The next meeting of the Board of the Justice, Law, Democracy (JLD) Party was held.
elchi reports that the meeting addressed the discussions held in our country regarding school uniforms and freedom of religious belief.
The statement adopted by the JLD Party states:
“Religions call people to know God, to love Him, and to believe that God rewards good deeds and punishes oppressors.
A person’s love for God is determined not by their adherence to religious rituals, but by their service to humanity. Islam is the religion of the majority of people living in Azerbaijan and is a part of our spiritual life. God loves and rewards those who do useful work for people, not those who demonstrate their religiosity. Being religious does not mean being a person of God. We have read a lot about the terrible tortures of the Inquisition courts in churches, which were once the house of God in some Western countries, and in our time, about how children are sexually abused by clergy in churches, and about occupations under the guise of religion. During the occupation of Karabakh, we saw how justice and truth were trampled under the guise of religious fanaticism, how a million Muslims were displaced from their homes, how our co-religionists did not defend us when our mosques and Islamic monuments were destroyed, and we lived through those pains with great sorrow. The Almighty has always punished and will always punish those who radicalize believers and exploit religion for political purposes. Our citizens who are dissatisfied with the government’s activities should look a little further and not use this topic against the ruling party. The politicization of Islam and the transformation of believers into the main political opposition promise nothing good for our country.
Our people should know that in poor societies struggling for survival, there is neither religion nor any other high human values. Everyone should focus more on the necessity of economic reforms. We should discuss not whether our children go to school with headscarves or without them, but the quality of education, why tutoring has not been eliminated, why small and medium-sized entrepreneurs facing illegality and ordinary citizens whose rights are violated turn to mosques, and the great obstacles standing in the way of our becoming a strong welfare state. Only in developed societies are high values established, and serious guarantees for human rights and freedoms created.
We address the officials of the AKP party in brotherly Turkey, whose supporters are mainly the religious segment in the provinces, that the introduction of a uniform school uniform is not a restriction of freedom of religious belief. Moreover, human rights and freedoms are not solely determined by freedom of religious belief, and there are very serious problems in brotherly Turkey in the construction of a legal state and civil society. The situation of human rights in Azerbaijan has never interested Turkey, including the AKP government. If there are disagreements with the Azerbaijani government on any issue today, they should be resolved at the negotiating table, not in a way that harms relations over such a sensitive issue. We do not have time to please our enemies.
The JLD Party also calls on the government to consider incorporating the kelaghayi, a national headdress for girls and women, into the uniform school attire.”