Uzbekistan, where teachers stand in front of mosques: has the role of a teacher changed again?

An audio message from Gulchehra Usmanova Hikmatullaevna, a spiritual director of the Almazar district public education department (XTB) of Tashkent city, has been circulating on social media. In it, the methodologist asks the deputy directors of schools in the district to provide photos of students who went to the mosque and the number of the school they are studying at.

"... this is how they were asked. Everyone is one hundred percent involved," he said in his address.

In addition, the spiritual director of the XTB instructed the deputy directors to have the "responsible" people removed from the schools go to the mosque, meet with law enforcement officers, and send their activities there in the form of a "circular video." The methodologist also cited the frequent calls and demands from his superiors as a reason for this.

Earlier, our compatriots wrote on their social media pages that about 50 teachers, who had joined the representatives of the violent regime, were voluntarily or forcibly standing guard in front of mosques, taking pictures of students coming to the House of Allah and turning them away.

"Two days before the start of Ramadan, a letter was sent to parents through children in all schools. The letter stated that "illegal religious education of children will lead to liability."

"Two days later, on the first day of Ramadan, the preachers began preaching, "Don't bring children to the mosque." Those under the age of 18 were not allowed into the mosque, and parents were warned in letters that children were not allowed into the mosque. Not only children who were defecating, but also teenagers, mostly 15-16 years old, who were responsible, were expelled from the mosque," writes one Uzbek activist.

There were also those who wrote that the government was openly fighting religion and believers, that the fight against religious and devout youth had begun, leaving behind those who were idle on the streets, spending their lives on PlayStations, in computer rooms, or in nightclubs.

Our compatriot Jamshid Bobobekov shared his experience on his Facebook page. He said that all the doors of the mosque where he went to pray during Ramadan were locked, and dozens of teachers were lined up in front of the main gate.

"Well, I got distracted. There are about thirty police officers standing around. And the teachers are mainly responsible for keeping the children out. It's a very funny and sad scene. If there's a problem, the police officers intervene," he wrote on his page.

"I also spoke with the organ worker," our compatriot writes.

"We let it go for five or six years. We didn't put any pressure on it. We didn't have any work. If there's no order, do we even need it on a cold day?" he said.

It's a truly sad sight: a child who came to join his father in celebrating Ramadan in a special spirit, but teachers who are supposed to be educators of the nation, along with government officials, are trampling on his freedom of religion. This is a situation that is not even seen in countries with many non-religious people, and it is imposed on the basis of an order from above in a country where the majority of the population is Muslim. What kind of example was this?

This action by some bigwigs who have established themselves in state power is not only contrary to Islam, but also to the laws they themselves developed.

Especially in New Uzbekistan, we boast that teachers have been freed from picking cotton and sweeping streets, but how can we understand this when, through the help of the XTB employees, we turn teachers into people who block young people from the mosque?! Which student with common sense can respect the teacher who kicked him out of the mosque tomorrow and take his advice. Are we thinking about this? Or are we again going the way of consciously demoralizing our children and killing an already sick education?