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Mubariz Qurbanli, head of the State Committee for Work with Religious Organizations in Azerbaijan, demands that the building of the Lezgin Sunni Mosque in Baku’s Old City be vacated before of the European Games. He told members of the Mosque that the authorities are unhappy with the numbers of worshippers who attend prayers. He added that the sight of bearded men in such a central Baku location is “not desirable” as it would frighten the Europeans, Forum 18 News Service reports citing the worshippers of the Mosque.

According to the article, titled “Baku’s pre-Olympic ‘religious cleansing,’” Qurbanli first visited the Lezgin Mosque and demanded that the community vacate the building within three days as, he claimed, repairs on the mosque needed to begin. He threatened the worshippers that if they did not go, they would be removed by other means. The representatives of the Mosque offered a compromise - hold the first prayers at about 5 am and the last prayers at about 11 pm each day during the Games, and forego all other prayers for that period. State Committee officials responded that they could not themselves decide – the decision will be taken elsewhere, the publication reads.

As the article has it, during the meeting, Qurbanli also demanded that no more than 50 worshippers should be in the Mosque. To the chair of the community Faiq Mustafa’s remark that they could not ban people from coming in for prayers, he responded that they had to control that. He also said that men up to the age of 60 or so should not have beards.

Forum 18 reminds that Muslim men in Azerbaijan have repeatedly complained that police have forcibly shaved off their beards.

“State Committee officials told the Lezgin Mosque representatives that the community would get re-registration (which it has never had since the State Committee was established in 2001) if it agrees to ‘work closely’ with it. This would entail limiting the number of attendees and making sure that young male attendees do not wear beards,” the article reads.

Forum 18 reminds that the Lezgin Mosque (also known as the Ashur Mosque) is one of many Sunni Muslim mosques the government seeks to close. The Mosque was put under a police blockade during Friday prayers each week in May 2014, restricting the number of worshippers who could enter. The blockade lasted several months. The Mosque’s imam, Mubariz Qarayev, was arrested in February 2015. He is one of five known Sunni Muslim prisoners of conscience in pre-trial detention at the National Security Ministry (NSM) secret police facing criminal prosecution for selling uncensored religious literature. In addition, several members of the Mosque have been sacked from their jobs in 2015.

According to the article, there are eight known religious prisoners of conscience currently being held at the NSM secret police Investigation Prison in Baku - the five above-mentioned Sunni Muslims, two female Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Shia Muslim theologian and translator Jeyhun Jafarov.

Meanwhile, as Forum 18 reports, Baku Appeal Court postponed to an unspecified date the consideration of the appeal of another imprisoned Muslim prisoner of conscience, Shia preacher Taleh Bagirov, against the decision to transfer him in December 2014 to a harsher prison.

Bagirov, 30, was arrested in May 2013 and given a two-year strict regime prison sentence in November 2013 on charges his supporters insist were fabricated. At a further trial in August 2014, a Baku court sentenced him to an extra four months' imprisonment for allegedly having an illegal mobile phone in his cell. He then spent five weeks in the punishment cells. In November 2014, Court ordered Bagirov’s transfer to a harsher prison regime. In December 2014, even before the decision had come into force, Bagirov was transferred from Labour Camp to the harsher Qobustan Prison, where prisoners are held in isolation.

Related:

Forum 18: Leadership of Sunni mosques in Azerbaijan is transferred to Shia Muslims loyal to authorities