Azerbaijan wrestles with Islam in rough region

NARDARAN, Azerbaijan (Reuters) - The view from Nardaran's vast sandstone mosque sweeps down through roses to the Absheron peninsula and the Caspian sea from which Azerbaijan derives its wealth.

Devotion to Islam defines life in this dusty coastal village, where walls carry Koranic verses and social grievances against this strictly controlled former Soviet republic find voice in religion.

But it's a way of life that sits uneasily with the secular regime of President Ilham Aliyev, an authoritarian who draws his power from rich reserves of oil and gas in the Caspian.

"They are wealthy, but they are afraid," Haji Aga Nuriyev, Naradaran elder and former head of the banned Islamic Party of Azerbaijan, said of the political elite around Aliyev.

Like much of the former Soviet Union -- Christian and Muslim -- this country of 9 million mainly Shi'ite Muslims has witnessed a limited religious revival since the collapse of Communism two decades ago.

The number of Azeris who pray regularly has risen to some 10 percent, according to polls. For the majority, their faith is a matter of fact, less a defining element of identity, and women in mini-skirts stroll the capital's affluent downtown.

But the trend is one the government is determined to control, not least given the nature of its neighborhood:

To the west lies Turkey, where a secular state must accommodate growing conservative religious influences, to the south the Islamic Republic of Iran, and to the north Russia's Dagestan, gripped by an Islamist insurgency against Moscow.

Baku has foiled several Islamist bomb plots in recent years, targeting Western embassies, which it has linked to Iran.

SHRINKING DEMOCRACY

Western diplomats appear sympathetic to Aliyev's efforts to stem any drift toward radicalism in Azerbaijan, an energy supplier and transit route for the U.S. military in Afghanistan.

But rights groups say the government's methods are heavy-handed, part of an authoritarian reflex to stifle independent expression as a potential challenge to the regime.

To many Azeri officials, rooted in secularism, a strong Islam runs contrary to their vision of a modernizing Azerbaijan, where an oil-fueled boom is transforming the capital Baku and spawning an opulent jet set.

"One can feel today a certain Islamophobia among officials," said rights activist and outspoken imam Ilgar Ibrahimoglu. "But it all comes back to the problem of the lack of freedom, lack of rights and general problems of democracy."

Iranian-educated Ibrahimoglu used to preach at the influential Shi'ite Juma mosque, nestled within the warren of cobbled streets that form Baku's picturesque Old City.

But it was closed in June 2004 after he was convicted of organizing opposition protests against the 2003 election of Ilham Aliyev and given a five-month suspended sentence.

Aliyev, son of long-serving leader Heydar, further consolidated power when loyalists swept the board on Sunday in a parliamentary election faulted by monitors.

Two mosques that authorities said were built illegally were demolished last year and at least two others in Baku have been closed, including Abu Bakr where a Salafi community prayed until the mosque was bombed in 2008 and two worshippers were killed.

The attack was blamed on radicals linked to the North Caucasus. The mosque was closed for repairs, which have finished, but the gates remain padlocked. Analysts say the Salafi community, with its purist approach, has borne the brunt of state sanction.

Such communities reject the spiritual authority of the Caucasus Board of Muslims (CBM), the official state-backed clergy which has enjoyed government support for the building and restoration of mosques that it controls.

FOREIGN INFLUENCES

Under measures criticized by groups promoting religious freedom, the state requires all religious communities to register with the State Committee for Work with Religious Organisations, and to align their teachings with the CBM.

The Committee's head declined to be interviewed.

But the CBM chairman, Sheikh-ul-Islam Allahshukur Pashazade, told Reuters: "The Aliyev family is creating all necessary conditions for the development of Islam in Azerbaijan." He defended measures against communities "which violate the law".

"Our Board does not put pressure on them. We say, 'work within the boundaries of the law'. Probably they want to agitate, to work in the interests of other states."

The allusion to outside influences is a common one.

Nardaran has long tried to forge a political role for Islam in Azerbaijan, and here the state sees the hand of Iran. Anger over living standards in the village erupted in rioting in 2002, and one person died during a days-long police operation to restore order. Residents say police no longer enter the village.

"You have to see it in terms of Azerbaijan's geography," said Svante Cornell, research director of the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute.

He cited "challenges" from Iranian Shi'ite organizations and Sunni groups from Russia's turbulent North Caucasus, Turkey and the Gulf reaching for influence in Azerbaijan, a crossroads between Russia and the Middle East, between West and East.

"(Azerbaijan) is one of only four Shia majority states in the world, and it has a secular, moderate government, not a particularly democratic one but ... a secular government that is interested in maintaining its relations with the West."

Whether born of genuine concern, or a cynical bid to muzzle another avenue of dissent, analysts warn that strict government measures to control Islam could prove counter-productive, something Ibrahimoglu calls "the boomerang effect".

"By limiting rights, they force believers to start thinking about more serious social issues, radicalizing them," he said. "This is a problem, a very serious problem." (Editing by Ralph Boulton)