BAKU, Azerbaijan, January 30. Today, the board of the State Committee for Work with Religious Structures of Azerbaijan convened a meeting to discuss the outcomes of 2023 and upcoming tasks, Trend reports, referring to the State Committee on Religious Associations of the Republic of Azerbaijan.
Addressing a report on the State Committee's activity in 2023, Deputy Chairman Gunduz Ismayilov noted that two religious communities were state-registered in the Committee last year.
According to Ismayilov, 958 of the 995 active religious organizations are Islamic, while 37 are non-Islamic (26 Christian, 8 Jewish, 1 Krishna, and 2 Bahai). Two appeals on the establishment of specialized outlets for the sale of religious literature (on paper and electronic media), audio and video materials, commodities, and other information materials with religious content marked with a control mark were approved.
The deputy chairman also informed about the work done following the "procedure of appointment, attestation, and dismissal of religious figures from their positions in places of worship belonging to the Islamic religion," noting that 137 people (35 women and 102 men) who successfully passed the interviews last year were appointed to the mosques in the positions of the imam, deputy imam, muezzin, etc.; the activities of 179 people were terminated; and 29 clerics changed their positions and places of work in rotation.
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