Paul Goble: Violation of the rights of Muslims threatens national security

It is necessary to separate the struggle against Islamic extremism from support those who really need it, wrote in his blog, the famous American political scientist Paul Goble. As an example, the author points out the situation in Azerbaijan, where, during the Nardaran events in November 2015, was arrested the leader of the Shiite Thale Bagirzade, and 17 of his supporters. Previously, Bagirzade  was twice subjected to arrests for drug offenses, and in fact for the action against the ban on the hijab. After two and a half years of his arrest in July 2015, he was released.

The purpose of his organization, the Islamic Unity Movement,  is non-violent changes and the spread of democratic values. However, this structure did not receive state registration. Now the members of this Movement and Thale Bagirzade are under court.

Human rights activists believe that the prosecution has deprived the accused the  rights to protection, they do not even  have  lawyers.  At one of the trials Thale Bagirzade spoke  that he was  tortured through applied electroshock, and  it was one of the most simple; he had to endure  it during  three days.

In his speech at  court Thale Bagirzade  noted that  they demanded  him to testify against Jamil Hasanli and Ali Kerimli, who allegedly stood on the Nardaran events. Such a violation of the rights of Muslims threatens the national security of the country. Official propaganda asserts that radical forces  prosper in Nardaran. It has been reported about the detention of about 70 people. Most of them  were released in a few days, but some of the detainees were sentenced to a year to two and a half years. Now there is a lawsuit against the 18 detained for  the events in the village of Nardaran.-03D04-