Strange goings-on in a remote and mountainous area of Central Asia. Afghan robbers are reportedly crossing the Tajikistan frontier to rustle trees.
Tajiks living near the Afghan border are concerned about a recent increase in robberies, and claim that trespassing Afghans are to blame, RFE/RL’s Tajik Service reports.
In the latest incident, in the village of [...]

Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Karim Masimov last month launched his personal blog and ordered his ministers to do likewise. However, the PM seems to have some issues with a common blog feature— comments.
Since the launch, his blog has received thousands of comments, many of them critical of the government. So far so good.
But the [...]

A head honcho at bread producer Chally-Bread is running for Tatarstan’s parliament, and half-price bread suddenly appears on store shelves. It’s just a coincidence, insists candidate Rafael Yunysov.
Stores in the city of Chally, in the Republic of Tatarstan, are offering discount “anti-crisis bread” in a move that looks suspiciously like an effort to boost one [...]

More evidence that Islam does not require women to wear the hijab.
An Uzbek cleric is urging women not to wear the Muslim hijab, or head scarf, as the number of women wearing religious dress has significantly increased in Uzbekistan, RFE/RL’s Uzbek Service reports.
Anvar Qori Tursunov, the imam of Tashkent’s Central Mosque, told women to return [...]

Christians and followers of other religions in Kazakhstan and Tajikistan (see map below) could be forced to close places of worship under new laws that severely restrict religious activities. The laws have not yet been given final approval, but this seems likely in both countries.
Religious leaders and human rights groups are criticising Kazakhstan’s restrictive [...]

One of Tajikistan’s leading Islamic politicians has publicly criticised the Ministry of Education for authorising  schoolbooks that, in his view, misinterpret and misrepresent the history of Islam and the prophet Muhammed.
Hoji Akbar Turajonzoda calls the textbook writers’ attitude to Islam “unprofessional, irrational, and sometimes insulting and offensive”.  He accuses education officials of deliberately using misleading [...]

Tajikistan’s Council of Islamic Clerics are encouraging Tajik women not to wear hijabs; rather, women should wear traditional national clothing. The hijab, they say, is imported and “not compatible” with the norms of Islam.
So much for the argument made by many Muslims in other countries that the hijab is a religious requirement of Islam. [...]