UZBEKISTAN, CITING BAN ON MISSIONARY ACTIVITIES, IMPOUNDS BIBLES.

Uzbek customs have confiscated a consignment of 25,000 Uzbek-language copies of the New Testament, sent by the Russian Bible Society as a gift to its counterpart in that country. Uzbekistan’s government department on religious affairs upheld the confiscation on the grounds that the country’s secular legislation bans missionary activities of any kind. (Itar-Tass, March 14) In Uzbekistan, as in Azerbaijan recently, secular governments determined to contain radical Islamic proselytizing can hardly afford to be seen as encouraging Christian missionary work.

One Sodirov Apprehended.