Nursultan Nazarbayev, Kazakhstan's president, has approved a new religious law which authorities say is intended to tackle extremism following a spate of violent incidents over the summer blamed on religious groups, including the country's first suicide bombing.
The law forces all religious organisations to re-register and bans prayer in state institutions such as schools and prisons.
But the Central Asian nation's chief imam believes restrictions on prayers will antagonise the Muslim-majority Kazakh public.
Al Jazeera's Robin Forestier-Walker reports from Kazakhstan's western city of Aktobe.