Azerbaijan: Elshan Mustafaoglu and Menevi Saflig Devet – a portrait of Islamic social activism in Baku
By Bruno De Cordier, 19 June 2013
Menevi Saflig Devet and similar associations are among some of the most outspoken religious actors in Azerbaijan and certainly have an impact in the formation and evolution of public opinion. Through the use of various strategies and networks, they have positioned themselves in an increasingly fluid and contested religious space in which a practising population segment can be found.
When I was in Baku in the fall of 2012 I attended a ceremony to commemorate Ghadir Qum. Named after a hamlet where the Prophet Muhammad reportedly halted on his way back to Medina from his last pilgrimage to Mecca, the event commemorates the alleged appointment by the Prophet of his young son-in-law and faithful companion, Ali, as his heir and successor in front of a crowd of the faithful. The ‘Ghadir Qum Speech’ reportedly took place in the spring of 632, some three months before the Prophet passed away. Ali’s appointment was disputed, and eventually he was only to become caliph, or successor of the Prophet as the leader of the faithful, some 25 years later, as the last of the Prophet’s original companions to hold this post. Ali is considered to be one of the main imams or community leaders among the Shi’ites, who especially commemorate the event and who form the denomination to which a majority of Azerbaijan’s Muslims adhere or at least traditionally associate themselves with.
The commemoration was organized by and took place in the clean and sober premises of an Azerbaijani association called Menevi Saflig Devet Ictimai Birliyi (Social Union for the Appeal to Moral Purity). Some forty people – slightly more women than men – were listening to a young guest speaker from Baku’s Islamic University who, regularly quoting from a pocket Quran and some handwritten notes, explained the background and social significance of Ghadir Qum.
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