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The head of the community of Mountain Jews of Azerbaijan Melih Evdayev and senior pastor of the Baptist Church in Azerbaijan Ilya Zenchenko believe that the Azerbaijani textbook for the 5th grade offends Christians and Jews, the Azerbaijani newspaper Zerkalo states.

As stated in the material, the fifth grade textbook entitled "Knowledge of the world", approved by the Ministry of Education of Azerbaijan in July 2012, reads:

"The first man, Adam, is also the first prophet. All the prophets from Adam to Prophet Jesus preached people faith in one God, and how he should be worshiped. However, the roots and the dictates of creed they preach, were eventually broken, and their origins were lost. For example, over time, such traditional religions as Christianity and Judaism, were eventually changed by the Christian and Jewish religious leaders and lost their original meaning. Then Allah Almighty decided to warn all the people once again and chose the Prophet Muhammad so that he conveyed to them the most perfect religion which is Islam. Today Islam is the perfect religion in the world and the most acceptable for Allah. "

It is this paragraph that is offensive to the representatives of two religions. "This is an offence to our religion. What does the phrase saying that “over time, such traditional religions as Christianity and Judaism were eventually changed by the Christian and Jewish religious leaders" mean? Does it mean we have changed the Torah?" Melih Evdayev the head of the community of Mountain Jews wonders.

Not a letter can be changed in Torah, the head of the community stated. "Because it is a blasphemy," said Melih Evdayev.
Ilya Zenchenko, the senior pastor of the Baptist Church in Azerbaijan, agrees with the head of the community of Mountain Jews. "Inclusion of the phrase "over time, such traditional religions as Christianity and Judaism were eventually changed by the Christian and Jewish religious leaders " in the textbook is an exaltation of one religion and humiliation of another one," I. Zenchenko notes.
As the senior pastor noted, the question of which religion is more perfect, is a subject of debate among theologians. "I think there is no need to pull the school children into this discussion," he said and noted that he was familiar with this tutorial, because his son studies at school.

Haji Shahin, the head of the religious community "Meshedi Dadash," stated that Azerbaijan is a secular, but a Muslim state. "That is why I do not think that a serious error is made in this case," Haji Shahin said.

Note that in the U.S. State Department report on "Freedom of religion" it says that despite of the fact that the Constitution of Azerbaijan provides freedom of religion, in practice, the laws and policies of the authorities restrict this freedom. In 2011, the Azerbaijani authorities carried out raids in some religious services, confiscated religious materials, and harassed and arrested members of Muslim and Christian communities.

In addition, religious groups face onerous demands by the government when registering. Registration process itself is a kind of lever that is used by the authorities of Azerbaijan against unwanted religious groups. The groups that operate without registration are harassed by the authorities, including fines and court cases which demand their closure, U.S. State Department report reads.
The International Organization for the protection of religious rights and freedoms "Forum 18" noted that Azerbaijani police regularly holds raids on the homes of religious people, and some Christian clergymen have even been imprisoned for their faith.