Azernews.Az

By Amina Nazarli

Azerbaijan’s State Committee for Work with Religious Organizations handed certificates to seven religious communities that passed the state registration.

The event was attended by the first deputy chairman of the State Committee, Sayyad Salahli, department heads and chairmen of the newly registered religious communities.

Noting that there is an atmosphere of religious tolerance in the country, Salahli spoke about the state care shown to religion, as well as conditions created for the activity of religious communities.

Salahli stressed that religious communities play a special role and occupy an inherent place in the Azerbaijani society.

He noted that religious communities are responsible for organizing religious education activities and fighting religious radicalism. He urged registered religious communities to be active in the right message to the public.

After the renewal of the state registration of religious structures, 767 religious communities were registered -- 739 of them are Islamic, 28 - non-Islamic (17 - Christian, eight - Jewish, one - Krishna and two - Baha'is).

About 2,200 mosques, seven synagogues, 14 churches both Catholics and Orthodox are operating in the country. Today more than 3,000 NGOs, hundreds of media outlets, 55 political parties, and communities belonging to different religions operate freely in Azerbaijan.

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Amina Nazarli is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli

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