wfn.org | Adventist News Network: Kyrgyzstan Summit Highlights Religious

["Beckett, John" <BeckettJ@gc.adventist.org>]

Adventist News Network
> www.adventist.org
> Seventh-day Adventist Church World Headquarters
> February 5, 2002
> 
> -------------------------------------------------------
> Kyrgyzstan Summit Highlights Religious Freedom Concerns
> Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan .... [Bettina Krause/ANN]
> -------------------------------------------------------
> A meeting of religious and political leaders last month in Bishkek,
> Kyrgyzstan, will help put religious freedom concerns on the public agenda,
> say organizers of the event. The two-day meeting took place against the
> background of increasing uneasiness among religious organizations over the
> government's proposed law on religious freedom, which some groups believe
> does not go far enough in protecting freedom of conscience.
> 
> The conference, which began January 24, produced an agreement by
> participants to promote a "peaceful coexistence" between religious groups
> in Kyrgyzstan, reports Victor Krushenitsky, public affairs and religious
> liberty director for the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Euro-Asia. He
> says another significant outcome of the meeting was the commitment by
> Alisher Sabirov, chair of the parliament's Religious Association
> Committee, to invite religious leaders to a roundtable discussion on the
> draft religion law. The discussion is set for February 10, three days
> before the third parliamentary hearing on the proposed legislation.
> 
> Following the meeting, more than 30 conference participants voted to
> establish a new Kyrgyzstan chapter of the International Religious Liberty
> Association. This non-sectarian organization, established by Adventist
> leaders in 1893, is dedicated to promoting and safeguarding religious
> civil rights around the world.
> 
> The central Asian country of Kyrgyzstan was a former Soviet state before
> gaining its independence in 1991. An estimated 80 percent of the country's
> 4.7 million people practice Islam, and some 17 percent of the population
> belongs to the Russian Orthodox Church, the nation's second largest
> religious group.
> -------------------------------------------------------
> Adventist News Network: 12501 Old Columbia Pike, Silver Spring, Maryland,
> USA 20904-6600 phone: (301) 680-6306. e-mail address:
> adventistnews@compuserve.com. 
> 
> 
> 
>