Kazakhstan wants to get rid of TikTok imams
The government will investigate Islamic preachers who deliver sermons online. It considers that the digital mosque spreads messages contrary to national values.
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Kazakhstan has opened a new front in the control of public Islam. After Ban the burqa and the niqab, The government is now focusing on Islamic preachers who deliver sermons on social media. without authorisation from the country's official Muslim authority (the Muftiate). Several MPs warn that these internet imams could influence young people, erode national values and to fuel a religiosity outside institutional control.
Kursiv Media explains that the debate has accelerated following several controversies involving unofficial preachers. The most high-profile case is that of Kurbanali Akhmet, a Sufi preacher who He claimed in a podcast that he had “gifted” one of his wives to a student.. The episode provoked a strong political and religious reaction and was used by Kazakh MPs to call on the police to investigate Islamic sermons disseminated on the internet without the Muftiate's permission.
The Internet is the mosque that the State wants to control.
For years, The Kazakh state could control religious preaching through the mosques., registered imams and the official Muftiate. But social media has broken this scheme. Now a preacher can reach thousands of young people via a YouTube channel, a TikTok live stream or a podcast without going through any mosque or any recognised religious authority. That is why the government no longer only looks at Friday sermons, but also at short videos, interviews and religious advice circulating on the internet.
This is the background to the offensive against digital imams. The problem for Kazakhstan is not just that some preachers spread radical ideas or messages contrary to national values, but that they build religious authority outside the State's control. In practice, the internet has become a new mosque without walls, without a register and without an official imam. And the Kazakh government wants this space to also pass through the Muftiate's filter.
Deputy Murat Abenov has put it directly. According to him, If the Muftiate has not officially authorised a person to preach on its behalf, that preaching is illegal and the police must hold the perpetrators responsible.. Abenov argues that any independent preacher, even if he presents himself as a ustaz or religious teacher, should be investigated if he operates outside the country's official Muslim authority.
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