Azeri official vows to outlaw Jehovah’s Witnesses

Azad Azarbaycan TV, Baku
21 Jun 05

[Presenter] The Azerbaijani State Committee for Work with Religious
Structures has put the blame on the Board of Muslims of the Caucasus
for the illegal religious propaganda of Jehovah’s Witnesses community
in the country. The committee’s chairman, Rafiq Aliyev, says these
negative phenomena is occurring while Islam is not being properly
advertised in the country.

[Correspondent] The official registration of the religious community
of Jehovah’s Witnesses will be annulled. The chairman of the
Azerbaijani State Committee for Work with Religious Structures, Rafiq
Aliyev, has said that the reason behind the decision is that the
community’s leaders involve foreign citizens and underage children in
worshipping and sermons and exert psychological pressure on
them. Refusal to obey the country’s law and do military service in
order not to fight against Armenians are among the ideas they
promote. Aliyev said these offenses would be heard in court.

[Aliyev] I gave relevant instructions to the committee’s registration
department about a week ago. They are preparing materials now. We are
waiting for materials from police department No 34 in [Baku’s] Xatai
district and from the Ganca police department. We will submit these
materials to court probably next week.

[Correspondent] Aliyev said that the state committee had not given
permission for the community’s activities. The community was
registered with the Justice Ministry in 1996 and its papers were
automatically sent to the state committee when the latter was
formed. He said the committee had tried to annul the community’s
registration since the religious community involved underage children,
but these attempts failed due to parents’ intervention.

He said that the Board of Muslims of the Caucasus was to blame for the
fact that religious communities of this kind were widespread in the
country.

[Aliyev] The Board of Muslims of the Caucasus is also to blame for the
fact that religious communities of this kind are widespread in
Azerbaijan and lay down what Azerbaijani society should do. The
relationships within the Board of Muslims of the Caucasus, as well as
between Shi’i and Sunni Muslims and between Shi’is and Wahhabis
[changes tack]. Sometimes they appear on TV to insult one
another. Abnormal relations between religious communities representing
different trends in Islam do not allow [them] to struggle against
other destructive communities. This is the result and one of the
reasons of what we have.

[Correspondent] He stressed that foreign citizens who took part in
sermons of Jehovah’s Witnesses had already been deported from the
country since by law, they cannot be remanded in custody for a long
time, nor can they be brought to book.

[Presenter] The spokesman for the Board of Muslims of the Caucasus,
Haci Akif, has said that there are no problems between Shi’is and
Sunnis in Azerbaijan. Their relationship can serve as an example for
other countries, he said.

As to the illegal activities of Jehovah’s Witnesses, he said that the
community was registered with the State Committee for Work with
Religious Structures and therefore responsibility rests with the
committee.

Education Minister Misir Mardanov has confirmed that missionaries have
intensified activities in secondary schools. He said that some
teachers were to blame for children’s involvement in sermons and
promised that serious measures would be taken regarding them.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress