Azerbaijan, Baku, May 21/ Trend , K.Zarbalieva /
Recent additions and changes to Azerbaijan's Law on Freedom of Religion restricts human rights, said Azerbaijani religious expert.
Making a speech in the debates on the topic "Whether the recent changes to the law limits freedom of conscience?", Head of the Center for Protection of Religion and Conscience Ilgar Ibrahimoglu said that the changes to the law in 1992 create bureaucratic obstacles the process of registration of religious communities.
"Today, religious communities are losing their status of non-governmental organizations. Since 1992, the registration of religious communities has been made by the Ministry of Justice. Transferring these powers to the State Committee for Work with Religious Organizations created a problem. There are no problems with the registration of non-Muslim communities, but problems exist with the registration of Muslim communities. For the registration of Muslim religious communities, it needs to get recommendation from the Caucasus Muslims Office," said Ibrahimoglu.
Another participant of debates, department chief of the State Committee for Work with Religious Organizations Gunduz Ismayilov did not agree with Ibrahimoglu's view.
He said that the recent amendments to the legislation do not restrict human rights. He disagreed with the opinion regarding the problems relating to the registration of religious communities, noting that equal conditions were created for the Muslim and non-Muslim communities.
"The Muslim religious communities are subject to the Caucasus Muslims Office in the issues of Shariah (appointment of Akhund and Imam), and therefore, the recommendation of the Office is necessary. In religious issues, the state attaches importance to national values, freedom of conscience and security of society and state," said the representative of the Committee.
Ibrahimoglu also expressed his concerns over the introduction of censorship on religious literature in Azerbaijan. According to him, the ban on the import of any religious literature can be imposed only by a court decision.
The ban on the religious literature, which may be harmful to religious tolerance in the country, was imposed by the Committee, said Ismaylov.
"Last year the Committee gave feedback on the religious books of 1,503 titles, more than 30 books did not receive recommendation. The Committee received no complaints about the negative feedback and court proceedings did not take place," said Ismaylov.
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