Supreme mufti of Kazakhstan met Kostanai oblast akim

On 9 June the supreme mufti, chairman of the spiritual department of the Moslems of Kazakhstan Absattar Derbissali met the akim of Kostanai oblast Umirzak Shukeyev. At their meeting the mufti said that an examination board had arrived together with him to work with the oblast imams. Absattar Derbissali stressed that the examination of Moslem clergy was taking place around the whole republic.

The supreme mufti believes that an incompliance of religious priests to the high educational and moral level was the most acute problem for all creeds. "In the conditions of modern society the religious priests must be highly educated and moral people. It is especially important for our multiethnic and multireligious state", - he said.

The Almaty branch of Egyptian University Nur-Mubaraq already now prepares around 100 imams for the whole repuvlic. The number of university students will be growing each year.

17 imams serve in Kostanai oblast mosques. They will all be examined. An incompliance with the high demands of the commission, according to the mufti, does not mean that the imams would be removed from the mosques. "Many imams don't have a spiritual education. It's not their fault. Such were the times. The absence of special education does not prevent them from being respected spiritual leaders. They will be replaced by highly educated people, but it will take place gradually", - the supreme mufti said.