Conference on Islam in Washington

The conference “Secular and tolerant Islam in the South Caucasus and Central Asia: modules and problems” focused on the freedom of expression and religion. 

The conference was held in the Washington Strategic and International Researches Center.   Official representatives of USA addressing at the conference, noted the importance of elimination of intolerance in the region.

“All opinions should be heard. It is necessary that social networks could provide the expression of opinion, protect freedom of expression and religion,” said Farah Pandit, special representative   of the State Department to work with Muslim communities. 

Representatives of Azerbaijan spoke about high level of professionalism and tolerance in the country. It was noted that Azerbaijan was the first Muslim country in which women were given the right of voting. The participants mentioned that recently, Heydar Aliyev Foundation funded churches in Europe. 

Independent experts Steven Blank, Swante Cornel and Ariel Cowen, in their speeches, stressed the psychology since soviet times.  They think that currently the region lives a transition period on such issues as national identification and religious freedom. Religious confessions are guarded by people who had got soviet education.

Representatives of the Armenia community, who attended the conference, tried to focus on the case of Ramil Safarov, but their question remained unanswered, because this theme was not discussed at the conference.  -25C04-