In the article Kyrgyzstan: Islam and Secularism Clash Again, it talks about how religion and politics are starting to create controversy. This is interesting to me because this isn’t the first time Kyrgyzstan has had problem with religion and government. Despite being known as a majority Muslim country, Kyrgyzstan’s constitution gives equal rights to all citizens and it has secular basis; which… Read more »
September 9, 2016 – 11:50am Uzbekistan On his first day in charge in Uzbekistan, Shavkat Miromonovich Mirziyoyev made it clear that he does not intend to make any immediate breaks from the policies of his deceased predecessor. Mirziyoyev was formally appointed Uzbekistan’s interim president on September 8, assuming power from Islam Karimov, whose death was announced six days earlier. In… Read more »
Faith has been growing as a force in the country ever since independence. Proposed legislation that would extend lunch breaks from one to two hours to allow time for Muslim prayers have highlighted tensions between secularism and religion in Kyrgyzstan. The bill proved so controversial that President Almazbek Atambaev himself warned that attempts to “violate” the secular nature of the… Read more »
Vladimir Putin has proposed setting up a Nato-style joint task force of post-Soviet states to secure the borders of Central Asia amid fears of Taliban “spillover” from Afghanistan. A fresh sign of the Russian president’s new military assertiveness, the deployment raises the possibility of Russian and allied troops being deployed along Tajikistan’s 800-mile border with Afghanistan, and Moscow tightening its… Read more »
India on Tuesday said it had held ‘substantive’ talks with China on its bid to become a fully fledged member of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), a club of nations that trades in civil nuclear technology. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is campaigning to join the NSG to back a multi-billion-dollar drive to build nuclear power plants in partnership with Russia,… Read more »