Story number 2 for 6 Apr 2001

(Turkmenistan)–Next, basic religious freedoms are being denied in the former Soviet republic of Turkmenistan. It is there that a Christian prisoner’s family is reportedly being ordered to convert to Islam. According to the Keston News Service, Turkmen police are not only threatening to confiscate the family’s property, they are also insisting that the prisoner’s wife send her children to an Islamic school. Turkmenistan is believed to have one of the most repressive religious policies of any of the Central Asian republics.