Baku Baptists are concerned of accusations in media

The Baptist community of the city of Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, has expressed its anxiety in the context of an article that appeared in an oppositional newspaper and in which Baptists were accused of standing "against the Allah and Islam," and treated as foreign spies.

As reported by the "Forum 18", the authors of the article reproach the local National Security Service and the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) of Azerbaijan for being passive in relation to the Baptist Church.

Baptists are worried that the article can induce the authorities to stop the Church; they also protest against placing in the newspaper and website photos of members of the community without their consent. However, they do not plan to address their complaints to the edition.

"We are afraid that if we write to them, they will turn our words against us and publish something still worse." According to Baptists, earlier Protestant communities tried to go to mass media which had attacked them, but "it would not help."

Ilgar Ibragimoglu, head of the Centre in Defence of Freedom of Worship and Faith, has stated earlier that a sort of a "crusade" against the freedom of worship and faith has been announced in Azerbaijan. Meanwhile, the Azerbaijani authorities assert that nobody is oppressing believers in the country.