An estimated 5,000 citizens of Karakalpakstan have become Christians in the past two decades, since the Soviet Union dissolved in the early 1990s.
But ever since their conversion, most, if not all, of these new Christian believers have endured harsh pressures from the local authorities, even to their graves.
Despite the officially “secular status” of this autonomous republic in northwest Uzbekistan, Karakalpakstan’s population of 1.7 million predominantly nominal Muslims still live under the authoritative rule of officials indoctrinated by the former communist regime.
Incredibly, the rapid Christian growth among Karakalpaks outpaces that in the rest of Uzbekistan. And it is taking place among a population struggling with extreme poverty, unemployment and multiple diseases caused by the disastrous ecological pollution from the Aral Sea.
“As Karakalpak people, we don’t have many material possessions,” one church leader said. “But we have the word of God, and we love to share it.”
Active Christians are routinely interrogated by the police, beaten and jailed for their religious activities, saddled with massive fines or sent off to do forced labor. Many have been thrown out of their apartments and fired from their jobs, and some students even expelled from university, all because of their religious convictions.
One Christian believer was targeted by “Wanted” posters put up everywhere, portraying him as a criminal. When he left the country for awhile to avoid direct targeting, police from his city tracked him down in another Central Asian nation, trying to arrest him as “a dangerous terrorist belonging to the Muslim extremist group called ‘Isa Masih’ [Jesus Christ].”
Karakalpak officials strictly prohibit these new Christians from meeting for worship services and constantly monitor their activities, often subjecting them and their families to police raids and house searches without warrants.
Existing registrations for Protestant churches have been cancelled, with no new registration applications accepted. Without this government registration, it is illegal to participate in Christian activities or to store or distribute Christian literature, including New Testaments in the Karakalpak and Uzbek languages. Astronomical fines for these “offenses” sometimes equal 100 times the minimum monthly salary. Offenders also risk lengthy jail terms.
With all evangelism prohibited, Christians are not allowed to teach their own children about their faith, and all Christian charitable activities are banned.
Continual negative media coverage over television and newspapers has skewed the mindset of society against Christians, portraying them as “dangerous sectarians” and “enemies of the people.”
Community leaders now form an alliance with Islamic clergy to oppose local Christian believers at village or district meetings, treating them as outcasts from society. Christians are shouted at and often beaten in public settings to try to force them to denounce Christ.
But in a particularly cruel social tactic, Karakalpak authorities have even started refusing permission to these Christian citizens to bury their dead.
The Ultimate Cultural Shame
When 10 policemen came to the home of a physically handicapped believer in February 2009 for a so-called “routine passport check,” they tried to confiscate his Bible. But 40-year-old Polat, paralyzed and in a wheelchair, refused to surrender his most precious possession.[i]
Urged by the police to persuade their son to hand over his Bible, Polat’s parents replied, “We know him. The only options you have are either to kill him and take his Bible, or arrest him together with his Bible. He will not let go of it. It is the source of hope in his life!” But eventually the officers managed to pry away his Bible, promising to give it back after checking it with the Religious Affairs Committee.
The Bible was never returned to Polat by the authorities, who concluded the Bible was banned for import, distribution or use for teaching in the Republic of Karakalpakstan.
Just one month later, Polat’s 67-year-old father died of a heart attack. Although the father was not himself a Christian, local authorities decided to punish the mother and son for their Christian beliefs and activities.
First the town’s head imam refused permission to conduct his funeral procession. Then Islamic clergy and the secret police visited the family home, forbidding them from holding a traditional funeral. Their neighbors and other imams were warned not to participate in any ceremony. The local cemetery refused to allocate any burial plot, stationing a guard at the premises so no one could start digging a grave.
When Polat’s mother Aksulu went to the town’s main mosque to sort out the problem, she was told she could not bury her husband until she met specific demands:
- Sign a statement that you belong to the “Isa Masih” [Jesus Christ] sect, teach Christian doctrines to others and hold religious services.
- Spy on other Christian believers and pastors to inform the authorities.
- Publicly renounce your faith in Christ.
When Aksulu refused to meet these conditions, she was warned that if she continued to give “religious teaching” without the government’s required special religious education, she would be fined. If found guilty of a second offense within a year, she was told, she would be booked for criminal prosecution and sent to prison.
Returning to her district, the newly widowed Christian pleaded with local elders to help her bury her husband. After three days, several relented to help her, arranging quietly for her husband’s burial just outside the cemetery. Soon afterwards, security police summoned the elders to rebuke and warn them against ever doing that again.
To ward off observance of the time-honored custom to hold special ceremonies on the 40th and 100th day after the death of Polat’s father, security officials threatened their neighbors against participating in any of these funeral rites.
In the Karakalpak culture, the whole community is expected to join in these observances, with the women all joining to help with the cooking and a communal sharing in the family’s grief. To shame the grieving family, the police threatened their neighbors with prosecution under criminal law if they helped the family in any way to organize these events.
Local officials went from home to home, warning, “Whoever becomes a Christian will also be punished. Your dead will not be buried!”
Just five days after Polat’s father died, a Christian woman in a neighboring town also died. Because of security police warnings spread in the town, her burial was also arranged without the support of the community.
“The authorities do not allow family members of deceased Christians to bury them according to local traditions,” one Christian leader said. “The community is not allowed to give any material help or to participate in the ceremonies.”
Similar heavy-handed threats from police authorities have plagued Pastor Murad,* who lives in the same area near Polat.
Pastor Murad is continually harassed by security police, who are convinced he is a member of a dangerous sect, most likely backed by foreign elements. Accused of making much money by converting Muslims, he was charged with leading “illegal religious activities” and forced to pay a fine.
Before a year had passed after his first court case, he was summoned again to the police and threatened this time with imprisonment for having committed the same offense in less than a year. But the pastor was offered an alternative from going to jail: cooperation.
Police officials told Pastor Murad that if he would cooperate with them, sharing some information about his Christian activities and informing them about other believers involved, then they would let him go free and even help him when needed.
“Think it over for one day and decide what you want,” they tempted him. “Tomorrow we will come back, either to arrest you, or to agree about your cooperation.”
Pastor Murad is only one of dozens of Karakalpak church leaders facing similar heavy intimidation efforts from security and police officials to betray their fellow believers. The stress takes a serious toll on these leaders, as well as their wives and families, to stand up to the never-ending psychological and physical pressures.
