Azerbaijan ensures state support to non-Islamic religious communities

/By Azernews/

By Amina Nazarli

Azerbaijan allocates $0.5 million to support non-Islamic religious communities in the country every year, Chairman of the State Committee Mubariz Gurbanli said at the meeting with participants in the International Winter School of multiculturalism on February 9.

He emphasized that the government provides mosques, synagogues and churches with benefits to ensure electricity.

Touching upon the tension developed between Sunnis and Shia in some Muslim countries, the chairman stressed that Azerbaijan does not experience such situations, thanks to upbringing and mentality of the people.

“Recently, Sunnis and Shia made a joint prayer in the Heydar mosque in Baku. Azerbaijani families do not inculcate hatred in children towards anyone,” he said, voicing tolerance in Azerbaijan is supported at the state level.

Today many people die in clashes on national, ethnic, religious grounds in some 30 countries, said Gurbanli.

“National, ethnic and religious conflicts led to the death of 2.5 million people during past 15 years. Some 50 million people have been expelled from their native lands,” the chairman said.

He added Azerbaijan hosts about one million refugees and IDPs.

“The UN has identified 10 major global problems, which urges the humanity to unite to solve them. Even the richest countries in the world are not able to tackle many of these problems. They can be solved by inter-religious dialogue and multiculturalism,” Gurbanli noted.

The International Winter School of multiculturalism "Multiculturalism as a way of life in Azerbaijan: teach, explore, share" was launched in Baku on February 8.

Organized jointly by the Baku International Center of Multiculturalism, Knowledge Foundation under the Azerbaijani President and the Baku Slavic University, the event will last until February 15 and will be held in Guba, Khachmaz and Gusar regions.

The winter school is attended by students from Russia, Switzerland, Ukraine, Turkey, Italy, Portugal, Poland, the Czech Republic, Lithuania and Germany.

Azerbaijan, a country at crossroads of numerous cultures, religions and civilizations, was known as a bridge between Europe and Asia since antiquity.

The country always was a land, where different nations, languages and cultural traditions met and interacted.

Azerbaijan played an important role in the interaction of different religious groups of the region, although the secular state Azerbaijan has an overwhelming majority of Muslim population (96 percent).

Worshipers of other religions enjoy freedom here, and one can often witness Jewish synagogues and Orthodox and Christian churches and other religious centers functioning freely here.

As a country with polyethnic composition, Azerbaijan has declared 2016 the Year of Multiculturalism.

Today, when the world is struggling with different religious and ethnic dissension, Azerbaijani multiculturalism plays the role of a “catalyst”, proving that people of different nationalities and religions can live in peace side by side.

Taking intercultural dialogue as one of the most pressing challenges of the contemporary world, Azerbaijan has been sponsoring World Forum on Intercultural Dialogue in Baku once every two years since 2011.