Religion

Religion

State Committee for the Work with Religious Associations: â€œReligious situation in Azerbaijan was non-objectively analyzed in the report of US State Departmentâ€

22 April 2008 13:35 (UTC +04:00)

Although the report welcomed high level of religious tolerance in Azerbaijan, but there are some regrettable points in the report, said the State Committee in its opinion, APA reports. â€œThere are enough unspecified and unverified information obtained from the unreliable sources in the report. Such cases were observed in the previous reports of the State Department Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor on Azerbaijan. The religious situation in Azerbaijan was non-objectively analyzed and was described only by the general words and evaluations, as it was in the previous reports. The information about the registration of religious communities is also non-objective and carries superficial characterâ€. The State Committee explained the issue of dispelling some religious meetings touched upon in the report. â€œNecessary measures are taken for the prevention of illegal religious organizations, their meeting outside the legal address, involving of children in these meetings, using of banned literature and other similar illegal activitiesâ€. Regarding to the detention of sectarians like â€œSeventh Day Adventistsâ€ in Baku and â€œJehovahâ€™s Witnessesâ€ in Ganja and Sumgayit touched upon in the report, the State Committee said according to the legislation, legal body had to use its permanent location as a legal address. â€œThe State Committee approved charters of above-mentioned communities and determined appropriate areas for their activity. However these communities violated their charters and functioned outside of their legal addresses. Such actions are violation of law. Members of above-mentioned communities have been detained by police for that they have violated law and released later after the warningsâ€.