Religion

Religion

Azerbaijan State Committee chairman: â€œSome forces tried to use the decision on school uniform as an opportunity to reach their goalsâ€

25 January 2011 09:50 (UTC +04:00)

Relations between the state and religion are regulated by contemporary legislation and freedom of faith is protected and tolerance is strengthened. No one is under pressure for his or her faithâ€, said chairman of the State Committee for Work with Religious Associations Hidayat Orujov in his interview to New Azerbaijan Partyâ€™s (YAP) website, APA reports.

The state committee chairman said unfortunately there are little radical groups in Azerbaijan which tried to use the decision on school uniform as a ban on hijab. There is no question of ban on hijab in Azerbaijan. Undoubtedly they follow some goals trying to describe the Education Ministryâ€™s decision in such manner. Those â€œprotestersâ€ have no relation to the religion and their actions are futureless. They are using democratic environment and high level of freedom of conscience in Azerbaijan for their goals. We condemn such actions like attacking the schools. The school is a holy place where the children and youth get education. Islam supports and welcomes education of the people and considers it important. Holy Guran says â€œReadâ€ and Prophet of Islam also urged the people to get education. Those â€œprotestersâ€ know that, if they donâ€™t know they donâ€™t want to learn it because they intend to use illegal methods, to create sabotage and to damage strong relations between the state and believers. But they will fail to achieve their goalsâ€, said Orujov.

He said some forces tried to use the decision on school uniform and sensibility of our people to create disunity. But our people who are loyal to their national-spiritual values can see differences between real believers and saboteurs. It is normal that young independent country faces with such problems because some forces try to impede our development, progress, our return to the national-spiritual values. When they lose influence on the political basis, they try to create sabotage in our spiritual world.

Orujov said those forces were funded outside because they had no own financial sources. He said there were foreign migrants participated in the protest actions related to hijab and it would be investigated by law-enforcement organizations and necessary measures would be taken against them.

Orujov said Azerbaijan would never allow to politicize the religion and to cause unrests. â€œThe state makes all efforts to separate religion from the politics. The State Committee on Work with Religious Associations is regularly taking measures for prevention of such casesâ€.