“The State Committee on Religious Affairs of Azerbaijan succeeded to prevent the spread of the religious flows of non-Islamic trend by 80%,” Rafik Aliyev, the chairman of the State Committee, stated on Thursday.
Today 97% of the Azerbaijani population are Muslim believers, while the rest 3% are Orthodox believers, Catholics, Jews and representatives from religious trends, he noted. Aliyev said that since 2001 no religious community has been registered in the country. “The financing of the non-Islamic religious flows at the foreign sources has been fully prevented,” Aliyev underlined. “The Azerbaijani government is in condition to take care of refugees and internally displaced people and it would not do to allow the attraction of Azerbaijani citizens to different religious sects under veil of humanitarian assistance,” he emphasized.