Civil Society:
SMALL AZERBAIJANI NEWSPAPER SPARKS INTERNATIONAL RELIGIOUS FUROR
Mina Muradova and Khazri Bakinsky: 12/04/06

An article recently published by an Azerbaijani bimonthly newspaper that disparaged Islam has sparked a religious furor both in Azerbaijan and neighboring Iran. An Iranian cleric exacerbated the controversy by issuing a fatwa, or religious order, for faithful Muslims to kill the two men behind the offending article’s publication.

The article, published in the Sanat newspaper in early November, featured a comparison of European and Islamic traditions, and went on to claim that Islam had hindered the development of Azerbaijan and other Muslim states. President Ilham Aliyev’s administration took quick action to contain the outrage that the article’s publication produced among devout Muslims in Azerbaijan. Both the author of the story, Rafiq Tagi, and the newspaper’s editor, Samir Sadagatoglu, found themselves facing criminal charges of inciting national, racial and religious enmity, and an Azerbaijani court ruled on November 15 that the pair could be held in pre-trial detention for up to two months.

The official response didn’t satisfy conservative Muslims, especially in Nadaran, a town north of Baku that is considered a bastion of religious orthodoxy in Azerbaijan. Nadaran residents staged a November 17 protest, during which death threats were reportedly made against Tagi, Sadagatoglu and their respective families. The protesters complained officials were being too lenient, and called for a life sentence against the two, arguing that such a harsh sentence was needed to deter others from insulting Islam. The death threats prompted the Azerbaijani National Security and Interior ministries to take measures to protect the two journalists’ families.

Within days, protests had spread to Azerbaijan’s southern neighbor Iran. Groups of Iranian young people staged protests outside the Azerbaijani Embassy in Tehran demanding that the “provocateurs” be punished, the Turan news agency reported. Meanwhile, Iranian television reported that the protesters chanted slogans like, "Go and Ask Ilham to Protect Islam," and "Azerbaijan government: shame on you.” The vehemence of the Iranian demonstrations appeared to take Azerbaijani officials by surprise. Hoping to prevent the Sanat controversy from creating bilateral friction, top government officials stressed that the Sanat article in no way reflected the thinking of Aliyev’s administration.

“Relations between Azerbaijan and Iran are built on the basis of friendship,” Ali Hassanov, head of the Social and Political Department of the presidential administration, was quoted as saying by the Trend news agency. “Media outlets in both countries [Azerbaijan and Iran] from time to time write this or that. … However, state policy is not built on the mass media.”

The controversy continued to build in late November, as one of Iran’s most influential clerics, Grand Ayatollah Fazel Lankarani, issued a fatwa calling for the deaths of Tagi and Sadagatoglu. According to Iranian media outlets, the grand ayatollah was said to have acted after receiving complaints about the Sanat article from his followers inside Azerbaijan.

The protests of devout Muslims, in turn, have sparked a secular response, with some Azerbaijani citizens rallying under the freedom-of-speech banner. On November 20, free-speech advocates announced an initiative in support of Tagi’s right to air his views. One participant in the initiative, Gan Turali, maintained that conservative Muslims in Azerbaijan were improperly trying to impose their will on others. "We are not religious, we are a secular country, and we condemn attempts to make all people in the country believers," Turali said.

The initiative has been strongly condemned by the chairman of the Islamic Party of Azerbaijan, Haji Hajiaga Nuri. “This is a betrayal of our nation, faith and state,” Nuri said, referring to the free-speech initiative.

The Sanat controversy has started attracting the attention of international rights monitors. On December 3, the group Reporters without Borders issued a statement deploring Grand Ayatollah Lankarani’s fatwa. “It is deeply shocking and completely unacceptable that religious fundamentalists should call for the murder of two people who just expressed their opinions,” the statement read.

Editor’s Note: Mina Muradova and Khazri Bakinsky are freelance reporters based in Baku.