Despite President Nazarbayev regularly making public statements highlighting and praising the country's tradition of inter-ethnic and interfaith tolerance, Kazakhstan legislation renders it compulsory for all religious communities to register and the activities of unregistered religious organizations are banned.

In June 2007, 12 homes were forcibly demolished in a Hare Krishna community near Almaty and a Baptist pastor was jailed for three days in March for leading an unregistered congregation. A state crackdown on Baptist and Pentecostal Christians was described by police as 'the fight against terrorism and religious groups without registration'.

In April 2007 Kazakhstan's religious minorities expressed deep concern about a Justice Ministry booklet entitled How Not to Fall Under the Influence of Religious Sects. The Kazakhstan International Bureau of Human Rights and the Rule of Law said that the booklet provides 'the moral, or more accurately immoral, basis for officials to justify their negative attitudes towards non-traditional religions'. Among the booklet's claims is that 'transferring to other religious faiths represents treason to one's country and faith'.

Although the Russian language is deemed 'equal' to Kazakh under the constitution, legislation and programmes of 'Kazakhization' since 2001 are increasing the use of the Kazakh language as the main language of government. This is proving to be an obstacle to access to education and employment in the civil service for a large part of the Russian minority population.

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