Amid the widespread violence in the wake of the 15 October presidential elections, police swooped on the Juma Mosque in the capital Baku during Friday prayers on 17 October and tried to arrest the imam Ilgar Ibragimoglu and one of his close colleagues Azer Ramizoglu. "They wanted to arrest me and radicalise the believers," Ibragimoglu told Forum 18 News Service from the Norwegian embassy in Baku, where he has taken refuge. He said he was "very worried" about Ramizoglu, who has not been seen since 17 October. "I don't know if he is in hiding or if he has been detained by the authorities." The two – both supporters of failed presidential candidate Isa Gambar - are leading members of religious freedom group Devamm, which has long been denied official registration, and the Islam-Ittihad society, whose registration was stripped from it by a Baku court in August. "Ibragimoglu will be a guest of the Royal Norwegian embassy until the matter is resolved," an embassy official told Forum 18.
From his refuge in the Norwegian embassy in the capital
Baku, to which he had to flee to avoid arrest in the government's post-election
crackdown, the imam of one of the city's oldest mosques has expressed concern
about the fate of his colleague. "I'm very worried about Azer Ramizoglu,"
Ilgar Ibragimoglu, imam of the Juma mosque in Baku's old city,
told Forum 18 News Service from the embassy on 20 October. "He has not
been seen since last Friday [17 October]. I don't know if he is in hiding or if
he has been detained by the authorities." Ibragimoglu
and Ramizoglu, leading members of several independent
Muslim groups and religious freedom organisations,
have faced government opposition to their activity which only increased when
they came out in support of opposition candidate Isa Gambar in the presidential elections held on 15 October.
"Ibragimoglu will be a guest of the Royal
Norwegian embassy until the matter is resolved," an embassy official told
Forum 18 on 20 October. "Intensive negotiations are now underway at
different levels."
Forum 18 was unable to find out whether Ramizoglu has
been arrested or why the police raided Friday prayers at the Juma Mosque. The duty officer at the Interior Ministry in
Baku, who refused to give his name, said they had "no information"
about Ramizoglu or the raid on the mosque and put the
phone down. Officers of the Sabail district police
gave contradictory answers. One, who declined to give his name, categorically
denied to Forum 18 that Ramizoglu had been detained,
but refused to discuss the raid and put the phone down. Others refused to
clarify his assertion.
Ramizoglu is leader of Devamm
(Centre for the Protection of Freedom of Conscience and Religion) and chairman
of the Islam-Ittihad Society, which works for
inter-religious dialogue and tolerance. As well as being imam of the Juma Mosque, Ibragimoglu is a
board member of the Islam-Ittihad Society, leading
coordinator of Devamm and Secretary General of the
Azerbaijani Chapter of the International Religious Liberty Association (IRLA).
The Justice Ministry has consistently refused to register both Devamm and the Azerbaijani IRLA chapter (see F18News 25
June 2003), and went to court to strip the Islam-Ittihad
Society of its registration, accusing it of supporting Wahhabism
(in the strict sense, the branch of Islam dominant in Saudi Arabia) and the international
terrorist group Al-Qaida. The Sabail
district court ruled on 28 August in favour of the
justice ministry.
In the early afternoon of 17 October, a few minutes before Friday prayers were
due to begin, officers of the 9th police station of the city's Sabail district arrived at the Juma
Mosque, apparently to arrest Ramizoglu and Ibragimoglu. "They wanted to arrest me and radicalise the believers," Ibragimoglu
told Forum 18. Unable to seize the two because of protests from worshippers,
the police took instead two other men, Azad Narimanoglu and Najaf Allahverdiyev, both Devamm
coordinators and members of the IRLA Chapter. Other officers remained to try to
arrest Ramizoglu and Ibragimoglu.
After Devamm appealed to the local offices of the
Council of Europe, the OSCE, the OSCE's election
monitoring group, the Norwegian embassy and other diplomatic missions,
Norwegian ambassador Steinar Gil, Council of Europe
representative Inkeri Aarnio-Lwoff
and other representatives hurried to the mosque. "The representatives of
the international diplomatic missions, while speaking to the police staff,
stated that they were aware of the situation and that the latter should not act
against the law," Devamm reported on 19 October.
"At the same time the diplomats said to Devamm's
press secretary that in case of the arrest attempt they could come to the
embassy of Norway."
In his address at the mosque, Ibragimoglu called on
believers not to respond to government "provocations" and to act
strictly within the framework of the Constitution and international laws.
"I told the believers not to engage in violence and to pray in the
mosque," Ibragimoglu told Forum 18. After
finishing his address at about 3 pm, the international representatives
surrounded Ibragimoglu and accompanied him to the
nearby Norwegian embassy. Soon afterwards, Ibragimoglu
told Forum 18, international representatives went to the Interior Ministry to
urge ministry officials not to take any illegal action against Devamm's leaders. But they were unsuccessful in getting
guarantees of their safety.
Police meanwhile questioned Narimanoglu and Allahverdiyev about the participation of Devamm and the Islam-Ittihad
Society in the election coalition Bizim Azerbaijan
(Our Azerbaijan), which backed Gambar. Although the
two were soon released, Devamm fears they could be
arrested again.
Ibragimoglu told Forum 18 that the authorities have
made no attempt to close down the Juma mosque,
despite the police swoop on Friday prayers, and regular prayers are continuing,
led by his colleagues. He said the mosque gained registration with the Justice
Ministry as an independent religious organisation in
1993, registration which remains valid. It has applied for re-registration with
the State Committee for Work with Religious Organisations,
but has not so far received it. "It's their problem when they will
register us," Ibragimoglu told Forum 18.
He stressed that the mosque is not subject to the jurisdiction of the Spiritual
Administration of Caucasian Muslims, despite state insistence that independent
mosques cannot function legally. Ibragimoglu
vehemently denied the justice ministry's allegations against Islam-Ittihad and insisted that it will challenge the court
ruling even as far as the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg if
necessary. "It is fashionable for the government to accuse any democrats
they don't like of links with Wahhabis and Al-Qaida," he told Forum 18. "But these accusations
are absurd."
Because of their involvement with the opposition during the election campaign, Devamm and Islam-Ittihad have
faced what human rights activist Eldar Zeynalov calls "harassment" from various state
agencies. On 11 October, just days before the election, two government
supported television channels, Lider TV and Space TV,
broadcast items about Islam-Ittihad in their evening
news bulletins that society members regard as slanderous. Further attacks
appeared in government-supporting newspapers on 13 October, accusing it of
having its own armed gangs, illegally storing weapons in the Juma mosque and receiving financial support from Wahhabis.
"I know Devamm as active supporters of the
religious freedom of all believers of Azerbaijan," Zeynalov,
the head of the Human Rights Centre of Azerbaijan, told Forum 18 from Baku on
17 October. "In its newsletter, it propagates tolerance, morality and
charitable activities."
Zeynalov points out that before Devamm
made any comments about the presidential election, the head of the Spiritual
Administration of Caucasian Muslims, Allahshukur Pashazade, had called on voters to back Ilham
Aliev, son of the then incumbent president Heidar Aliev and, according to
contested official figures, the outright winner in the poll. "That was
considered by state officials normally. But the similar, and less aggressive
actions of believers of the smallest religious community – which for the last
10 years has refused to subordinate itself to Pashazade
- was described as foreign espionage and almost a coup d'etat,"
he reported.
"With all my opposition to the idea of the politicisation
of believers, I see the obvious double standards of the authorities," Zeynalov warns, "and, moreover, the establishment of
the institution of a new state religion."