Oppositional Islam in Azerbaijan

Author(s): Sofie Bedford
Editor(s): Sofie Bedford, Lili Di Puppo, Iris Kempe, Heiko Pleines, Matthias Neumann, Robert Orttung, Jeronim Perovic
Series: Caucasus Analytical Digest (CAD)
Issue: 44
Pages: 9-11
Publisher(s): Center for Security Studies (CSS), ETH Zurich; Research Centre for East European Studies, University of Bremen; Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies, George Washington University
Publication Year: 2012

This article discusses how the Abu Bakr and Juma mosque communities came to be seen as representatives of 'Oppositional Islam'. The communities were labeled oppositional by authorities who feared a politicized religion and were provoked by their unwillingness to accept renewed state control of religion. At the same time, the communities saw themselves as oppositional in that they rejected the way religion was practiced and interpreted in state-controlled mosques and among the general public in post-Soviet Azerbaijan. Pressure on the mosque communities brought their members closer together and reinforced this polarization.

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