U.S. Religious Report Reflects Continuation Of Abuses In Azerbaijan

Washington D.C./16.05.23/Turan: The U.S. State Department is painting a grim picture of intolerance, persecution and other negative trends in countries that are known for repressing religious minorities, in its annual Report on International Religious Freedom for 2022, TURAN's U.S. correspondent reports.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken introduced the report on Monday, hailed some positive developments globally, such as Canada's and the EU's creating new offices to combat Islamophobia, Croatia's appointing its first special advisor for combating anti-Semitism.

"Unfortunately, the report also documents the continuation and, in some instances, the rise of very troubling trends," Blinken went on to add.

"Governments in many parts of the world continue to target religious minorities using a host of methods, including torture, beatings, unlawful surveillance, and so-called re-education camps. They also continued to engage in other forms of discrimination on the basis of faith or lack of faith, like excluding religious minorities from certain professions or forcing them to work during times of religious observance," he said.

According to the report, the state of religious freedom remains far from perfect globally.

Speaking to reporters via teleconference, a senior State Department official said that throughout 2022, "we witnessed authoritarian governments wielding blasphemy, apostasy, and anti-conversion laws against many individuals, including Christians, Muslims, and humanists or atheists."

"Anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim attacks also continue to increase in many regions, often following discriminatory rhetoric and public pronouncements of bigotry, even by government officials," official said.

When asked by TURAN about Russia's attoricities in Ukraine, the official said the Kremlin seeked to create division in the Orthodox church by targeting religious minorities. "And they have caused damage, and I’m sure you’ve seen it – the horrible image as well – of the damage that they’ve caused to sacred religious sites. We have been in communication with the ecumenical patriarch, who I’ve met a number of times – including a number of trips abroad – and we continue to work closely with him and the church to combat the malign influence efforts that the Russians engage in in the Ukraine"

Russia also continues to detain, physically abuse, and torture individuals incide Russia, on the basis of their religious beliefs Jehovah Witnesses, Crimean Tartars, Muslim groups, Falun Gong, Evangelical groups as well, the official said.

The official also spoke about Iran, saying that the Islamic Republic continues to target minority groups, Baha’is, Christians, non-Shia Muslims.  "And we saw horrific blasphemy executions – two of them – just last week," he added.

In Azerbaijan, the U.S. report highlights that as of last year’s end, 22 individuals remained imprisoned for their religious beliefs or practices.

Local human rights groups and others said the government "continued to physically abuse, temporarily hold incommunicado, arrest, and imprison religious activists, and that many arrests and convictions of religious figures, including on drug possession charges, were politically motivated," reads the report.

During the year, the European Court of Human Rights found the Azerbaijani government violated individual freedom of religion or belief in two judgments involving seven individuals, including one case involving arrests of Jehovah’s Witnesses meeting for prayer in a private home.

On September 16, the court extended until March 2023 the pretrial detention of Iranian-trained Shia imam Sardar Babayev, who faced treason charges. Human rights activists said the government’s prosecution was motivated by Babayev’s religious activities.

The report also reminds that the Azeri authorities "continued to initiate legal action against individuals associated with the unregistered Muslim Unity Movement, which the government characterized as an extremist group and accused of receiving funding from Iran. MUM members continued to report authorities physically abused them while in custody, according to the report.

The U.S. Ambassador, Chargé d’Affaires, and other U.S. embassy officers engaged government officials to advocate the release of individuals that civil society groups said were imprisoned for their religious beliefs, according to the report.

The authors went on to highlight that the U.S. Embassy officials "urged government officials to address longstanding problems involving the registration process for smaller religious communities and to implement a civilian alternative to military service for conscientious objectors, as stipulated in the constitution."

"The Ambassador advocated at the highest levels of government for the protection of religious and cultural sites in the territories returned to Azerbaijani control after the 2020 fighting,"

"The Ambassador and other embassy officers met regularly with representatives of registered and unregistered religious groups and civil society to discuss religious freedom in the country. Embassy officers also had consultations with religious leaders and scholars regarding the March changes to the religious freedom law and its related regulations and how these could affect free exercise of religion," reads the report.

Alex Raufoglu