DUSHANBE, August 24, Asia-Plus --  The commission charged with the Council of Clerics (Shuroi Ulamo) with assessing professionalism of Dushanbe imam-khatibs (mosque leaders) has vetted some 50 imam-khatibs from all four districts of the city, Khudoiberi Egamberdiyev, the head of the attestation commission, said in an interview with Asia-Plus.

            According to him, four imams from Dushanbe’s Shomansour district have failed to pass the exam. 

“The attestation results have shown that as a whole, religious knowledge of imams in Dushanbe is satisfactory and the majority of them receive the “fair” mark,” said Egamberdiyev, “Such a situation evokes concern.  If such a situation is in Dushanbe, the situation in the province will be worse.”

As far as the capital imam-khatibs are concerned, their religious knowledge has proved their fitness for the job, the commission head said           

We will recall that the commission comprising seven representatives from the Council of Clerics started examining religious knowledge of the Dushanbe imam-khatibs on August 10.  Saymuddin Homidzoda, the Executive Secretary of the Council of Clerics, said that time that imams who fail to pass the exam could be sacked and replaced with other clerics.    

57 mosques now illegally function in the Tajik capital.