June 10, 2002
'Cut me into 1,000 pieces; every piece will scream, 'Jesus!''
___By Frank Brown
___Religion News Service
___BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan (RNS) --The evangelical work of the Full Gospel Church of Jesus Christ of Karakol was going well in the little farm village of Lipenka, population 400. Christian discos on weekends. Early morning prayers in the homes of believers. Bible study in evening cell groups.
___"The group grew up to about 25 people, and the work started developing in a positive way," recalled Allie Shvidko, a leader of the charismatic church. "A whole Kyrgyz family in Lipenka got converted."
Allie Shvidko
___Then, in November, one of the new Christians died. The tight-knit, mostly Muslim village has not been the same since.
___After Shavshakhan Kasmalieva, 40, succumbed to uterine cancer, her closest relatives, most of whom also were members of the Full Gospel Church, wanted to bury her in the village cemetery next to her parents, as is tradition.
___The local mullah and a group of village elders refused to allow the burial, even though the cemetery is the property of the local government, not the local mosque. When the Christians bused in believers from a nearby city as reinforcements, local Muslims bolstered their numbers with people from neighboring villages.
___The resulting standoff verged on violence, Shvidko said, with a group of elders confronting the dead woman's brother, offering a burial plot in exchange for him returning to the faith of his forefathers.
___"They surrounded him and screamed at him, 'Deny your faith in Jesus, and everything will be all right!'" she said. "But he answered, 'Even if you cut me into 1,000 pieces, every piece will still scream, 'Jesus!'"
___At the end of the day, the minority Christians backed down, and the two sides reached a compromise of sorts: "They buried her 100 meters outside the cemetery," Shvidko said, adding, "like a dog."
Adyl Kasmaliev
___The brother, Adyl Kasmaliev, confirmed Shvidko's account in a telephone interview from his home in Lipenka, located about a six-hour drive east of the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek. Lipenka's mullah was not reachable by telephone, and officials in the Spiritual Directorate of the Muslims of Kyrgyzstan were not familiar with the situation in Lipenka but said such burial conflicts are increasingly common.
___"It is, of course, a problem when a person changes his faith," commented the country's top mufti, Kimsanbai Azhy Abdurakhmanov. "First of all, it is unpleasant. Secondly, it is forbidden for a Muslim to do it. And thirdly, everyday life in the village will become difficult for the person who changes his faith."
___In Lipenka, according to Kasmaliev, relations between the Muslim majority and Christian minority are still tense. Evangelism is at a standstill.
___"It is still a critical situation. It is bad," said Kasmaliev, who continues to hold daily 6 a.m. prayer services in the two-room house he shares with his wife. "The other people won't accept the word of God. They are against us."
___Kasmaliev hopes to rebury his sister's body some day.
___"We are still praying that we'll be able to move her body into the cemetery," he said.
___There seems little doubt that Lipenka's Christians are within their legal rights in demanding that a local resident be given burial space in the municipal cemetery. They collected 25 signatures on an affidavit, sent it to the local office of the Council of National Security--the former KGB--and demanded an investigation. Local Muslims collected signatures on a petition demanding the expulsion of Christian residents.
___The CNS looked into the matter and referred it to regional officials and the Committee for Religious Affairs, a CNS spokeswoman said.
___"They will try to find a way to solve the problem. Maybe a burial site for people who have converted to other faiths will be found," said the spokeswoman, Chinara Asanova.
___Alisher Sabirov, a member of the Kyrgyz parliament and the driving force behind proposed new religious legislation, said disputes like Lipenka's are widespread, especially in the south of Kyrgyzstan where Muslims are more devout.
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