Mass demolition of mosques is out of the question: Azerbaijani State Committee for Religious Associations official

Day.Az: How do you assess the current religious situation in Azerbaijan?

Elchin Asgarov: The religious situation we have is the same as before - the country's legislation ensures complete freedom of religion, no religion is declared superior to others and all are equal before the law in the country. As before, there is a high tolerance between the faiths and religious groups, there are no restrictions for religious rituals.

Many places of worship are built and repaired by believers themselves and their communities. The country has about 1,750 mosques, 6 synagogues and many churches.
 
In addition to Islam believers who make up 95 percent of the population, we have representatives of almost all the major world religions - Catholicism and various Protestant churches, Orthodoxy, Lutheranism, Judaism, Bahaism, Krishna, etc. All they can practice their religion and their rights protected by law.

Q: Can you, please, clarify the wide press coverage about demolition of mosques?

A: Yes, there were several facts of demolition and closure of mosques. Not all of these cases have the same reasons. Since the causes are different, decisions on these matters will be different. However, these cases also caused a lot of discussions, predictions and rumors in the community and media.

Everyone put forward his/her point of view that gave rise to many rumors. And the fact that recently the parliament adopted amendments to the law on religious freedom and re-registration started in all communities was a source of that widespread media reports claiming that allegedly demolition will continue.

The mass demolition is out of the question. The state has done and will do much to restore the mosques. We all have witnessed this and it was highlighted in media.

Moreover, the initiator of the restoration and repair of mosques was head of state Mr. President.

Q: Head of Caucasus Muslims Board Allahshukur Pashazade believes that the responsibility for the situation lies primarily with officials who gave permission for the illegal construction. Do you think it necessary to tighten control over the construction of religious sites?

A: Yes, I am familiar with the opinion of Sheikhulislam and I think we can agree with him. I believe that tightening control over the construction of religious sites is necessary. Recently, the country's parliament did the same adopting additions about  such controls to the Law on Freedom of Religion. Henceforth, such permission will be issued the state committee.

Q: How many religious communities have been registered in Azerbaijan? How many of them are Islamic?

A: I already said above that at the moment re-registration of all religious communities is underway and this is expected to complete by end of the year. Unfortunately, not all communities have passed registration. So the final number of communities will be estimated after completion of registration. But I can say that before a new re-registration, the state committee registered more than 500 communities with 32 of them being non-Islamic.

Q: This year the secondary school curriculum is reported do not include the promised subject on religion. What is the reason?

A: I have not heard that there was such a promise. The Ministry of Education said that the textbooks will include topics on religion, which they did for several years.

Generally, inclusion of a subject Basics of Religion in school curriculum has discussed for long. This idea has its supporters and opponents, but as you see, this problem has not been solved yet.

/Day.Az/