CHRONICLE AND REVISION OF RELIGIOUS EVENTS IN AZERBAIJAN IN APRIL 2008

CHRONICLE

April 7

Ceremony of opening mosque in the village of Rustov in Guba region took place with participation of the Minister of Culture and Tourism Abulfaz Garayev. The Mosque built in 1902 was reconstructed by scientific research institute "Azerbarpa" at the order of Culture and Tourism Ministry. The funds for the re constriction of the mosque were allocated by the Ministry of Youth and Sport; 162 mosques were registered in Guba. One of them is a monument of world significance, 44 national significance monument and 117 local significance monuments.

April 9

Chairman of Caucasian Muslims Department (CMD) Allahshukur Pashazade met with patriarch of All Russia Alexy II in Moscow. The sides discussed different aspects of inter-religious dialogue and the perspectives of conduction of inter-religious dialogue in Baku, as well as the plan of creation of inter-religious consultative council in UNO. Azerbaijan’s ambassador to Russia Polad Bulbil oglu, bishop of Baku and Precaspian Alexander participated in the meeting.

***
Religious men of the world met in Moscow with participation of UN Secretary General Pan Ghee Mun. They considered the question on creation of inter-religious dialogue for peaceful settlement of conflicts. The session focused on the creation of UN inter-religious Consultative Council, which will consider the place of religion in modern society, significance and perspectives of inter-religious dialogue in peaceful settlement of conflicts, and the cases of Islamophobia in Europe, spoke about the film "Fitne", cartoon son the prophet Mohammed in some European countries. It was decided on the results of the forum to create in the near future working groups for development of details of this project.
Working dinner of religious leaders with Ghi Mun took place on the same day in the Danilovskaya Hotel. The meeting was on the discussing the ways of communications of main religious communities of the world with UNO, possible ways of realization of the calls of the World Moscow summit of religious leaders to adjustment of more systematic partnership of religious men with UNO.

*Muslims will be represented in the Consultative Council by spiritual leaders of Azerbaijan , Jordan and Iran.
** The initiative on creation of inter-religious consultative council was forwarded in 2006 at the World Moscow summit of religious leaders.

April 12

Nobody in Azerbaijan is persecuted for his religion , said the head of CMD Allahshukur Pashazade. People are brought to justice only for crimes they commit, regardless their religion.
Even the most authoritative organizations note that there is a religious tolerance in Azerbaijan, Pashazade said.

April 13

Delegation led by the head of CMD A.Pashazade visited Saudi Arabia on April 13-17. They had meetings with the minister for Hajj affairs of Saudi Arabia Fuad Bin Abdulsalam Al Faris and other senior officials in the Ministry. They discussed questions on allocation of quotes for Azerbaijan for making hajj, accommodation for them and their transportation. Relevant protocols and agreements were signed.

April 22

Rome Pope Benedict ХVI received Catholic bishops of Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia who arrived in Rome for five days to inform Pope. Azerbaijan was represented by the head of Catholic Church of Azerbaijan Yan Chapla. The pontific called on Caucasian countries " to protect family values and human life from mentality imposed in society during communist regime last century."

April 23

Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev congratulated the Rome Pope Benedict XVI on the occasion of crowning.

April 28

President Ilham Aliyev congratulated Azerbaijan’s Orthodox Community on the occasion of scared holiday of Christians.

April 29

Scientific-practical conference and presentation of the book "Heydar Aliyev and National spiritual values" organized by CMD took place in Baku.

REVISION

Again about non-traditional religious trends in Azerbaijan.
After the International Crisis Group published a report on religious situation in Azerbaijan mass media began to spend much attention to this subject. The report of the crisis group read that wahabism in Azerbaijan is approaching dangerous level. On April 21 and April 23 the agencies Trend and Еhe first news, in their interview with deputy chairman of state commission for the Work with Religious Communities (SCWRC) Elchin Askerov. He said that wahabism came to Azerbaijan in 1993 because the principle of freedom of religion is observed in Azerbaijan. The opinion that wahabism can be dangerous for Azerbaijan is groundless. Their number in Azerbaijan is not very large. As compared with the countries of the region protection of religious stability is on high level, and the revealed extremist groups were made harmless.
The other case it the attempt of extremist groupings functioning under the religion, to change the government. There were such attempts in Azerbaijan in 1996, when the group "Jeyshulla", as well as members of "Caucasian Al Qaeda" were made harmless.
On the other side, those groups did not have enough supporters, and it is not right to say that such tendencies exist among the whole religious trend.

Commenting on the statement of the First Deputy Interior Minister of Azerbaijan Vilayet Eyvazov, regarding insufficient transparency of the activity of Abu Bekr Mosque and that the head of the mosque must prevent the attempts of visitors to establish relations with the representatives of extremist and terrorist , Askerov said that probably deputy minister referred to some operative information. Of course, there are some contradictions between the members of Abu Bekr community. Some extremist visitors even refuse to pray in the mosque and condemn the head of the mosque for cooperation with authorities. Such people distance from the mosque and meet in secret places. The presence of some extremist members in the community is not a ground to close the mosque. The statements made by deputy minister could be referred to all mosques whose activity must be transparent.

Askerov said that SCWRS and law enforcement bodies work for the prevention of formation of extremist groups in communities. The employees of SCWRS visit Friday namaz and if anti-legal actions are revealed they are prevented. Probably, law enforcement bodies also do this work. He refuted the information which has been spread in the country for several years about the possibility of the establishment of superiority of shariat in the country.
This subject of the Islamic revolution was brought up during pre-election campaign to parliament in 2003-2005 by opposition forces. Thus, the opposition wanted to inform the West that if nobody supports them then Islamist could come to power. As an example they mentioned Iran. For many years we lived without religion, and there are not pre-conditions for the Islamic revolution in Azerbaijan.

Concerning measures taken for the preventing spread of religious literature Askerov said that the state seriously checks all books on the subject brought to Azerbaijan. If books call to national hatred or religious extremism, religious confrontation, ideas which are contrary to national interests, they are not allowed to be printed in Azerbaijan. International organizations more than once tried to convince that such measures should be changed, but we protect , first of all, our national interests.

The position of SCWRS is that Azerbaijan is a young independent state, in which ideological normative have not been formed yet. It makes us to be careful and attentive, because religious books have very strong influence on youth.

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