My visit to Azerbaijan

By Hyepin Im

This past September, I had the privilege of being invited to Azerbaijan to participate in the 5th International Humanitarian Forum hosted by the Azerbaijan President with over 400+ invited world leaders. It was truly an inspirational and memorable experience to see in person and learn more of Azerbaijan's leadership, history, and beautiful architecture, and to meet so many great leaders and experts from throughout the world.

Two years ago, I barely knew of Azerbaijan's existence as a country or its location in the world. Since then, through my visit and joint events with the Consul General of Azerbaijan in Los Angeles and my organization, Korean Churches for Community Development, I have come to appreciate the important role Azerbaijan plays in the world and its model for world peace and religious tolerance.

Azerbaijan is a country that is 95% Muslim and yet for over 2,000 years, the Jewish community has been welcomed to live freely and peacefully within its borders. In this part of the world, where religious conflict is rampant, and possibly dangerous to those who are not Muslim, I found Azerbaijan's history of welcome quite extraordinary.

Every country has values and principles it lifts up. In the US, self-determination, freedom and independence are some of the values we support and promote. In Azerbaijan, from the President of Azerbaijan to various leaders I came in contact with, I was impressed with their focus on promoting multiculturalism and embracing all religions. I had heard of Azerbaijan government's extraordinary investment in building houses of worship for various religions. During my visit, I was able to witness such investments as we met with the heads of a Catholic monastery, Jewish temples and an Orthodox church and confirm its reality. What was even more beautiful was to witness the genuine respect and mutuality the religious leaders had for one another and in each others' lives as communities. Beyond interfaith, it was also powerful to witness Sunni and Shia Muslims in Azerbaijan enjoying shared joint leadership and also coming together regularly to peacefully worship together ― something quite rare and even unimaginable elsewhere.

In light of current world and religious conflicts and great fear especially around ISIS and terrorism, I am grateful to learn of Azerbaijan's commitment and even promotion for religious tolerance. In Azerbaijan, Christians and Jews can not only freely practice their religion in a mostly Muslim country but have a platform to have a voice and representation in government.

In addition, in spite Azerbaijan's history of tension and bloody conflict with Armenia, I was impressed to learn of Azerbaijan government's painstaking preservation of Armenian publications and books at a historic Armenian church for visitors to enjoy.

Furthermore, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been an ongoing tension that seems to have no end. The recent controversy on the UN's decision and U.S. abstention in condemning Israeli settlement seems to only reinforce that one has to pick sides and there seems to be no options for peace. Yet to my surprise, I learned that Azerbaijan has been able to walk a fine line in having not only peace but strong relationships with both Israel and Palestine, as well as the rest of the Arab countries.

I come away from my visit to Azerbaijan with gratitude for the fresh perspectives and new models for how the world can be in promoting religious tolerance and world peace. It is my prayer that more countries can learn from Azerbaijan's model and leadership.

The writer is the founder and president of Korean Churches for Community Development (KCCD), whose mission is to help churches build capacity to do economic development work on a greater scale. Write to hyepin@gmail.com.