DUSHANBE, August 11, 2012, Asia-Plus – Surveillance cameras will be installed in all the 355 cathedral mosques (facilities built for Friday prayers) across Tajikistan.  To-date, some 40 percent of Friday mosques in the country have been provided with surveillance cameras.

Mavlon Mukhtorov, deputy chairman of the Committee on Religious Affairs (CRA) under the Government of Tajikistan, has told Asia-plus that the surveillance cameras are installed in mosques as a public safety measure.

Some Tajik media sources quoted Suhrob Valiyev, an official in charge with the religious affairs at the mayor’s office of the city of Sarband in Khatlon province, as saying that “the cameras allow controlling those attending the mosques in order to prevent unknown persons from propagating Islamic movements alien to the Tajik people as well as prevent underage children from attending mosques.”

Meanwhile, Mukhtorov notes that when he says that the surveillance cameras are installed in mosques for security reasons he means “possible fire or any similar incident but not controlling parishioners.”