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Azerbaijani State Committee for Religious Affairs says US Department of Stateâ€™s report inaccurate

16 October 2007 15:57 (UTC +04:00)

The committee notes that the part of the bureauâ€™s reports related to Azerbaijan have been taken from unreliable sources and prepared basing on the information not checked properly.
â€œReligious situation in Azerbaijan has not been objectively analyzed in the report. There are only some analyze-like common phrases and assessments in the report and old information was used here. Some sections of the report do not show the concrete period it covers. Though the report mainly covers 2006-2007, there are some issues of 2004-2005, which have already been solved,â€ the committee says.
The state committee also considers that there is erroneous view that registration of some religious communities, as well as Aliabad and Neftchala religious communities was rejected.
â€œIf any religious organization was not registered, there were legal grounds. These problems are connected not with the state committee, but with the religious organizations themselves,â€ the committee says.
The committeeâ€™s judgment also touches upon the reports that children with Christian names, whose parents have converted to Christianity, are not given birth certificates. The committee considers that neither courts, not other relevant state bodies have received such complaints.
â€œIt should be noted that there are no persons convicted for their religious views among those who are regarded as political prisoners by some rights defenders,â€ the committee says. /APA/