Jewish Journal: Azerbaijan disallows extremism to enter, operate in the country

Writing in the Jewish Journal, Rabbi Israel Barouk, a renowned Jewish scholar, describes the US State Department's "special watch list" on religious freedom, based on a report by the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), as a mixture of negligence, ignorance and duplicity.

According to Caliber.Az, Barouk is outraged by the decision to include Azerbaijan in this list.

"The 'watch' lists issued by the commission categorize countries identified as some degree of oppressive. The commission, staffed by no more than 15 officials of varied experience, is responsible for addressing these questions for the entire world. 

In the most recent report, USCIRF has recommended including Azerbaijan in the State Department’s 'Special Watch List', citing Azerbaijan’s close monitoring of foreign religious leaders within their borders, most crucially because they share a border with Iran. In the eyes of USCIRF, oversight employed by Azerbaijan to vet extremism against religious radicals with proven links to Iran is a matter of religious oppression," the article says.

"Including Azerbaijan on this watch list has raised eyebrows, particularly in light of the fact that Azerbaijan is the oldest majority-Muslim secular republic, and the home and haven to Jewish and varied Christian communities since antiquity. Azerbaijan has been labelled in popular media as an “oasis of tolerance” and as a component of that achievement, Azerbaijan disallows extremism to enter and operate in the country. One of the leading staffers of the USCIRF is its Chief of Public Affairs, Danielle Ashbahian, previously employed as Director of Communications by the Armenian Assembly of America, one of the two main Armenian lobby groups in the U.S., known for their anti-Azerbaijani campaigns," Barouk notes.

"The question we must ask USCIRF is what in the world should nations like Azerbaijan do differently? And why would the United States advocate for peaceful democracies to suffer infiltration from foreign extremists, undeterred?" the author asks in the conclusion.