Religious leader arrested and imprisoned

Rights groups have expressed their concern over a further demise in the state of religious freedom in Turkmenistan following the arrest and conviction of the former chief mufti of the reclusive Central Asian state. "It remains unclear why [Turkmen] President Niyazov removed Nasrullah ibn Ibadullah from office in January 2003 and why he was sentenced in March 2004," Felix Corley, editor of Forum 18 News Service, an agency covering religious freedom in the former Soviet republics and Eastern Europe, told IRIN from London. "Reports say he was removed as chief mufti because of his resistance to Niyazov's desire to see his book "Ruhknama" have a prominent place in Muslim worship, something offensive - if not blasphemous - to Muslims." Arrested and charged with treason in January for his alleged involvement in an attempted plot to overthrow Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov in November 2002 - Ibadullah, was sentenced earlier this month to 22 years in prison. And while some observers believe the senior ethnic Uzbek cleric was arrested for his opposition to the enforced use and display of Niyazov's self-styled spiritual guide the "Rukhnama" book in mosques, along with his criticism of the president's tight grip on the largely Muslim nation, the case underscores the deteriorating state of religious freedom in the largely desert, but energy-rich nation. "Religious freedoms are under direct attack in Turkmenistan," Erika Dailey, director of the Open Society Institute's Turkmenistan Project, told IRIN from Budapest, noting it was important to bear in mind the highly repressive and intolerant atmosphere in which Ibadullah's sentence had been issued in order to appreciate just how threatening it was for believers. Since the spring of 2003, there had been an escalation in attacks on religious minorities in Turkmenistan, including fines, harassment, raids on private homes, and imprisonment, she explained, adding the situation had worsened in October with the promulgation of a repressive new law on religion and the imposition of harsh penalties, including imprisonment, for practicing unregistered religions. "Several weeks ago, President Niyazov urged young people not to grow beards - often an expression of piety among Muslims. So the imprisonment of the former mufti sends a chilling message to believers of all faiths," Dailey said. The International League for Human Rights (ILHR) on Wednesday said Ibadullah's case was particularly unique as a representative of Sunni Islam - one of only two state-sanctioned religions (the other being Russian Orthodox) - had been targeted this time in the nation of five million inhabitants. "Over the past year, harassment and attacks occurred against religious minority groups, who are forced to gather and worship in secrecy, often in designated homes which later get raided. Particularly vulnerable have been various Protestant evangelical and Muslim Shia groups," the New York-based group said. ILHR, noted, however, that Niyazov replaced Ibadullah as chief mufti with an ethnic Turkmen, Kakagely Vepaev, in an attempt, it seems to appoint a more obedient Muslim leader who could quote frequently and approvingly from "Rukhnama". But some activists remained cautious on the religious connection. "I would divide his case and religious freedom - they are separate issues. I think that the main problem is political," Vitaliy Ponomarev, the head of the Central Asia Programme for the Russian Memorial human rights centre, a group closely monitoring events in Turkmenistan told IRIN, a contention partly shared by Dailey. "It is not clear what the primary motivation was behind his arrest," she said, adding, it was more likely that he was being punished for perceived disloyalty to the president. Yet a third interpretation is that his sacking and arrest were manifestations of state-sponsored ethnic discrimination. "Ibn Ibadullah is an ethnic Uzbek; there are numerous documented cases of the government removing ethnic Uzbeks from government posts and replacing them with ethnic Turkmen," Dailey maintained, noting until recently, he had been a Niyazov loyalist, and therefore able to maintain his position as one of the country's most prominent ethnic Uzbeks. "His fall from grace - from senior government official to inmate - sends an intimidating message to all ethnic Uzbeks, and is likely to cause them to further mask their ethnic origins," she said.