Sheikh-ul-Islam at the center of the conflict of interest

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- Teymur bey, in your opinion, is there something artificial, brought from the outside in terms of developments around the figure of the Sheikh? After all, according to some media, Sheikh-ul-Islam Allahshukyur Pashazade declared the following: "Those who accuse me are trying to create a Sunni-Shiite confrontation in Azerbaijan. This already stems from other interests." In other words, is it possible to talk about attempts of some interested forces to destabilize the situation in Azerbaijan by initiating an intra-Muslim confrontation?

- First of all, of course, it is important to note that the inter-ethnic or inter-or intra-confessional aspect are really links that external forces can try to use at hour X to destabilize the situation in a certain state. But for this to happen, even if initiated from the outside, there must naturally be certain internal reasons. There is no semblance of the Sunni-Shiite confrontation directly in Azerbaijan at the current historical stage. as a whole, this aspect has never been a stumbling block in our country.

Another thing is that certain forces are clearly trying, and will try to l artificially "substantiate the issue". An eloquent testimony to the above is a May (2021) article on the Armenian website voskanapat.info which insisted that in Azerbaijan "there is a process of consistent" de-Shiitization” of the state and society." The purpose of the article was not an attempt to "completely secularize the country" but an intention to "strengthen the influence of Islam but now in its Sunni current". According to the authors of the article, this is due to "unprecedented strengthening of Turkey's positions" in Azerbaijan.

The following thought was emphasized there: "Through attacking the theocratic essence of its southern neighbor, Azerbaijan has always tried to demonstrate to Western partners that it is a secular state. At the same time Baku has concurrently instilled an idea of the futility of Tehran's efforts to draw Azerbaijan into the orbit of its unquestioning influence through its confessional identity." The whole content of that material was aimed at forming the readers' belief in the anti-Iranian orientation of official Baku's position, i.e. to drive a wedge into the relations between the two states, simultaneously demonstrating the irreconcilability between Tehran and Ankara.

It is very symptomatic that this article was published two weeks after the first festive namaz (during Ramadan Bayram) had been held in the historic Govhar Agha Mosque which became a reality thanks to the liberation of Shusha by the valiant Azerbaijani army. The subtlety here is that both Sunnis and Shiites held prayer in the mosque. This fact, we admit, should not cause any surprise. For instance, the practice of holding festive prayers in the early morning both by Shiites and Sunnis has always been a reality, up to the pandemic, in the Heydar Mosque in Baku. Moreover, if initially festive prayers were held with a difference of one hour for representatives of each of the branches, soon the tendency to conduct a single prayer began to manifest itself.

In any case, for today and now, no one can cite at least a single example in Azerbaijan that there have ever been any problems for a Shiite to pray in a Sunni mosque, or vice versa.

In this context, I'd like to draw attention to the fact that on December 4, 2020, after the unity namaz in the Heydar Mosque dedicated to the memory of the martyrs of the Patriotic War, Pashazadeh paid a special attention to the fact that "Sunni and Shiite believers today offered prayers together for the repose of the souls" of the victims of the battlefield. At the same time, he stressed that the memory of Azerbaijani martyrs had been honored in 90.000 Turkish mosques; he expressing his gratitude to the Turkish leadership and the Minister of Religious Affairs of this country, Ali Erbash, for this. At the same time, the head of the CMD stressed: "Our Iranian brothers are also with us on this memorial day. I express my gratitude to them led by the Ayatollah. The Muftis of the North Caucasus are also reading prayers for the repose of the souls of our martyrs today. We are grateful to everyone who remembers and honors the Azerbaijani martyrs today "(azertag.az, trend.az). I think there is no need for special comments here.

- Perhaps, if the situation around Allahshukyur Pashazadeh's recent statements and active debates in the local media and the Azerbaijani segment of social networks had appeared only in our country, it would not have caused such serious misinterpretations. However, this topic has attracted attention outside the state. For instance, one of the external websites specified that in Azerbaijan " the need for reform of the religious sphere, more precisely, the political management of it, is brewing." In this respect "it makes sense to use Turkey's experience not only in the military sphere, but the religious as well. In particular, it'd be appropriate to set up  an Azerbaijani analogue of the Department of Religious Affairs (Diyanet) and involve this Turkish department in its organization and development, just as the Turkish General Staff actively helped to reform and create a new, victorious Azerbaijani army." At the same time, this portal emphasizes the importance of" taking into account the "confessional specifics" of Azerbaijan in the construction of the Azerbaijani Diyanet to guarantee "the needs of the Shiite community as well, without engaging Sunni Islam in the rude and widespread imposition manner".

What do you think about this?

- Beyond any doubt, the question is not absolutely in how this or that state or "purely" religious body is named. The most important thing for us is to preserve, maintain and develop the intra-confessional peace that has always characterized Azerbaijani society. After all, even in the most difficult moments of our history (including the modern one), there were no cataclysms in our state in this regard.

- Do you see any concrete steps in this context?

- A few years ago, I spoke about the importance of developing the conceptual foundations for the development of the Azerbaijani Muslim community in the form of a general concept of interaction between religion, society and the state. In particular, we can talk about the formation of the Azerbaijani Islamic civil identity which provides for the activity of the population in creating the architecture of civil society. The first step towards this can be the formation of a single center for developing conceptual foundations of the Ummah by consolidating the expert community and the spiritual elite of the country.

That would enable us to build and develop elements of the Ummah as an attribute of civil society based on the values inherent in Islam. In doing so, the social and creative potential of the Muslim religion will be one of the cementing links in strengthening the foundation of Azerbaijan. The implementation of this, along with other steps, will make it possible to strengthen the progressive social development of society. This, in turn, will become an even greater guarantee of stability in the country.