World Jewish News

Kazakhstan's resolute moving towards new prosperity horizons.

"The issues of interconfessional and interethnic concord are of primary concern in Kazakhstan", has announced President Nazarbaev at the International Peace and Consent Conference.
President Nazarbaev has pointed out that the conference is held in Kazakhstan, the land that over the years has become the interaction point for the greatest civilizations: Islam, Christianity, Judaism, and Buddhism.
"There are only a few countries in the world that can offer such diversity in civilization and culture", has pointed out President Nazarbaev.
The President has also stated that "nowadays, Kazakhstan is resolutely moving towards new prosperity horizons". The country is also successfully undergoing economical reforms and profound democratic changes. Over the years since the proclamation of Independence, "all the conditions for peaceful co-existence of different confessions have been created with the help of a permanent interconfessional dialogue initiated and supported by the state authorities", has stressed the President.
The President has reminded that one of the first laws of independent Kazakhstan was that on religious unions, securing the religious liberty of the Kazakhs.
"My compatriots represent more than 120 nationalities and over 40 confessions", has pointed out President Nazarbaev.
The President has said that over the years since the Independence was proclaimed, the number of religious organizations active in the country has increased 4.5 times and currently amounts to more than 3,000. There have been built more than 1.500 new mosques, thirty Roman-Catholic churches, and over one thousand praying houses of Russian Protestant churches, over 170 Orthodox parishes have been founded.
Until 1991, there had been the only one synagogue in the entire territory of Kazakhstan; nowadays there are about twenty of them. Plus, construction of the biggest Jewish temple in Central Asia is currently in progress in Astana, the Kazakh capital.
Everything that President Nazarbaev has said proves not only that Kazakhstan is confessionally diverse, but also that "the state constantly cares for the renaissance of the spiritual culture of its citizens, independent of their religion".
In his speech, the President has attracted the Conference participants' attention to the initiative of his to hold in Kazakhstan the first interconfessional Congress of World's religions. The President has said that the Catholic church representatives have already expressed support to the idea.
The following officials participated in the work of the International Peace and Consent Conference: the President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbaev; the President of Kyrgyzstan Askar Akayev; the President of Tajikistan Emomali Rakhmonov; the Secretary of State of Turkey Mehmet Aidyn; the Advisor to the President of Afghanistan Yakhia Marufi; and the Minister of Foreign Affair of Azerbaijan Vilayat Guliev. Prominent religious leaders representing Jewish organizations of the USA, Australia, and New Zealand, as well as other world's confessions also participated in the work of the Conference.

Источник: centran.ru