lists with at least 100 members and operate their own meeting center. However, approval for the construction of such a center is only available to recognized churches. Kadyrov promised that his committee was willing to help all interested churches to complete applications, if they wished to be registered.

According to Daelander, there is also good news from the Uzbek Bible Society. A container with mainly 2,800 Russian Bibles, which has been held up in customs for five years, was recently released. The Bibles can now be sold without restrictions.

As Daelander further stated, the visit helped to strengthen relationships between Baptists and the World Alliance and the EBF. Those attending a worship service in the First Baptist Church of Tashkent collected about 380 US dollars for the work of the BWA.

Officially freedom of worship rules in Uzbekistan. However, religious groups complain over and over again that religious legislation stands in contradiction to the constitution and, therefore, freedom of worship is repeatedly violated. Seeking to convert people from one religion to another is forbidden. Of the 28 million inhabitants of the Central Asian country 93 percent are Muslims, six percent are non-religious and about one percent are Christians. About five percent of the inhabitants are Russians. Twenty registered churches, with about 2,000 members, as well as 30 unregistered churches, with another 3,500 members, belong to the union of Russian-speaking Baptist churches.