ASTANA (RAPSI) – The district court of Astana in Kazakhstan has declared Tablighi Jamaat to be an extremist organization and has banned it from operating in Kazakhstan, the press service of the republican prosecutor general announced on Tuesday.

The press service said the court’s decision is based on evidence of the organization’s extremist activity, as well as on the fact that it has been declared extremist and banned in Russia, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.

Kazakhstan has already banned several international extremist organizations, among them Hizb ut-Tahrir, Al Qaida, the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, Muslim Brotherhood, Taliban, the Jamaat of Central Asian Mujahideen, Aum Shinrikyo, the East Turkestan Liberation Organization and the Islamic Party of Turkestan.

According to the National Security Committee of Kazakhstan, over 40 extremist groups were rooted out and 35 terrorist attacks were prevented in 2011-2012.

Tablighi Jamaat is an Islamic missionary movement set up in 1927 and has branches across the world. It is based on a radical philosophy; it rejects the legitimacy of the state and is intolerant of all other faiths.

The Russian Supreme Court ruled in May 2009 that Tablighi Jamaat is an extremist organization and banned its operation in Russia.