TWO BIZARRE ITEMS FROM AZERBAIJAN: Via the Keston Institute (sign up for their e-newsletter! send them money!): AZERBAIJAN: THIRD TIME LUCKY FOR STALLED BOOK IMPORT? (27 Sept) The Baptist church in the capital Baku is hoping its third application to import 3,000 copies of the Book of Proverbs will be successful, but the State Committee in charge of compulsory censorship of all religious literature (see separate KNS article) – has only given permission for 500 copies to be released. It has not explained why the State Committee should decide how many copies of any publication a religious community needed. Pastor Ilya Zenchenko, head of the Baptist Union in Azerbaijan, said the Baptists could only speculate as to why the committee had restricted the quantity. “Maybe they don’t want it to be in Azerbaijan,” he declared. “It’s a very beautiful book with nice illustrations. Solomon is very popular in Islam and is respected as a prophet. Maybe they’re afraid we’ll give out the book to people.”

AZERBAIJAN: OFFICIAL OUTLINES RELIGIOUS CENSORSHIP PROCEDURE. (27 Sept) The head of the “expertise” department of the State Committee for Work with Religious Organisations has told Keston News Service that his department checks between 20 and 30 religious books, magazines and tapes every week before authorising their publication or import, but insists that “This is not censorship. We just give our expert conclusion as to whether each publication is OK or not.” Department

officials check religious publications brought in for approval by religious communities, copies of religious books and magazines confiscated from travellers entering Azerbaijan and religious publications sent to them by customs when they open all parcels of books entering the country by post.