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RELIGION
Elmir KULIEV
Elmir Kuliev, Director, Department of Geoculture, Institute of Strategic Studies of the Caucasus (Baku, Azerbaijan)
The religious community of Azerbaijan entered 2005 with the hope that all the problems relating to the rights of believers would be resolved in the near future. The economic and administrative changes carried out by the country’s new leaders, as well as the measures designed to develop a civil society led the people to expect that religion would become an element of public life. The state still has to create religious stability and raise religious tolerance in order to rule out religious radicalism and extremism, as well as any attempts to turn religion into a political instrument.
The Current Situation
About 96 percent of the country’s population are Muslims; while 4 percent are the followers of other religions. There are over 1,500 religious communities in the republic, 29 of them are non-Islamic: 12 are Protestant; four are Christian Orthodox (including Albanian-Udin); six are Judaic; three are Bahai; three are Molokan; and one is Krishnaite. Only 335 of the total number are registered with the State Committee for Religious Organizations (hereinafter, the Committee). Five of the earlier registered were deprived of registration.
Historically, the Administration of the Muslims of the Caucasus (AMC) is considered the Muslim communities’ organizational center; it controls the groups wishing to be registered with the Committee. The AMC also has the following powers: it monitors adherence to……………
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