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The Baháʼí Faith in Uzbekistan began in the lifetime of Baháʼu'lláh, the founder of the religion.^[1] Circa 1918 there were an estimated 1900 Baháʼís in Tashkent. By the period of the policy of oppression of religion in the former Soviet Union the communities shrank away - by 1963 in the entire USSR there were about 200 Baháʼís.^[2] Little is known until the 1980s when the Baháʼí Faith started to grow across the Soviet Union again.^[3] In 1991 a Baháʼí National Spiritual Assembly of the Soviet Union was elected but was quickly split among its former members.^[3] In 1992, a regional National Spiritual Assembly for the whole of Central Asia was formed with its seat in Ashgabat.^[4] In 1994 the National Spiritual Assembly of Uzbekistan was elected.^[2]^[5] In 2008 eight Baháʼí Local Spiritual Assemblies or smaller groups had registered with the government^[6] though more recently there were also raids^[7] and expulsions.^[8]

History in the region

A part of the Russian Empire

The earliest relationship between the Baháʼí Faith and Uzbekistan comes under the sphere of the country's history with Russia. During that time, when the region was variously called Asiatic Russia or Russian Turkestan as part of the Russian Empire, the history stretches back to 1847 when the Russian ambassador to Tehran, Prince Dimitri Ivanovich Dolgorukov, requested that the Báb, the herald to the Baháʼí Faith who was imprisoned at Maku, be moved elsewhere; he also condemned the massacres of Iranian religionists, and asked for the release of Baháʼu'lláh, the founder of the Baháʼí Faith.^[2]^[3] Within the lifetime of Baháʼu'lláh the religion was established in Samarkand to which Mirzá Abu'l-Faḍl later traveled.^[1] While in Samarkand in 1892 Mirza Abu'l-Faḍl wrote a book, Fassl-ul-Khitab (Conclusive Proof), in response to the questions of Mirza Haydar-Ali of Tabriz.^[9] It was in Samarkand, too, that he debated a Protestant preacher. In 1910 the Samarkand Baháʼí community elected its first assembly in addition to having a school, and built a center which held four meetings a week.

One tablet of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá says to the assembly of Samarkand:

Do ye know in what cycle ye are created and in what age ye exist? This is the age of the Blessed Perfection and this is the time of the Greatest Name!… If we are not happy and joyous at this season, for what other season shall we wait and for what other time shall we look? This is the time for growing; the season for joyous gathering! …^[10]

Soviet period

In Tashkand, a community of Baháʼís had expanded to about 1900 members, supporting a library, Persian and Russian language schools, and large meetings were being advertised with the permission of government authorities.^[1] Baháʼí literature published in Tashkand included several works of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá. By 1938, after numerous arrests and a policy of oppression of religion, Baháʼís across the Soviet Union were being sent to prisons and camps or sent abroad.^[4] Baháʼí communities in 38 cities across Soviet territories ceased to exist. In Tashkent Baháʼís were interrogated and imprisoned. Aqa Habibullah Baqiroff of Tashkent was sentenced to ten years imprisonment "in the neighbourhood of the North Sea and the polar forests."^[1]

Following the ban on religion, the Baháʼís, strictly adhering to their principle of obedience to legal government, abandoned its administration and its properties were nationalized.^[11] By 1946 in all Turkestan only Ashgabat, Samarkand and Tashkand communities continued.^[1] Baháʼís had managed to re-enter various countries of the Eastern Bloc through the 1950s,^[3] following a plan of the head of the religion at the time, Shoghi Effendi. By 1956 there was only a vague mention of an operating community of Baháʼís in Uzbekistan.^[12]

A pair of small communities were listed in 1963 - Tashkand and an isolated Baháʼí in Fergana.^[13] The Universal House of Justice, the head of the religion since 1963, then recognized small Baháʼí communities in much of the USSR: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan. At this time in the USSR there were 200 Baháʼís.^[2]

Development of the community

There is evidence that the Baháʼí Faith started to grow across the Soviet Union in the 1980s.^[3] In 1990 Local Spiritual Assemblies were listed in Samarkand and Tashkent.^[14] In 1991 a Baháʼí National Spiritual Assembly of the Soviet Union was elected but was quickly split among its former members.^[3] In 1992, a regional National Spiritual Assembly for the whole of Central Asia (Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Kirgizia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan) was formed with its seat in Ashgabat.^[4] In 1994 the National Spiritual Assembly of Uzbekistan was elected.^[5]

Modern community

In 2006 the US State Department ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom singled out Uzbekistan for criticism for its recent crackdown on religious minorities, saying the government of President Islam Karimov had stepped up restrictions.^[15] However Uzbek Baháʼís were able to attend a regional conference on the progress of the religion in Almaty in southeastern Kazakhstan in 2008.^[16] Two of the communities in Uzbekistan showed higher scale coordination on the efforts of the community. Three members of the National Spiritual Assembly were delegates in Haifa for international Baháʼí convention in 2008,^[17] and Uzbeks had joined the religion elsewhere.^[18] But in 2009-2010 registered groups had meetings that were broken up, and parents who had signed permission for their children to attend these meetings were fined.^[7] Propaganda about religious activities including those of Baháʼís and Muslims had been forced through Uzbek cable television operators.^[19]

