"Anar sounded threatening," one original community member told Forum 18 News Service. "He said they could easily find 50 new people to constitute the new leadership. They obviously wanted people closer to the authorities." The Mosque leadership complied reluctantly. Kazimov refused to discuss with Forum 18 why the authorities have yet again forcibly transferred a Sunni Muslim mosque to new, Shia-led leadership. Police have refused to explain why they raided the Mosque and seized religious literature weeks after the enforced transfer. In January a Jehovah's Witness was fined more than three months' average wage for discussing his faith on the street, the latest in a series of heavy fines for exercising the right to freedom of religion.
Yet another Sunni Muslim mosque has been forcibly transferred at the state's behest to new leadership "closer to the authorities", members of the ousted mosque community complained to Forum 18 News Service. The enforced transfer of the mosque in Qobustan on the southern edge of the capital Baku appears to be part of a long-running campaign to close down Sunni Muslim mosques or transfer them to Shia Muslim control loyal to the Azerbaijani authorities. The state religious affairs official involved refused to discuss the transfer with Forum 18, while police who subsequently conducted a four-hour raid also refused to comment.
Forum 18