Baku. 24 January. REPORT.AZ/ “Measures will be taken against those who hold self-willed religious rites, spread harmful ideologies within masses”.
Deputy head of State Committee for Work with Religious Organizations of Azerbaijan Republic (SCWRA), Sayavush Heydarov told Report.
According to him, sometimes people by mistake call some buildings - a mosque and groups not registered officially - a religious community: “We don’t sanction self-willing meetings in some buildings to protect our citizens from alien religious ideologies”.
Deputy head of State Committee noted that one needs to register as mosque and community to function as mosque: “At the same time, official religious figure must be appointed. It must be clear who conducts religious rite. Who teaches people to pray. That’s why we thwart such meetings to prevent outsiders, suspicious people to enter this circles and spread alien ideologies among people. Because we don’t know who they are and where they are managed from. It is unclear what kind of ideology they propagate”.
S.Heydarov told that straggling with such cases is one of priority directions for SCWRA: ”Measures against irregularities both in Islamic and non-Islamic communities have been taken and illegal religious rites have been thwarted. We intend to take decisive steps in this direction henceforth”.