Azerbaijan (MNN) ― Azerbaijani Christians are still struggling with an apparent crackdown on evangelistic work.
The United Nations Human Rights Council has a review of human rights due this month, but a similar report published last fall by Forum 18 News Service found tight official controls over religious communities and unwritten restrictions on peaceful religious activity.
Azerbaijan's government claims to be secular, officially recognizing no state religion. However, Islam, Russian Orthodox Christianity, and Judaism are "traditional" and get preferential treatment.
Again, while not an "official" stance, many government authorities believe ethnic Azeris should not be non-Muslims.
In practice, many violations of the human rights of both Muslims and non-Muslims -- such as the detention of Baptist "prisoner of conscience" Hamid Shabanov and a ban on Muslims praying outside mosques -- are violations of the written law.
In some cases, religious minorities have been accused of being "Armenian spies." It is widely believed that these tactics are used for disruption and confusion, the idea being to "remove the head of the church, and the body will fall apart."
Pastor Hamid Shabanov's case falls under this school of thought. He's a pastor the government has been trying hard to silence over the last year. Arrested in June on unconvincing charges, the trial has been moved, delayed and re-investigated when the case comes up on the docket.
It may finally be moving forward today, after long delays, says Slavic Gospel Association's Joel Griffith. "It appears that he is scheduled to appear in court again to continue this case. If you remember, he had been arrested last year on trumped-up charges. It's in an effort to get that church closed down."
Shabanov's ministry has gotten particularly close scrutiny because of the church's unregistered activity. Although SGA supports work there, there is much opposition.
Pray for the believers in these regions because they "don't know what the next step is going to be," says Griffith. "But their attitude is that if the Lord has called them to proclaim the Gospel, they're going to keep on proclaiming the Gospel, no matter what the difficulties are. I think our role here of course, is to continue to hold them up in prayer and be of whatever service we can possibly be to them."
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