Forum 18: Old Testament is banned religious literature in Azerbaijan

Coat of arms of Azerbaijan Türkçe: Azerbaycan arması Azərbaycan: Azərbaycan Respublikasının Dövlət Gerbi Русский: Герб Азербайджана (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Panorama.am sends a notice:

On 14 July Azerbaijan's Supreme Court is due to hear a challenge by Kamran Abdiyev to a fine of 18 months' average wages, for distributing religious literature which has not undergone the compulsory state censorship. "Kamran Abdiyev has no lawyer, and will be representing himself at the hearing," Judge Gulzar Rzayeva told Forum 18 News Service.

According to the article, the five Sunni Muslims are among eight prisoners of conscience being held at the National Security Ministry (NSM) secret police Investigation Prison in Baku to punish them for exercising the right to freedom of religion or belief. Two of the other prisoners of conscience are Jehovah's Witnesses women and the eighth prisoner is a Shia Muslim. State censorship of religious texts is strictly applied and the Old Testament, the writings of Islamic theologian Said Nursi, and some Jehovah's Witness texts are on a police list of banned religious literature.
The article reads that in the latest extension of the powers of the State Committee for Work with Religious Organizations, anyone organizing foreign travel for religious purposes, including pilgrimages abroad, now requires a license from the State Committee of Azerbaijan.

Continue reading: http://www.panorama.am/en/society/2015/05/28/azerbaijan-forum18/

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Yazidi, they who were created

Conical roofs characteristic of Yazidi sites mark the tomb of Şêx Adî in Lalish (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Yazidi comes from "Azdaim" which means "I was created". They say they follow God and His angels. For them there is only One God Who has good and bad in His Hands. They are not against any religion and are not against any people.

The Yazidi or Ezidis have been oppressed for many years by the Ba'athists, Al Qaeda,  and now IS. According to one of the preachers it is because they are a small community of believers, a closed religion of a people of faith, mercy and humanity, which does not have much contact with the world, and by being humble an opportunity is taken by others to oppress them. Others want to annihilate them and not having their own state to defend themselves, not having weapons, they need protection.

They just want to live in peace and do not want a specific country for them because according to their faith the world (or globe) is a garden for every one. In a garden are many flowers and they consider them also one of the flowers which can give colour to the garden.



Many Kurds know the Ezidis as refugees, IDPs, even as devil worshippers - though mostly through biased media reports. Kawa wants to learn the truth about the people’s religion and daily life. In a ZLR episode Kawa goes to a Ezidi community in Lalesh, the main Yazidi temple complex in the KR. He meets a young man called Zaid, who shows Kawa various aspects of Ezidi life; from how they eat, to prayer in their temple, to who is protecting them from IS. Zaid and his family were on Mount Sinjar and along with others subjected to much horror and deprivation.

In a video on Middle East Alliance Community Baba Chawesh tells about that garden and his people

> https://www.facebook.com/MiddleEastAlliance/videos?fref=photo

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Teaching permittion to kill infidels

An exercise book for 11th graders in Jombang, East Java contained notions based on the radical Wahhabi school of thought (which is dominant in Saudi Arabia). In it  the students could find that it would be all right to kill “People who worship anything other than Allah" because they "are infidels and it is permitted to kill them.” (Page 78)

It was good that soon the Indonesia’s Minister of Education and Culture Anies Rasyid Baswedan came to know what was in the book and gave the order to pull all the copies of the textbook. She  announced an investigation into the case. The government’s quick response prevented it from being distributed to the country’s schools.

 Read more:

“People who worship anything other than Allah are infidels and it is permitted to kill them.”

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Iraqi Underclass and animosities

writes:

Previous Weekly Numbers have documented growing religious hostilities in Iraq. The missing headline -- as the Sunni-led Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), formerly affiliated with al-Qaeda, battle Shia-dominated government forces -- is a phrase from Bill Clinton's 1992 campaign strategist James Carville, "It's the economy, stupid." But, it's not oil and the negative impact on the global economy I'm referring to.

A Pew Research survey conducted in 2012 (before ISIS gained ground) found that the large majority of Iraq's population (74%) considered unemployment to be a "very large problem" for the country. By contrast, fewer than half of the population considered conflict between religious groups to be a very large problem.

....
it highlights the dangers of a system where religion and religious identities become rallying points for other grievances. As the Shia-dominated Iraqi government favors other Shia Muslims -- long the underclass under Saddam Hussein -- this sets up new animosities that are easily grafted onto other issues, such as unemployment, inequality and unmet expectations. 

Continue reading:

Iraq: "It's the Economy, Stupid"

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Zionism occupier

Simin Rafati writes:

Judaism Rejects Zionism (Photo credit: danny.hammontree)

Iran's Armenians, Assyrians, Jews and Zoroastrians have members in the parliament which is rarely, if any, seen in countries with Christian majority (needless to say I mean representing Islam and not being Muslim but standing for other political parties).
Judaism has always been separated from Zionism at least since the 1979 revolution and it is Zionism which is considered as occupier, militarist, and a defamation to even Judaism, which is hardly a position for Iran only. Even archbishop Desmond Tutu who experienced apartheid himself was surprised by the Israeli apartheid. Judism is respected as other true religions.
Last but not least, Iran's religion was Shi'ism in the time of the Shah too while with the 1979 revolution people chose for a religious regime. I hope that other countries and those carrying out pew researches can recognize the democratic right of the Iranian people for their choice.

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