Borat
Criticized as unfair smear
against Kazakhstan
A number of commentators have argued that the film's
portrayal of the people of Kazakhstan is unfair and
unjustified.
In fact, Kazakhstan is one of the most tolerant central
asian nations because almost half its population is
Russian, who are historically Orthodox, and its native
Kazakhs are not particularly devoutly Muslim, usually
mixing Islam with pagan rituals; the most radical Muslim
elements belonging to the Uzbek population in the south.
Tony Karon has alleged that the film reinforces prejudice
against Muslims and asserts that "Kazakhstan is one
of the least anti-Semitic polities in the Muslim world
today." Karon
cites a U.S. State Department report
suggesting that Jews are treated realitively well:
- In August 2004, the Chief Rabbi of Kazakhstan, addressing
an international religious conference in Brussels,
stated that in 10 years in the country he had never
faced a single case of anti-Semitism. He praised the
Government of Kazakhstan for its pro-active protection
of the Jewish community.
Nevertheless, there have been reports of anti-Semitism
in Kazakhstan, as illustrated by Alden Oreck's article
in the Jewish Virtual Library, a division of the American-Israeli
Cooperative Enterprise:
-
| While anti-Semitism is not a great
threat, it is still prevalent in Kazakhstan.
Jews are occasionally beaten and harassed because
of their identity. In 1997, after Kazakh KGB
agents arrested Leonid Solomin, an independent
Jewish labor leader and his associates, the
Kazakh newspapers published a slew of anti-Semitic
charges warning against "Zionists" and "international
Jewry." One even called upon the people to kill
Jews. |
|
On October 19, Associated Press reported that Kazakhstan's
Deputy Foreign Minister, Rakhat Aliyev, had invited
Cohen to visit Kazakhstan and see how inaccurate his
portrayals were. In an interview, Aliyev asserted that:
- His trip could yield a lot of discoveries -- that
women not only travel inside buses but also drive
their own cars, that we make wine from grapes, that
Jews can freely attend synagogues and so on.
In contrast to this, less traditional religious minorities,
especially Baptist and Hare Krishna, are subject to
an official policy of harassment by the government of
Kazakhstan, including classification as religious extremists
and extra-legal distruction of property and eviction
in winter. The Norwegian religious rights group Forum
18 has stated that
- Kazakh authorities have also worked with local television
stations to encourage intolerance against religious
minorities, such as Baptists and Hare Krishna devotees.
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