The party was founded in 1991 in the town of Nardaran, which lies northeast of the capital Baku on the Absheron Peninsula.

Nardaran is a stronghold of conservative Shi'a Islam in predominantly secular and nationalistic Azerbaijan.

It advocated stronger ties with Iran and even proclaiming the state of Azerbaijan into an Islamic Republic as it rejected the ideas of pan-Turkism, regarding them as dangerous and utopian.

[3] The party was also anti-US, anti-Zionist and anti-EU and supported Hezbollah and its leader Hassan Nasrallah.

[4] On 7 October 2011, Samadov was sentenced to 12 years in prison on charges of attempts to set up a criminal group to plan terror attacks and to overthrow the government.