Azerbaijan, Baku / Trend corr. I.Alizadeh / The Azerbaijani Government does not intend to prohibit vahabism in the country, Hidayat Orujev, the chairman of the State Committee on Work with Religious Structures, said on 27 September.
Vahabism does not pose a danger for Azerbaijan, Orujev said.
Recently, legal bodies have held several raid campaigns uncovering Vahabists in Azerbaijan. As a result one person engaged in illegal religious popularization was arrested in Sheki. Arms and banned religious literature were discovered and seized in the house of the arrested person. Two policemen were injured as a result of the operation in the Gusar region of Azerbaijan.
Where radical, extremist vahabism has been practiced, it has been prohibited in those countries, due to the possibility of serious danger, Orujev said. Therefore, a broad range of countries have banned the existence of vahabism. Azerbaijan does not need such a ban, the Chairman said.
Touching upon the operations held in Sheki and Gusar, he said they were conducted in order to seize arms and to protect the public security and stability in the country.