SHAFAQNA- Azeri Shia and Sunni Muslims have been holding unity prayer in Baku Heydar Mosque.
Azerbaijani Muslims stress importance of unity and more solidarity among different Islamic denominations in joint Friday prayer with Shia and Sunni prayer leaders of the mosque taking turns in leading Friday prayers on a weekly basis.
Muslims from different Islamic denominations mainly hold daily prayers in different mosques in an attempt to maintain the minor differences in the form of their prayers though the two communities have joined the same prayer lines since the announcement of the year as the Year of Multiculturalism.
The move has received wide welcome since the main part of the current crises in the world of Islam; Takfir (excommunication), expansion of Islamophobia is blamed on the distance between Muslims which has provided the opportunity for enemies of Islam to expand dispersion of Muslims.
Shia and Sunni Imams appointed at Heydar Mosque
Haji Sabir Hasanli, deputy chairman of the Caucasian Muslims Office, chairman of the Heydar Mosque Complex Office, told APA that Hafiz Abbasov was temporarily appointed as Sunni imam and Rufat Garayev as Shiite Imam of the mosque.
Everyone appointed by the CMO chairman Sheikh-ul-Islam Haji Allahshukur Pashazade are graduates of Baku Islam University.
Hasanli mentioned that both religious figures were instructed to perform daily prayers in the mosque and deliver sermons. “After talking with Allahshukur Pashazade, we have decided to involve kadi from each district in a prayer of unity to be performed each Friday,” he said.
The Heydar Mosque is considered the largest mosque of the Caucasus.