DAILY CALLER: Maintaining a Secular Muslim-Majority Society
“All around the emergency gate, there were heaps of men lying over each other; some dead, some injured. There seemed to be hundreds of them. Some of the bodies were burning, some were torn to pieces.”
That was the scene, as described by an eye-witness, after members of the Pakistani Taliban shot and killed Hazara lawyer, Bilal Kasi, and then bombed the hospital where his body was interned, killing another 70. Sectarian violence, such as this latest attack, exemplifies a modern, albeit commonplace, phenomenon that has spread around the world from the Middle East in the name of Islam.
In reality, the death of Kasi to the murders of Copts in Egypt, Yezidis in Iraq, along with women, gays, and others by followers of Islamism, who attempt to blur the lines between faith and power. They demand Islamic states under the rhetoric of returning to order under the guidance of faith, when in reality they seek to be at the helm of autocratic leadership that hides behind the facade of religion.
The ideology, embodied in variants of the same mentality – be it Salafis, the Muslim Brotherhood, or Jaamat-e-Islami, or a variety of purported violent and non-violent militant groups from Hizb ut-Tahrir to ISIS – resort to violence because their ideas can never win the hearts and minds of the majority of Muslims.
The desire to play up social and political issues is evident from terrorist attacks from Paris to Dhaka. Indonesia is one of a few nations that is able to counter the burgeoning extremism within its borders by emphasizing its multicultural heritage and indigenous expression of a moderate Islam. Although, Jakarta was not even spared, with an attack at a Starbucks café in January 2016.
One of the few other countries able to follow Indonesia’s example adopt the nation’s counter-extremism efforts is Azerbaijan. It is one of less than a handful of secular Muslim-majority countries that not only has a strong multicultural heritage, but codifies the protection of its religious and ethnic minorities in its constitution.
Azerbaijan’s minorities include a centuries-old community of “Mountain Jews,” who live in the Guba region, as well as a large community of Jews in Baku whose antecedents fled the pogroms of the northern Russian Empire to find refuge and security in the Muslim-majority area of what is now Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan is home to Azeris, Lezgis, Udi Christians, Talysh, Jews, Sunni and Shia Muslim communities, among others. Yevda Abramov, a Jew, is even a member of Azerbaijan’s parliament.
In recent years, however, regional instability appears to be fueling extremist foreign-born interpretations of Islam in Azerbaijan, threatening the minorities of the country. To combat this, the government of Azerbaijan takes a proactive stance to radicalization utilizing a number of tactics, including the closing of mosques that preach radical Islam to the consternation of human rights groups. In addition, Azerbaijan’s security forces have been responsible for foiling plots to bomb the Israeli and British embassies, as well as jailing and deporting those who seek to disrupt the multicultural fabric of Azerbaijani society.
Chief in Azerbaijan’s anti-radicalization arsenal is the Grand Mufti of the Caucasus. Sheikh ul Islam Pashazadeh and the Caucasus Muslim Board, which he heads, represents both Shia and Sunni Muslims in this the Shia-majority country. Sheik ul Islam Pashazadeh monitors foreign religious influences in Azerbaijan and aggressively addresses them when they cross the line into violence, the planning of violence or proselytization into radicalism.
Today, as the Counter Extremism Project (CEP) notes, Iranian-backed Shiite institutions compete with other foreign-funded Salafi and Wahhabi organizations to recruit Azerbaijani youth and other global movements.
Such competition between politically motivated Islamists threatens to de-stabilize the multicultural heritage Azerbaijani citizenship is based on. It is likely, that fearing the same, the government amended the 1992 Law on Freedom of Religious Belief in 1996. The amendment resulted in a ban on the activities of ‘foreigners and persons without citizenship’ conducting ‘religious propaganda’. In 2016, foreign influence in Azerbaijan remains evident, though the government of Azerbaijan, along with the Caucasus Muslims Board and Sheikh-ul-Islam, continues to reign in these strains of political Islam.
Azerbaijan should continue addressing social and economic problems that provide fodder for Islamist rhetoric against the secular values of Azerbaijan. Expanding ties to western nations through various industries like oil, should benefit Azerbaijan’s middle and lower-classes. With greater employment opportunities, improved housing and educational opportunities that are tied to the existing strong civil society, civic culture and continued celebration of Azerbaijan’s multicultural citizenship – the government can hopefully keep Islamist activity marginalized.
Supna Zaidi Peery is Executive Director of the prestigious “Muslim World Today,” a daily publication devoted to the accurate, truthful and fair reporting of news, analysis and perspective associated with the Muslim world. Ms. Peery is also an attorney and policy analyst specializing in human rights and foreign policy.
