Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Kazakhstan

Kazakh President Meets With World Religious Leaders

Kazakh Muslims at prayer (RFE/RL)

ASTANA, September 11, 2006 (RFE/RL) -- Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbaev today held a series of meetings with delegates to a three-day world forum on religion that opens in Astana on September 12.

TEXT SIZE - +

September 11, 2006

A statement posted on Nazarbaev's official website says he met with Abdullah Ibn Abdul Muhsin Atturki, the secretary-general of the Muslim World League; Salman Al-Husaini Al-Nadvi, the leader of India's Jamiat-e Shahab-e Islam Muslim organization; and Nicholas Baines, the Anglican bishop of Croydon in Britain.

The upcoming forum will bring together some 45 national delegations and as many spiritual leaders to discuss religious freedom and tolerance.

Nazarbaev's spokesman Mukhtar Kul-Mukhammed said the event reflects Kazakhstan's political stability and religious openness. However, Kazakh rights groups say the upcoming event is overshadowed by what they describe as official harassment of nontraditional religious groups, such as the Hare Krishna and Tablighi Jamaat, an Islamic revivalist group.

Religion And Tolerance

A thematic webpage devoted to issues of religious tolerance in RFE/RL's broadcast region and around the globe.

A vendor in the central Bosnian town of Zenica sells heart-shaped cushions with proclamations of love for 1 euro each.

Love It (Or Hate It), It's Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day, the Western holiday celebrating love, has become a global phenomenon over the past two decades. The fall of communism and the emergence of the Internet have helped February 14 become something of an unofficial international day of romance. However, not all the passions the holiday stirs are related to love. While some countries have openly embraced the holiday, others are attempting to ban it or replace it with local customs. More

Production and distribution of rap music is not officially banned, but it

Yo! Turkmen Rappers Flip The Script On Repression

For a growing number of Turkmen youth, rap music has become a way to express their daily struggles and inspire political change in one of the world's most oppressive countries. More