DTTO Report | Bible Burning Spreads to Kazhakstan.
Kazhakstan is poised to become the third former Soviet state to engage in Bible burning. Uzbekistan and Russia both routinely burn religious literature. Uzbekistan burns both Bibles and Korans. Russia says that they burn only "extremist" literature.
In what appears to be the first such instance since Kazakhstan gained independence in 1991, a court has ordered religious literature to be destroyed. A total of 121 religious books confiscated from a Baptist, Vyacheslav Cherkasov, were ordered destroyed by a court in the northern Akmola Region, according to the verdict seen by Forum 18 News Service. He was also fined one month's average wage. If Cherkasov loses his appeal to Akmola Regional Court, court executors will carry out the destruction. A Justice Ministry official in the capital Astana told Forum 18 that the books – which include Bibles - are likely to be burnt.
Local Council of Churches Baptists who attended Cherkasov's hearing told Forum 18 on 14 March that "we were shocked - this is sacrilege and illegality". One stated that "we are worried and are praying about this". They stated the confiscated books were Bibles, Children's Bibles, and other books and leaflets on the Christian faith, mostly in Kazakh.
Book burning has a long history but always seems to evoke memories of the Nazi book burning. The Nazis, under the leadership of Adolf Hitler, staged mass burning of books. This was deemed to be an "action against The Un-German Spirit".
According to Christianity Today, Kazakhstan had been the site of central Asia's great awakening in 2000. But in 2011, a new religion law was passed to curb religious extremism. This law has had a negative effect on religious freedom. By burning these books Kazahstan is taking a large step in restricting the freedom of religious expression. And they join with some of the most repressive regimes of history and the present day.
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