A possible change to Azerbaijan’s Religion Law and Administrative Code threatens to make matters worse for the country’s Christian minority. Under the proposal, “religious organizations and churches” must have “a state-registered religious center or headquarters” where all their functions must occur. Any activities that take place anywhere else could bring “legal repercussions.”

In Azerbaijan, “legal repercussions” means police interference, arrests, and the confiscation of teaching materials. Christians there are already subject to government pressure, and new converts face “violence from their families, friends and local community.”

Like in China, Christians here live at the convenience of the authorities. There’s a facade of religious freedom but the substance is gone.

Please pray for our Azeri brethren. Life is difficult enough for them without new persecution that now seems inevitable. And, let’s insist to our own leaders that they call out this infringement of religious freedom. The stakes are too high to remain silent.