A Baptist pastor still cannot conduct services in the local church, and Bibles sent to the Baptist church are yet on the wharves because the government refuses to release them.
These are some of the findings of Baptist World Alliance General Secretary Denton Lotz and Tony Cupit, director of study and research, who visited Azerbaijan Sept. 28–30 to meet with a growing Baptist community, but one that faces much harassment from the state.
Of particular concern is the fate of pastor Sari Mizroev, who because of accusations that he made anti-Muslim statements, has now been effectively banned from conducting worship in a church he started after God gave him a vision of reaching Azeris for Christ in 1992. He began as pastor of the church in 1994.
Since then many have become believers.
There are 800 baptized believers among the Azerbaijanis in 20 groups, four congregations and some house churches. Most of the converts are from the Azeri people.
In 1999 Mizroev and a deacon were imprisoned for 15 days because of a sermon he preached on fasting that was seen to be a slight on the Muslim feast of Ramadan. United States congressmen intervened to help Mizroev and the BWA is again calling on key political leaders to help him.
In February this year the BWA wrote a letter to Hafiz Pashayev, ambassador at the embassy of Azerbaijan in Washington, D.C., in which the general secretary expressed his concern about the religious persecution of Mizroev. Lotz said the accusations against Mizroev are serious threats to the community of Baptists in Baku exercising their religious freedom.
He pointed out that in Washington, D.C., there are more than 39 mosques that have complete religious freedom. He also appealed to the ambassador to do what he could to see that the charges against Mizroev be dropped.
‘Hooligan’
Once again Mizroev is in trouble with the authorities and charged with being a hooligan and a traitor. His story was publicized on national TV up to five times a day. He is known throughout the country in a negative way. He has been banned by the authorities from attending his church, attacked in the streets and is under constant surveillance.
The congregation lives with uncertainty, Cupit says, their pastor’s exclusion from the church premises keeping them sad.
The rights of this little flock of believers are being trampled.
Meanwhile on the issue of 3,000 copies of the Book of Proverbs, the Baptist church in Baku is hoping its third application to import the books will be successful, but the state committee in charge of compulsory censorship of all religious literature has only given permission for 500 copies to be released, says Keston Institute. One department had said they were given permission to import a certain quantity, and the committee believes that is enough for them.
There are two Baptist language groups in Azerbaijan, the Russian and the Azeri-speaking. Their churches join in one Baptist convention and Ilya Ziechenko, pastor of the Russian-speaking church, is president.
Lotz and Cupit report that among moderate Muslim leaders and other religious groups there is a great concern that religious freedom be implemented in Azerbaijan. As well as visiting the Baptists there, Lotz reports as president of the International Religious Liberty Association, he helped establish a new chapter to defend religious liberty for all.
Meeting with Mizroev, they described him as a remarkable human being, one who continues to suffer for his faith but is determined to be faithful to the call of Christ on his life. (BWA)
Share with others: