From Kazakhstan, a Muslim Committee for Human Rights in Central Asia

Almaty (AsiaNews/Agencies) – The Union of Muslims of Kazakhstan has set up a Muslim Committee for Human Rights in Central Asia. The news spread in these days through the local media.

Committee members include lawyers, theologians and representatives of the clergy. The aim of the organisation is to protect civil rights regardless of nationality, religion or political membership.

Committee director, Murat Telibekov, said: "Genuine freedom is impossible without freedom of worship: religion provides guidance on the values which go beyond political, cultural or national traditions." He defined as "obsolete" the current interpretation of "democracy and human rights based on the philosophy of individual freedom", saying it was incapable of resolving problems facing the modern world.

During the first sitting of the new body, the director of the Uzbek office of the Muslim Committee for Human Rights in Central Asia read a report about events in Andijan. The committee also considered denunciations by Kazak citizens about the situations of anti-tuberculosis infirmaries for children in Almaty.

• kazakhstan
• muslims
• islam
• human
• rights