Demographics

Statistics from the state Religious Affairs Committee indicate that one Baha'i community lost registration between October 2002 and February 2007.^[20] As of 2005 there were 6 communities registered with the government^[21] while in 2008 there were eight.^[6] These communities included Tashkent, Samarkand, Jizzakh, Bukhara and Navoi.^[8] The Association of Religion Data Archives (relying on World Christian Encyclopedia) estimated some 770 Baháʼís in 2005.^[22]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Hassall, Graham (1993). "Notes on the Babi and Baha'i Religions in Russia and its territories". Journal of Baháʼí Studies. 05 (3): 41–80, 86. doi:10.31581/JBS-5.3.3(1993). Retrieved 2010-02-18.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Local Spiritual Assembly of Kyiv (August 2007). "Statement on the history of the Baháʼí Faith in Soviet Union". Official Website of the Baháʼís of Kyiv. Local Spiritual Assembly of Kyiv. Archived from the original on 2010-07-15. Retrieved 2010-02-18.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Momen, Moojan. "Russia". Draft for "A Short Encyclopedia of the Baháʼí Faith". Baháʼí Library Online. Retrieved 2008-04-14.
^ ^a ^b ^c Momen, Moojan (1994). "Turkmenistan". draft of "A Short Encyclopedia of the Baha'i Faith". Baháʼí Library Online. Archived from the original on 9 May 2008. Retrieved 2008-05-21.
^ ^a ^b Hassall, Graham; Universal House of Justice. "National Spiritual Assemblies statistics 1923-1999". Assorted Resource Tools. Baháʼí Library Online. Retrieved 2008-04-02.
^ ^a ^b "Republic of Uzbekistan". Journal Islam Today. 1429H/2008 (25). Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. 2008. Archived from the original on 2009-09-02. Retrieved 2010-02-17.
^ ^a ^b Corley, Felix (24 September 2009). "They can drink tea – that's not forbidden". Forum 18. Retrieved 2010-02-18.
^ ^a ^b Corley, Felix (16 February 2010). "UZBEKISTAN: Two more foreigners deported for religious activity". Forum 18. Retrieved 2010-02-18.
^ ibn-Kalanter, Ish'te'a'l (March 2, 1914). "Mirza Abdul-Fazl". Star of the West. 14 (19): 318–9. Retrieved 2010-02-19.
^ ʻAbdu'l-Bahá (1909). Tablets of Abdul-Baha ʻAbbas. Chicago, USA: Baháʼí Publishing Committee. pp. 641–2.
^ Effendi, Shoghi (1936-03-11). The World Order of Baháʼu'lláh (1991 first pocket-size ed.). Haifa, Palestine: US Baháʼí Publishing Trust. pp. 64–67.
^ "The Guardian's Message to the forty-eighth annual Baha'i Convention". Baháʼí News. No. 303. May 1956. pp. 1–2.
^ The Baháʼí Faith: 1844-1963: Information Statistical and Comparative, Including the Achievements of the Ten Year International Baháʼí Teaching & Consolidation Plan 1953-1963, Compiled by Hands of the Cause Residing in the Holy Land, page 95.
^ "Eastern Europe – Details of Two-Year Plan disclosed". Baháʼí News. No. 712. August 1990. pp. 2–3. ISSN 0195-9212.
^ "Religious extremism global threat, U.S. warns". The Washington Times. The Washington Times, LLC. September 15, 2006. Retrieved 2010-02-18.
^ "The Almaty Regional Conference". Regional Conferences of the Five Year Plan. Baháʼí International Community. 6–7 December 2008. Retrieved 2010-02-18.
^ "Delegates arrive in Haifa for International Baháʼí Convention". Baháʼí World News Service. Baháʼí International Community. 27 April 2008. Retrieved 2010-02-18.
^ "The Kiev Regional Conference". Baháʼí World News Service. Baháʼí International Community. 28 February – 1 March 2009. Retrieved 2010-02-18.
^ "Uzbek cable operators forced to air propaganda". uznews.net. 2009-10-25. Archived from the original on 26 February 2010. Retrieved 2010-02-18.
^ "Uzbekistan religious freedom survey, August 2008". Forum 18. August 2008. Retrieved 2010-02-18.
^ Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (2005). "International Religious Freedom Report Ukraine". United States State Department. Retrieved 2010-02-18.
^ "Most Baha'i Nations (2005)". QuickLists > Compare Nations > Religions >. The Association of Religion Data Archives. 2005. Archived from the original on 2010-04-14. Retrieved 2009-07-04.