In the centre of Kazakhstan's new capital, Astana, jostling for attention amid gleaming skyscrapers built on profits from the country's vast oil and gas fields, a glass pyramid stands on a hill overlooking the Presidential Palace.
Designed by the British architect Norman Foster, the £36m "Palace of Peace and Reconciliation" is the brainchild of Kazakhstan's autocrat president, Nursultan Nazarbayev, who commissioned a building where religious leaders from around the world could meet and find common ground.
The irony of the building's construction was not lost on local human rights activists who have documented an increasingly hostile attitude towards religious groups in Kazakhstan – and raised serious questions about the recruitment by Mr Nazarbayev of Tony Blair as an adviser to the nation.
The most serious assault on religion was unveiled this month, just days before it was revealed that the former British prime minister, who runs a faith foundation, had been taken on by the Kazakh government in a role he has not yet fully explained.
A new law, rushed through the country's parliament and announced by Mr Nazarbayev, forbids prayer rooms inside state buildings, orders all religious groups to re-register or face liquidation through the courts, bans foreigners from setting up faith groups, and severely limits where religious literature can be bought.
For Mr Blair – who set up his eponymous foundation after leaving Downing Street to promote religion as "a powerful force for good in the modern world" – the timing of the law is embarrassing and piles on the pressure to explain the exact nature of his business dealings with the regime. » | JEROME TAYLOR | Monday, October 31, 2011
