Tag Archives: religion

Kazakhstan wants to become a centre for Islamic finance

OCT. 31 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — At a conference in London, Kazakh officials were eager to talk about plans to turn Kazakhstan into a centre for Islamic finance.

Islamic finance is the term used to define investments made, basically, with Islamic principles in mind. It’s a fluid concept but one that has picked up advocates in the Muslim world over the past few years. Kazakhstan though, has been a bit slow off the mark.

Although nominally a secular country, most people in Kazakhstan are Muslim and it has a fairly developed banking sector in Almaty.

Last year, the Kazakhstan Development Bank issued a $75.5m Islamic bond in Malaysia, which has become something of a centre for Islamic finance.

That, though, appears to have been just the start.

Now Asset Issekeshev, the Kazakh minister for new technology, has said Kazakhstan wants to join the International Islamic Financial Market (IIFM), a global watchdog for Islamic finance.

Yerlan Baidaulet, a Kazakh board member at Jeddah-based bank Islamic Development Bank (IDB), went further though. He said now that Kazakhstan had a new head of its Central Bank, Islamic finance would really take off.

Mr Baidaulet told Reuters at the conference that IDB was introducing an Islamic bank and a leasing company in Kazakhstan next year.

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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 159, published on Nov. 6 2013)

Kyrgyzstan issues sexually graphic stamps

OCT. 9 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — For a few weeks at least stamp collectors around the world were captivated by Kyrgyzstan. Online reports had emerged, with apparent photographic evidence, that Kyrgyzstan had issued stamps featuring pictures drawn by the 20th century American artist Eric Stanton.

Eric Stanton specialised in sexual fetish drawings, particularly of dominant women. The online photos of the Kyrgyz stamps showed scantily-clad women spanking men. On one of the six stamps, a man wore a dog collar and leash while he knelt on the floor and ate from a bowl.

For Central Asian watchers, news that Kyrgyzstan had issued these stamps came as a surprise. Kyrgyzstan is a predominantly Muslim country with traditional, fairly macho, conservative mores.

For collectors discussing the issue online, the reason Kyrgyzstan had apparently released the stamps was all too obvious; to make money from selling them.

Now, though, they have been revealed as fake. The head of the Kyrgyz department that issues stamps, Abdykadyr Abdallayev, told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty that this year Kyrgyzstan has released several sets of stamps. They featured mountains, animals, fruits and nuts.

Kyrgyzstan has not, Mr Abdallayev confirmed, issued stamps featuring women wearing stockings and brandishing canes.

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(News report from Issue No. 155, published on Oct. 9 2013)

Azerbaijan’s new bank card features compass

SEPT. 25 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The International Bank of Azerbaijan (IBA), half owned by the Azerbaijani government, released a new debit card with an in-built compass pointing to Mecca so that Muslims know which direction to pray. The new card may be a bit of a gimmick but Azerbaijan has been strengthening Islamic aspects of its banking system.

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(News report from Issue No. 154, published on Oct. 2 2013)

Minaret removed in Georgian village

AUG. 26 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — On Aug. 26, the authorities in Chela, a town in the region of Ajara in south-west Georgia, removed a minaret from a mosque. The official reason was to inspect whether the minaret had been constructed legally. Protesting Muslims claimed the removal was an attack on their right to worship and a debate over religious freedom kicked off.

Most of Georgia’s 4.5 million people belong to the Georgian Orthodox Church and are guided by the Church’s relatively conservative views. A Muslim minority, roughly 10% of the population, lives in Georgia, mainly in the south-east near the border with Azerbaijan or in the south-west along the border with Turkey.

The authorities dismantled the minaret from Chela and drove it to Tbilisi for inspection. There they decreed that, although the minaret had been made of illegal material, it should be resurrected. And so they loaded the minaret back on to a truck and drove it back to Chela.

Near Chela, though, a group of Orthodox Christians, stepped in and blocked the road. They don’t want the minaret to be resurrected.

The minaret now lies in pieces a few kilometres from Chela. Meanwhile, Georgia debates its view on religious tolerance.

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(News report from Issue No. 150, published on Sept. 2 2013)

Priests arrested for homophobic violence in Georgia

MAY 23 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgian police arrested and charged two Orthodox priests with leading attacks on a gay rights parade on May 17, media reported. The attacks brought condemnation from Georgia’s Western allies and tarnished the country’s reputation for liberal thinking.

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(News report from Issue No. 136, published on May 27 2013)

Azerbaijan limits religious freedom

FEB. 22 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan’s parliament passed a law limiting the sale of religious books and videos, media reported. Parliamentarians justified the restrictions by insisting they were necessary to reduce the inflow of extremist propaganda. Religious items now have to be vetted and can only be sold in designated shops.

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(News report from Issue No. 125, published on Feb. 22 2013)

Azerbaijan’s parliament passes law limiting religion

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(News report from Issue No. 125, published on Feb. 22 2013)

Kyrgyz clerics ban New Year

DEC. 27 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – In what is perhaps a sign of hardening Islamic sentiment, senior Muslim clerics in Kyrgyzstan have called for New Year celebrations to be scrapped as they are “un-Islamic”, media reported. Most people in Kyrgyzstan are Muslim, although religion does not dominate public life.

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(News report from Issue No. 118, published on Dec. 28 2012)

Muslims protest in Azerbaijan

SEP. 17 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Police in Baku detained 30 protesters marching towards the US embassy to demonstrate against an anti-Islamic film that has angered many Muslims, media reported. The police blocked the protest, which reporters estimated attracted 100 people, before it reached the embassy.

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(News report from Issue No. 105, published on Sep. 21 2012)

Christian activists attack gay parade in Georgia

MAY 17 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – A group of around 20 people attempted a rare gay pride march through the centre of Tbilisi until Christian activists and priests blocked their path and smashed their placards, media reported. The incident highlights Georgia’s deeply conservative society. Homosexuality is still a taboo subject.

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(News report from Issue No. 089, published on May 25 2012)