Should religious content be evaluated by the state before being posted on social media? Statutory provisions in this regard are vague and enable broad interpretation. The editorial staff of CABAR.asia discovers why such interpretation is possible and if there is the need for evaluation of all religious materials.
According to the law “On religious activity and religious associations”, there are six clauses specifying the need for religious evaluation. In particular, it reads that state authorities must check religious literature upon its production, issue and distribution, as well as other information materials with religious content.
“What are the ‘information materials with religious content’?” Ayan Oryntai, religious scholar, project coordinator of IWPR, wonders. “According to the law, it means all printed, electronic and other information of religious nature on any physical media.”
As a result, thousands of materials get evaluated.
“In 2022, religious evaluation was done on 2,245 materials, and 418 items were not recommended for distribution and use in the territory of Kazakhstan, 1,576 items were recommended for distribution and use, 251 items were specified as materials without religious content, damaged materials and materials in a foreign language. Over 770 internet resources were analysed and 275 resources were found to have illegal content,” according to the Committee for Religious Affairs of the Ministry of Culture and Information of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
As long as the concept of “information materials with religious content” has a wide interpretation, it also contains posts on social media. “It refers to even those posts that cite, say, sacred books like the Quran, the Bible, or interviews with clergy members. As practice shows, such citations can result in administrative penalties. Although, it’s rather a rare phenomenon, an exception to the rule,” Oryntai said.
Gulmira Birzhanova, lawyer and co-founder of the foundation “Legal Media Centre”, focused on the current judicial practice with cases of illegal distribution of materials with religious content.
“Most of such cases are related to posts made on social media: they fall under regulations. But it is absurd to evaluate posts,” Birzhanova said. “Just imagine how many public resources can be wasted!”
According to Gulmira Birzhanova, posts that have illegal content, or contain obvious calls for religious discord need to be controlled by means of mechanisms set forth in the Criminal and Administrative Codes. In other words, it is not necessary to evaluate all religious content overall.
Is there a need for evaluation of such an array of materials and how reasonable is it indeed? The answer of the Committee for Religious Affairs was as follows:
“Religious evaluation is needed to evaluate a possible negative impact of religious views and cultic practices on the followers of religious teachings and to detect inconsistencies with the provisions of the Constitution and the legislation of the Republic of Kazakhstan.”
Yulia Denisenko, expert in countering extremism and terrorism, has the same opinion.
“This is a necessary process to prevent situations related to interreligious discord, dissemination of extremist ideas, involvement of minors without parental consent to the operations of religious associations,” Denisenko said. “During trials, I had to give an opinion both about instructions for recruiting children aged two (!) years and more, and about calls for physical destruction of dissenters.”
On the one hand, the government’s concern about national security and threats of the radical ideology spread is quite understandable to the society of Kazakhstan. On the other hand, freedom of religion and freedom of expression must be protected in such a democratic secular state as Kazakhstan. Authors of the analytical report on religious freedom say about it and suggest discussing removal of the overall mandatory religious evaluation.
Main illustration: Freepik.com