On February 7, Deputy Chairman of the State Committee on Religious Associations Sahib Nagiyev met with pastor of the “Gateway Baptist Church” Brock McDonald and Flynn Eugene.

The Deputy Chairman has provided the guest with the detailed information on religious environment in Azerbaijan, activities of the State Committee and has drawn attention to the high level of tolerance and coexistence model in our country. Mr. Nagiyev has emphasized that representatives of all the nations live in the country with the spirit of kindness and respect for each other’s traditions which is estimated one of the greatest moral values we have had historically and today. This value is also an essential condition for the development, social and political stability in the country. The Deputy Chairman also spoke about representatives of various religious denominations, ethnic groups, their centuries-old coexistence, integration and management policy in the multicultural society in Azerbaijan. The State aims is to ensure that representatives of various religious faiths live together in an atmosphere of tolerance based on universal values, he added.

President Ilham Aliyev’s forward-looking and pragmatic policy, our national and religious solidarity stand behind our victory in the 44-day Patriotic War, this solidarity has continued in the post-victory period, during the reconstruction of our historical and religious sites which vandalized by Armenians. Along with Islamic historical and religious sites, non-Islamic monuments are being reconstructed and restored in our liberated lands, the Deputy Chairman has stressed.

Expressing his satisfaction with his visit, Brock McDonald said that he had witnessed the creation of all conditions for the equal activities of representatives of all religions in Azerbaijan. The guest praised this as a perfect example of tolerance and expressed his gratitude for the support and care to the religious community.

At the end of the meeting, the guests were presented books related to the tolerant environment in Azerbaijan published by the State Committee.