DUSHANBE, January 10, 2013, Asia-Plus  -- Iran’s Fars News Agency (FNA) reports that Tajikistan stands in the first place among Central Asia’s nations in terms of the number of officially registered mosques.

FNA cited Kairat Sharif, the chairman of Kazakhstan’s Administration for Religious Affairs, as saying that Tajikistan with population of some eight million people has 3,938 officially registered mosques.

Meanwhile, Kazakhstan, which has the population of some seventeen million people, has only 2,228 officially registered mosques, Kairat Sharif noted.  Uzbekistan with population of some 30 million people has 2,050 registered mosques, Kyrgyzstan (5.5 million people) – 2,200 mosques, and Turkmenistan (more than 5 million people) – 400 registered mosques. 

We will recall that Mavlon Mukhtorov, the deputy chairman of Tajikistan''s Committee on Religious Affairs (CRA), note don February 16, 2012 that Tajikistan has more mosques than schools.  He said official figures show there are 3,425 regular mosques, 344 cathedral mosques, and 40 central cathedral mosques.

Tajikistan''s Ministry of Education reported last February that there are 3,793 schools, most of them overcrowded, and in many cases one classroom has up to 40 students.