Overview:

• Recognition and registration look to be amalgamated rather than ideally differentiated with a focus on the former as existential recognition rather than on the latter as legal registration.

• There exists a short vertical recognition situation whereby a religious group can gain recognition directly with the government or receive it by affiliating itself with a group that has already received recognition, thus then becoming part of their already recognised group in the eyes of the government.

• Leaders from one religion, recognised or not, should have not say in the internal affairs or laws effecting another religious group; for example, they should not be able to request the banning of a book in order to censor other groups.

• Politicisation of the recognition process is evidential by the mandatory submission of documents to the cabinet which then evaluate the contents of the religion’s beliefs in accordance with the government’s accepted system of values; under religious freedom, religious groups should not be discriminated against according to their beliefs and practices.

Positive elements:

• Provisions are set in place for religious groups to hold independent adjudications for personal status issues in accordance with their own religious laws; the degree to which these provisions are universally is dubious.

Recommendations:

• Re-establish the recognition system so that it is becomes inclusive of all belief systems and is able to recognise in a multi-level capacity.