Registration of religious institutions to finish by November 2012 in Kazakhstan

Religious institutions in Kazakhstan has until November 2012 to get registered or re-registred, Head of the State Agency for Religion Kairat Lama Sharif told in an interview to Liter magazine. “The Agency started working on implementation of the law On religious activities and religious institutions in registration and re-registration of the religious institutions. Their number exceeds 3,900 organizations. The set task is a complicated process that includes several procedures like theological check of the foundation documents, religious literature, etc. We can now confidently say that this work will be completed by November this year and will improve confessional harmonization in the country,” Lama Sharif said. Chairman of the Agency also spoke about small religious institutions with no signs of the legal entity. According to him, such groups are too small and cannot be considered “the form of the people’s union for satisfaction of their spiritual needs”. “The list of state services does not provide for registration of such institutions by the state authorities. That’s why small religious groups may not perform their activities at the territory of Kazakhstan in their former status,” Lama Sharif stressed. He added that there were 579 small religious groups registered in local executive bodies of Kazakhstan as of January 1, 2012. 60 percent of them were Islamic, 36 percent represented non-traditional Christian institutions and 3.6 percent were related to Orthodox communities and two of those groups were Catholic. The Law On religious activities and religious institutions was adopted on October 13, 2011.