The Azerbaijan Islamic Party (; ''AİP'') is a banned

Shia Islamist Shia Islamism is the implementation of Shia Islam in politics. Most study and reporting on Islamism has been focused on Sunni Islamist movements. Shia Islamism, a previously very small ideology, gained in popularity after the Iranian Revolution ...

organization in Azerbaijan. The political party was founded in 1991 in the town of

Nardaran Nardaran is a settlement and municipality on the Abşeron Peninsula in Baku, Azerbaijan. It has a population of 8,300. Located 25 kilometers northeast of central Baku, it is politically part of the Baku city-subdivision and treated as a suburb. ...

, which lies northeast of the capital Baku on the

Absheron Peninsula The Absheron Peninsula () is a peninsula in Azerbaijan. It is the location of Baku, the most populous city of the country, and the Baku Metropolitan Area, with its satellite cities Sumqayit and Khyrdalan. It extends eastward into the Caspian S ...

. Nardaran is a stronghold of conservative

Shia Shia Islam is the second-largest branch of Islam. It holds that Muhammad designated Ali ibn Abi Talib () as both his political successor (caliph) and as the spiritual leader of the Muslim community (imam). However, his right is understood ...

Islam in predominantly secular Azerbaijan. The party was officially registered in 1992. Its registration, however, was cancelled in 1995, and has not been reinstated since.

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It advocated stronger ties with Iran and even proclaiming the state of Azerbaijan into an

Islamic Republic The term Islamic republic has been used in different ways. Some Muslim religious leaders have used it as the name for a form of Islamic theocratic government enforcing sharia, or laws compatible with sharia. The term has also been used for a s ...

as it rejected the ideas of

pan-Turkism Pan-Turkism () or Turkism () is a political movement that emerged during the 1880s among Turkic intellectuals who lived in the Russian region of Kazan (Tatarstan), Caucasus Viceroyalty (1801–1917), South Caucasus (modern-day Azerbaijan) and th ...

, regarding them as dangerous and utopian. Nevertheless, it was also an Azerbaijani nationalist party and was known for its fiery nationalist and

anti-Armenian Anti-Armenian sentiment, also known as anti-Armenianism and Armenophobia, is a diverse spectrum of negative feelings, dislikes, fears, aversion, racism, derision and/or prejudice towards Armenians, Armenia, and Armenian culture. Historically, an ...

rhetoric and frequently advocated a military solution to the

Nagorno-Karabakh conflict The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is an ethnic and territorial conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the region of Nagorno-Karabakh, inhabited mostly by ethnic Armenians until 2023, and seven surrounding districts, inhabited mostly by Azerbai ...

which was partly under Armenian occupation. It was fiercely opposed and advocated a ban of

proselytism Proselytism () is the policy of attempting to convert people's religious or political beliefs. Carrying out attempts to instill beliefs can be called proselytization. Proselytism is illegal in some countries. Some draw distinctions between Chris ...

and Christian

missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group who is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thoma ...

activities. The party was also

anti-US Anti-Americanism (also called anti-American sentiment and Americanophobia) is a term that can describe several sentiments and po ...

anti-Zionist Anti-Zionism is opposition to Zionism. Although anti-Zionism is a heterogeneous phenomenon, all its proponents agree that the creation of the State of Israel in 1948, and the movement to create a sovereign Jewish state in the Palestine (region) ...

and anti-EU and supported

Hezbollah Hezbollah ( ; , , ) is a Lebanese Shia Islamist political party and paramilitary group. Hezbollah's paramilitary wing is the Jihad Council, and its political wing is the Loyalty to the Resistance Bloc party in the Lebanese Parliament. I ...

and its leader

Hassan Nasrallah Hassan Nasrallah (, ; 31 August 196027 September 2024) was a Lebanese cleric and politician who served as the third secretary-general of Hezbollah, a Shia Islamist political party and militia, from 1992 until his assassination in 2024. Bor ...

. The leader of the party was

Movsum Samadov Movsum Mardan oghlu Samadov (born 4 September 1966) is an Azerbaijani political figure who is currently serving as the 3rd chairman of the Azerbaijan Islamic Party, a Shia Islamist organization, since 2007. Personal life Movsum Samadov was ...

Ban

In 1995, the government of Azerbaijan accused the Islamic Party of Azerbaijan of being covertly financed by Iran, which Azerbaijan regarded as an interference in its domestic affairs, and which is illegal under Azerbaijani law. Therefore, the leaders of the party were arrested and the Islamic Party of Azerbaijan was officially banned. Subsequently, under the updated secular laws of Azerbaijan, Islamist parties and the formation of Islamist parties were banned. 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.Azeri Islamic party leader sentenced to 12 years in jail
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* 1991 establishments in Azerbaijan 1995 disestablishments in Azerbaijan Banned Islamist parties Defunct political parties in Azerbaijan Islamic organizations based in Azerbaijan Shia Islamic political parties Political parties disestablished in 1995 Political parties established in 1991 Political parties in the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic Qutbist organisations {{Azerbaijan-party-stub

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