During the current year the Government has intensified its work with the existing religious associations of Kazakhstan. This was reported by the Minister of Religious Affairs and Civil Society Nurlan Yermekbayev during a briefing in the press center of the Government.

Nurlan Yermekbayev reported that at present the Ministry has established cooperation with all legally functioning religious associations (more than 3,6 thousand religious associations). At the same time, many issues are solved online.

Within the framework of such cooperation, a memorandum was concluded with the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Kazakhstan (SAMK). Based on the memorandum, the SAMK have made significant steps to change the formats of its work. The work of the Imam Corps has been retargeted from mass propaganda to work with the target audience. Large-scale explanatory work is conducted only among believers and mainly in religious buildings.

Also, together with the leadership of the SAMK, a pool of qualified and trained imams has been formed. They are focused on conducting targeted work with representatives of destructive trends, on their persuasion and return to the bosom of traditional Islam. The issue of the development of the Kazakh theological school is being studied.

In addition, the SAMK takes measures to improve the qualification level of imams of mosques. For this purpose, the Institute for Retraining in the field of the prevention of extremism has been established. Since October 2016, 40 imams and theological specialists have been trained at this institute.

In addition, an agreement on cooperation with the Orthodox Church of Kazakhstan has been signed, and assistance is provided to the Catholic Church and other faiths. The Ministry has an Expert Council on Religious Affairs and a Meeting of Heads of Religious Leaders. The Forum of Religious Scientists is held every year. A new structure of the Council for Relations with Religious Associations under the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan has been formed. It includes leaders of traditional confessions, scholars, rectors of universities, representatives of NGOs and the media.