“Almost 90 percent of the leaders of Kazakhstan youth consider themselves believers, with 86 percent of them professing Islam,” according to a survey conducted by sociologist Madina Nurgaliyeva, and leading her to warn that “religiosity among young Kazakhs is at
Read moreAccording to Forum 18, seven members of a house church in Kazakhstan have been fined for meeting to worship in a building without state registration. Two of those arrested are in their late seventies. In court hearings on 29th August,
Read moreKazakhstan looks set to become the first of the ex Soviet Central Asia nations to follow Russia’s lead in bringing in harsher restrictions on religious activity. Laws concerning legal restrictions in Kazakhstan already ban and punish certain religious activities, including
Read moreAccording to Forum 18 News Service, Seventh-day Adventist Yklas Kabduakasov was sentenced to seven years’ restricted freedom on 9th November, by a court in the capital Astana. The sentence came more than 12 weeks after his arrest by Kazakhstan’s National
Read moreForum 18 News Service is reporting that, on 30th July this year, a church-run children’s camp near Kazakhstan’s commercial capital, Almaty, was raided by about 20 officials, including police and Prosecutor’s Office officials. Pastor Sergei Li of Kapshagai Baptist Church
Read moreAzim Janbakiev is the pastor of Rakhym Presbyterian Church in Almaty, Kazakhstan. Recently, the city administration has forbidden the congregation to hold their worship in their building, despite the fact that it is owned by the Rakhym Church. The City
Read moreAccording to Forum 18 News Service, a Baptist pastor in Kazakhstan, Nikolai Novikov, could face up to three years in jail for refusing to pay a 2013 fine for distributing on the streets religious literature which has not been censored
Read moreKazakhstan continues to jail and harass people for exercising the right to freedom of religion or belief. They authorities also continue to raid religious communities, even when they have state permission to exist under the country’s highly restrictive Religion Law.
Read moreFor 5 years, officials in the Pavlodar Region of north-east Kazakhstan have been trying to close down a protestant-run drug and alcohol rehabilitation centre. Finally, in January, they succeeded in getting a three month closure of the centre, in addition
Read moreKazakhstan’s President Nazarbayev has often been quoted as saying that one of the greatest needs in Kazakhstan is the development of moral character in the lives of young people. Alongside this, however, is an increased harassment of the Christian church
Read more