24 September 2008
AZERBAIJAN: Religious freedom survey, September 2008

By Felix Corley, Forum 18 News Service <http://www.forum18.org>

In its survey analysis of religious freedom in Azerbaijan, Forum 18 News Service has found continuing violations of freedom of thought, conscience and belief. The state attempts to control or limit the majority Muslim and minority religious communities, including imposing strict censorship, violating its international human rights commitments. The situation in the Nakhichevan exclave is worse than the rest of the country. Officials often claim that Azerbaijan is a state of religious tolerance – a view promoted by government-favoured groups – but the state promotes intolerance of some minorities and has not introduced the genuine religious freedom necessary for genuine religious tolerance to flourish. Many officials are convinced that ethnic Azeris should not be non-Muslims, and act on this conviction. In practice, many violations of the human rights of both Muslims and non-Muslims – such as the detention of Baptist prisoner of conscience Hamid Shabanov and a ban on Muslims praying outside mosques - are based on unwritten understandings and even violations of the written law.

6 August 2008
AZERBAIJAN: The State Committee doesn't censor – it "merely checks" and bans literature

By Felix Corley, Forum 18 News Service <http://www.forum18.org>

Azerbaijan's State Committee for Work with Religious Organisations has denied that the compulsory prior approval required for all religious literature is censorship. Asked by Forum 18 News Service how he would describe it, an official stated that the Committee "merely checks" to see which books were "not appropriate" for distribution. He also stated that it maintains a list of "banned" religious literature. On asking how religious communities could see this list, Forum 18 was told that "if it's published you'll hear about it." Censorship, the leader of an Azeri religious community told Forum 18, violates the Constitution. "I believe there should be no censorship, but if someone publishes something which, for example, incites law-breaking or violence they should be punished through the courts. It is illogical to say people are law-breakers before they speak. Let them speak first and then be responsible before the law. This is the only logical approach." Human rights activists and religious communities have expressed frustration about the highly restrictive censorship system – including postal censorship – and police confiscations of books, including the Bible, which are said to be "banned".

25 June 2003
AZERBAIJAN: Religious freedom survey June 2003

By Felix Corley, Forum 18 News Service <http://www.forum18.org>

In its survey analysis of the religious freedom situation in Azerbaijan, Forum 18 News Service reports on government hostility to the idea of religious freedom, which appears to derive from officials' fear of social forces they cannot control and dislike of pluralism. The main victims are Muslims, whose faith is regarded as a potential challenge and whose communities face government interference and control, and minority faiths the government tries to restrict, including Evangelical Christians, Jehovah's Witnesses and the Hare Krishna community. Many religious communities have been denied registration, while all religious literature is subject to compulsory prior censorship.