A Seventh-day Adventist pastor and his family have been expelled from a town in the central Asian country of Azerbaijan after local officials accused the church of contemplating "terrorist activities."
A Seventh-day Adventist pastor and his family have been expelled from a town in the central Asian country of Azerbaijan after local officials accused the church of contemplating “terrorist activities.” Pastor Vahid Nagiev, 42, along with his wife and four children, left the city of Nahichevan on June 9 after police made two visits to their home. Police ordered the family to leave, saying they believed the church may “perform a terrorist act” during the June 10 visit to the city by the country’s president.
The incident follows a string of similar episodes over the past few years in which small, mainly Protestant, religious groups have been targeted for harassment by local officials. In February this year, authorities in Gyanja, western Azerbaijan, raided an Adventist Church, breaking up a Saturday, or Sabbath, morning worship service and sealing the building. The reason for the raid, said local officials, was that the church had failed to gain legal re-registration.
Azerbaijan is a predominantly Muslim country—less than 3 percent of the population claims a Christian affiliation. Even in areas that have a historically strong Orthodox Christian tradition, local religious leaders are not friendly toward what they perceive as “foreign” Protestant minorities.
John Graz, public affairs and religious liberty director for the Adventist world church, says he is deeply concerned about the use of the so-called “war against terrorism” as a pretext for harassment of an Adventist pastor and his family.
“This incident demonstrates the danger of using fear of terrorism as an excuse for unjustified infringement of an individual’s rights,” says Graz. “It is all too easy for authorities to use this as a veil for another, unrelated, agenda. But vague allusions to terrorist threats are simply not adequate.”
Graz also points out that, in matters such as these, there is often a gulf between the central Azerbaijani government—which is attempting to foster and protect religious pluralism—and the independent actions of local officials, who are remote from the capital, Baku.
“Pastor Nagiev and his family, and all those in Azerbaijan who suffer for their faith, need the prayers of the worldwide Christian community,” says Graz. He says Adventist leaders will continue to monitor the situation, and will do everything they can to work with authorities to resolve the situation in Nahichevan.
