Azerbaijan refused to register Evangelical communities

Due to legislative innovations and ensuing bureaucratic obstacles many religious communities in Azerbaijan failed to re-register within the prescribed period before January 1, 2010, reports The Institute of Religious Freedom. As a result, most of them have been banned from conducting any of the religious activities and threatened with liquidation the status of “juridical entity”, said the Institute of Religious Freedom, Kyiv based on the documents obtained from city Baku.

According to the IRF, the official refusal to renew the registration in order to comply with the new edition of the Azerbaijani “Law on Religion” was issued to the “Nehemiah” Church, "Cathedral of Praise” Church in Baku as well as the Seventh Day Adventists, Baptist and Pentecostal Churches in Azerbaijan.

The biggest obstacle to religious freedom in Azerbaijan became the new procedure of state registration of religious communities. The amendments into the Law made it overly cumbersome and now it consists of more requirements to the founders, than ever before. From now on a religious community must submit a certificate of the date of its occurrence, information about religious education and relations toward secular education.

Moreover, it is prohibited for a religious community to use for its official registration a personal address of a believer. Legislative changes have also limited a congregation’s activity to only the territory where it is officially registered.

However under Article 12 of the Azerbaijani “Law on Religion” religious communities can conduct their activities only at the legal address. Such a rule is often used by the State Committee of Azerbaijan on Relations with Religious Organizations to prohibit a church to perform it’s activity in leased premises. As a result, the religious communities which do not own premises for worship remained outside the law.

A striking example of infringement of religious freedom in Azerbaijan on the basis of the new “Law on Religion” is the situation with the "Cathedral of Praise" Evangelical Church in city Baku.

This religious community provided all the necessary documents for re-registration in time. However in May 2010 it received a copy of an official refusal adopted by the State Committee two months ago. Other Christian Protestant communities also faced similar situation.

The "Cathedral of Praise" Evangelical Church was the first one to object and file an appeal against the refusal of registration in the judiciary. However, representatives of the authorities referred to the formal inconsistency of information about the founders of the community with the data submitted during the initial registration in 2001. On the 30th of July to the utmost surprise of believers, their appeal was turned down. In spite of the complete absence of the necessary documentary evidences the court supported the position of the authorities.

Following on January 2010 the place where the "Cathedral of Praise" Church in Baku worshiped was completely destroyed by fire.

Prior to this in the end of 2008, the building of the Protestant community which was purchased by the believers was confiscated. This happened without any compensation and as a result of a rather questionable trial in favor of the local oil refinery “Azerneftyag”.

The "Cathedral of Praise" Evangelical Church was founded in Baku in 1994 and currently has about 1000 members. At the same time according to official data the majority of Azerbaijan’s population confesses Shia Islam along with its other developments.

In February 2010, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) noted the deteriorating situation in Azerbaijan during the past five years. These legislative changes, hastily adopted in Azerbaijan in May 2009, were particularly alarming for experts and defenders.

Report from the Christian Telegraph

AZERBAIJAN TO FURTHER RESTRICT RELIGIOUS FREEDOM

Azerbaijan’s wide-ranging religious literature censorship system has started to affect evangelical leaders in the country, reports MNN.

Vice President of Russian Ministries Sergey Rakhuba was just in the country and says, “Two Baptist pastors were traveling between neighboring Georgia and Azerbaijan — authorities confiscated Azerbaijani Bibles.”

According to Forum 18 News, an official of the State Committee for Work with Religious Organizations said, “Our society doesn’t need books that don’t suit our laws and our beliefs.” He claimed that unspecified religious literature could cause unspecified “social harm and possibly inter-religious and inter-ethnic violence.”

Rakhuba says an amendment allowing strict censorship will be heading for a referendum this month. He says believers may face raids reminiscent of the Cold War if the censorship issue continues. “Local police will be searching homes of evangelical leaders, and they will take all their Christian literature away from them.”

This will mean little, says Rakhuba. “Basically there is a dictatorship in Azerbaijan,” he says.

Russian Ministries works to empower the national evangelical church. They intend to do that despite the persecution. “We’re very much considering and praying and evaluating our resources to see how we can start our School Without Walls program for the next academic year in the fall.”

