Islam in Azerbaijan

[2] Various reports have estimated 97.3% (CIA, 2020)[3] or 99.2% (Pew Research Center, 2006)[4] of the population identifying as Muslim; with the majority being adherents of the Shia branch (55-65%), while a significant minority (35-45%) are Sunnis.

[7] Due to many decades of Soviet atheist policy, religious affiliation in Azerbaijan is often nominal and Muslim identity tends to be based more on culture and ethnicity than on religion.

[8] In the sixteenth century, the first shah of the Safavid Dynasty, Ismail I (r. 1501-1524), established Shi'a Islam as the state religion,[8] although a portion of people remained Sunni.

[8] Enforcement of Shi'a Islam as the state religion brought contention between the Safavid rulers and the ruling Sunnis of the neighboring Ottoman Empire.

[8] In the nineteenth century, many Sunni Muslims emigrated from Russian-controlled Azerbaijan because of Russia's series of wars with their coreligionists in the Ottoman Empire.

[8] Antagonism between the Sunnis and the Shi'a diminished in the late nineteenth century as Azerbaijani nationalism began to emphasize a common Turkic heritage and opposition to Iranian religious influences.

[8] The Soviet rule promoted an Azerbaijani national consciousness as a substitute for identification with the world Islamic community and Iran.

[citation needed] In the 1980s only two large and five smaller mosques held services in Baku, and only eleven others were operating in the rest of the country.

[8] Many were built with the support of other Islamic countries, such as Iran, Oman, and Saudi Arabia, which also contributed Qur'ans and religious instructors to the new Muslim states.

[13]Svante Cornell believes that the radical groups remain weak, but have a potential to grow under the current domestic and international circumstances.

[13] According to researchers Emil Souleimanov and Maya Ehrmann, there is "a trend among Dagestani minorities in the north of Azerbaijan to engage in insurgent activities".

The Salafi movement has been "spurred by missionary activities using external funds and the establishment of mosques", and found support from those who the desire a return to more traditionalist values.