From: Justin Burke (JBurke@sorosny.org)
Date: Wed Jan 23 2002 - 10:29:44 EST
Azeri government to take control of religious bodies, official says
Rafiq Aliyev, head of the Azerbaijani State Committee for Work with
Religious Structures, has said that in line with a new policy, the state is
to bring all religious organizations in the country under its control. He
added that religious organizations like legal entities should submit their
income and expenditure account to the Tax Ministry. The following are
excerpts from an an interview with Rafiq Aliyev by Azerbaijani TV station
ANS on 21 January.
[Presenter Qanira Pasayeva] Good evening. The [Azerbaijani] State Committee
for Work with Religious Structures has started reregistering missionary
organizations. The reason is clear. Religious organizations, many of which
even do not follow any regulations, are engaged in all activities except
religion. They are engaged in publicity for a certain country and convince
Azeris not to shoot Armenians, as they are their Christian brothers. We
accuse them. We accuse Azeris who change their religion and join missionary
organizations for the sake of their daily bread. We accuse countries and
organizations spreading Christianity in Azerbaijan. But for some reason, we
do not accuse Azeris who propagate Islam in this form. An Azeri, who
converted to Christianity, said that he embraced Christianity because rays
of light shine from churches, and only darkness and horror emanate from our
mosques. What is the state of religion and missionary organizations'
activities in the country? How will they be regulated in the future? Here
are the answers of Rafiq Aliyev, head of the State Committee for Work with
Religious Structures, to our questions.
[Passage omitted: phone numbers of the studio]
[Qanira Pasayeva] Welcome, Rafiq muallim [form of address].
[Rafiq Aliyev] Thank you.
[Qanira Pasayeva] Rafiq muallim, how many religious and missionary
organizations are there in the country in general, both registered and
non-registered, i.e. those working secretly?
[Rafiq Aliyev] There are 406 registered religious structures in the country
today. But the number of religious structures operating without
registration reaches 2,000.
[Passage omitted: compares numbers of mosques in Azerbaijan and France]
[Qanira Pasayeva] Probably, the main reason for not registering is that they
are conducting activities against the state. Otherwise, they would have
registered.
[Rafiq Aliyev] You know, we are trying to ensure their transparency. People,
who avoid this, probably have to conceal something, so they do not want to
be transparent. They are reluctant to register their religious structures -
medreses or religious communities.
[Qanira Pasayeva] But do you have any information about those organizations?
[Rafiq Aliyev] Yes, we do.
[Qanira Pasayeva] What measures will be taken? Will they be registered or
closed down for conducting illicit activities?
[Rafiq Aliyev] This will be done by various means. I must say that the state
policy relating to religion has been modified. As a result of this, we will
analyse activities of religious organizations. We will find out what
religious organizations really serve religion and what religious
organizations use religion as a cover. So, their activities will be
seriously reconsidered.
[Passage omitted: regulations of some religious organizations run counter to
Azeri laws]
[Qanira Pasayeva] Rafiq muallim, how many religious organizations have been
closed down so far?
[Rafiq Aliyev] Some of them are medreses - religious schools operating in
Azerbaijan, which have not undergone registration. There are 22 of such
medreses. They have been working in different parts of Azerbaijan,
including Baku, for about six or seven years. Their activities were in
contradiction of our law on religion.
[Qanira Pasayeva] That is for conducting illegal activities.
[Rafiq Aliyev] I mean, their courses were not approved. They did not
correspond to the current public and political situation in Azerbaijan.
They did not include secular subjects or included very few. Therefore,
those medreses were closed down.
[Qanira Pasayeva] We have seen some of their textbooks. They were solely
about Iran, they were about a country rather than religion. What do you
think?
[Rafiq Aliyev] Beside Iran, they were propagating different sects - Shi'i,
Sunni, Wahhabism.
[Passage omitted: repeating the same idea; about closed religious
organizations]
[Qanira Pasayeva] When you came to our studio, you spoke about an
interesting fact. You said that one of your reforms was to analyse
information received from countries building mosques in Azerbaijan and the
cost of those mosques. And you are quite worried about this. What causes
this anxiety, Rafiq muallim?
[Rafiq Aliyev] We are worried about the difference between the money brought
into the country and the cost of building those mosques. I mean, a big sum
is brought into the country, but only a part of it, is spent on building
mosques. We have not succeeded yet in finding where the rest of the money
goes.
[Passage omitted: minor details]
[Rafiq Aliyev] I will give you one example, I think it will suffice. A total
of 385,000 dollars were spent on the Qaracuxur mosque in the Razin
settlement [in Baku]. So, the Turkish religious committee sent to
Azerbaijan 385,000 dollars. But if we calculate the cost of the Qaracuxur
mosque, it does not exceed 50,000 dollars.
[Passage omitted: construction companies appropriate some of the money]
[Rafiq Aliyev] In fact, up to 150 mosques have been built in Azerbaijan by
foreign countries. As I have said, between 200,000 and 600,000 dollars were
spent on building each of them. But our reports show that the majority of
those mosques do not have technical documents, they have not carried out
any stocktaking. What company or who built them, what was paid to the state
or was anything paid at all - we are now collecting this information, we
already have enough information. In time, and we will make it public.
[Passage omitted: minor details]
[Qanira Pasayeva] Rafiq muallim, you have said that one of your reforms
would be to bring all mosques under state control.
[Rafiq Aliyev] In general, mosques, as buildings, should be brought under
someone's control. We do not have a ministry of endowments. Therefore,
mosques should be supervised by appropriate state structures and religious
organizations should be registered.
[Qanira Pasayeva] So until now they have been supervised by the Spiritual
Board of Muslims of the Caucasus.
[Rafiq Aliyev] No, they have not. They have not been supervised at all.
[Passage omitted: minor details]
[Rafiq Aliyev] We have a database of all sacred places, mosques, places of
worship, churches and synagogues. Of course, there is also some information
about funds spent on those buildings. From this point of view, there is a
concrete state policy. That is to say, sacred places, mosques and places of
worship will be registered as independent religious structures, and the Tax
Ministry will regulate their activities.
[Qanira Pasayeva] How will it do that?
[Rafiq Aliyev] The ministry will deal with them like legal entities, like
companies. As legal entities, sacred places or places of worship will
submit their income and expenditure account to state structures.
[Passage omitted: minor details]
[Qanira Pasayeva] I would like to inform you about an interactive poll about
who is to blame for the unsatisfactory state of religion in the country?
Fifty-nine of our viewers believed that the clergy are to blame while 75 of
them blamed the missionary organizations. However 86 people believed that
the government is to blame for failing to settle the issue.
[Passage omitted: presenter's concluding words]
Source: ANS TV, Baku, in Azeri 1730 gmt 21 Jan 02
BBC Mon TCU 220102 ha/sa
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