School without Walls is a program that helps train next generation church leaders, and Rakhuba says their work must continue. “The church is not scared. The church is growing. The church needs a lot more support to continue their ministry in the circumstances like that.”

Support comes in the form of prayer and dollars. Rakhuba says financial support is wide ranging. “The church needs support for training resources, to have more Bibles, to have more Christian literature. All of this is not allowed there, but they know how to smuggle it to Azerbaijan and make it available.”

Report from the Christian Telegraph

AZERBAIJANI PASTOR VOWS TO FIGHT ON; MINISTRY CONTINUES TO PRAY

Slavic Gospel Association has been following the trial of a persecuted Azerbaijani pastor who was arrested and held on false charges. SGA’s Joel Griffith says they just got the verdict, reports MNN. “Pastor Hamid Shabanov was actually convicted on the false charge of possessing an illegal weapon.”

Unless Shabanov’s conviction is quashed, he will have a criminal record. Griffith says, “He’s insisting that he’s innocent. He’s going to continue fighting to clear his name.”

The court gave Shabanov a two-year corrective labour sentence. However, because imprisonment counts as three times’ corrective labour, Shabanov’s sentence is the equivalent of eight months’ imprisonment. As he was in pre-trial detention or house arrest for just over seven months, he has 27 days more to serve from February 11.

Griffith says there’s a question as to whether Shabanov will have to go back to jail at all. He was also fined 20 percent of his salary for the remaining 27 days of his sentence. But Shabanov does not have a job, therefore he does not have a salary.

It’s interesting to note that the conviction might have been an acknowledgment of Shabanov’s innocence. “If he had actually been found innocent, then that reflects poorly on the police and the authorities, and it could get them into some sort of legal ‘hot water.’ So it’s assumed that convicting him but not sending him to jail was sort of a way for the local authorities to ‘save face.'”

Pastor Shabanov told Forum 18 that at the trial, he repeatedly said that he was being prosecuted to punish him for his Christian faith. His ministry has gotten particularly close scrutiny. Although SGA supports work in the region, there is much opposition.

Report from the Christian Telegraph

AZERBAIJAN: PASTOR HAMID SHABANOV IS FREE UNTIL END OF TRIAL

Ministry: Pastor Hamid Shabanov is free until end of trial

There’s good news coming out of Azerbaijan. Yesterday during court proceedings, 52-year-old Pastor Hamid Shabanov was released while his trial continues, reports MNN.

Shabanov was arrested June 20 when his home was searched by authorities. They were looking for drugs and weapons. According to police, they found a gun. Shabanov’s congregation and his family insist that the pistol a Prosecutor’s Office official claims to have found was planted during a search of his home.

Shabanov and his unregistered church have been the focus of the government because they continue to pray and worship God without registration. However, the government won’t give his church the registration it needs, despite many attempts to do so.

Slavic Gospel Association supports work in the region. SGA’s Joel Griffith says Pastor Shabanov’s trail has been delayed numerous times. “Pastor Shabanov’s attorney has been complaining about the numerous delays. He’s cited procedural irregularities that they’ve tried to bring to the court. It just remains to be seen exactly how this case is going to be adjudicated.”

Griffith says this is a big concern. “If Pastor Shabanov is actually convicted on this charge, he could spend up to three years in prison. This is really troubling how evangelical churches in Azerbaijan are undergoing this kind of pressure.”

Griffith explains why the evangelical churches are seeing this kind of pressure. “It’s very similar to what they call the ‘Stan’ countries of Central Asia. It’s a largely-Muslim country.”

While evangelicals have always faced difficulties, the trouble has grown. “Within the past year or two, it just seems like they’ve really stepped up oppression on evangelicals, and I really believe that’s by and large due to the Muslim influence in the country.”

This case hasn’t drawn the attention of the international media. Griffith would like that to change.

But in the meantime, Griffith is asking Christians to pray. “Pray that this investigation would be conducted in a forthright and honest manner and that these charges would be dropped. Pray that he would actually be exonerated by this. We need to pray that the hearts of the Azerbaijani leaders would be softened toward evangelical churches and allow freedom for the Gospel to be proclaimed.”

Griffith says, “The enemy tries to persecute the church, but the Lord has the last word and often ends up bringing greater growth to the church.”

Report from the Christian Telegraph