Russia Bans Jehovah’s Witnesses As An "Extremist Organization"

[Silver]

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-04-2 ... ganization

Russia Bans Jehovah’s Witnesses As An "Extremist Organization"

Russians will no longer have to dread the doorbell.

On Thursday, Russia's Supreme Court ruled that Jehovah's Witnesses was an "extremist" organization after the justice ministry applied for an order to shut down the group's national headquarters near St Petersburg, Russian TASS news agency reported. Russian authorities had put several of the group's publications on a list of banned extremist literature, and prosecutors have long cast it as an organization that destroys families, fosters hatred and threatens lives, a description the organization says is false.

In its lawsuit the Justice Ministry mentioned various violations, exposed by a snap check of the organization’s activities, including those of the federal law on resistance to extremist activities. The Justice Ministry wanted the organization and its 395 local chapters to be declared as extremist and outlawed and its properties to be confiscated.

The Administrative Center of Jehovah’s Witnesses told TASS it found this affair very worrisome, because a future decision would concern 175,000 practicing believers. ACJW spokesman Ivan Bilenko said the organization was prepared to seek protection of its rights in courts of any instance.

A court in Moscow on October 12, 2016 warned Jehovah’s Witnesses over what it ruled was extremist activities. Under Russian legislation the religious organization in question is to be closed down if it fails to eliminate the exposed violations within the required deadline or if new evidence of its extremist activities come to light. The Moscow City Court on January 16, 2017 upheld the warning over extremism handed to Jehovah’s Witnesses.

The Jehovah’s Witnesses group in Russia has said it will appeal against the court’s ruling.

[Matchmaker]

I wouldn't be surprised if the LDS in Russia are next to lose their resources and their standing. I remember reading a while back that the government wanted to recognize only mainstream religions such as, Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, and Muslim. I also read that Putin thought Mormon Missionaries were CIA spies.

[passionflower]

I know that a number of years ago the JW's were nearly thrown out of France. This was( over a JW child who supposedly died because her parents refused a blood transfusion. The only thing that saved them was our church going to court for them in the name of religious freedom( for which they never thanked us ) . I think it is strange that of all the negative things the Russian government comes out with against the JW's, they don't mention this blood transfusion thing. Maybe the label "extemist activities" covers it.

[Sasquatch]

I wouldn't be surprised if the LDS in Russia are next to lose their resources and their standing. I remember reading a while back that the government wanted to recognize only mainstream religions such as, Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, and Muslim. I also read that Putin thought Mormon Missionaries were CIA spies.

It's unfortunate that anyone would identify the Church, being based in the Great Basin, with a corrupt organization on the opposite side of the continent. The relationship between Washington, DC and the states, especially the western states, is increasingly like (if not worse) than the relationship between London and the thirteen colonies.

[samizdat]

I don't think the Mormons are next, for one reason.

The Mormons have in large part complied with the law of the land of Russia. There were mistakes initially due to lack of knowledge of the law but now that has subsided. The members there have been very careful to comply with the laws there.

A new branch was formed within the Moscow stake recently, and districts have been formed in the aftermath of the decisions made by the Russian government. Presided over by Russians.

Once the government finds out for themselves that the leaders of the Church have last names like Petrov, Demidov, Suliyanov, and Denisov, instead of Anderson, Smith, Green, or Brunt, then they will start seeing that the Church is indeed starting to get more Russian flavor. Even more so if the Elder names read that instead of a transliterated English name.

The Jehovah's Witnesses on the other hand have flaunted the laws of the land there, and continued with their missionary work and bugging people in general, until the Russians said, enough. They gave them fair warning to cease and desist, giving them three months to do so, and they didn't. They continued some more, until they got the head of the federal authorities and not just the local authorities in Saint Petersburg and Moscow, until it no longer mattered.

I am not excusing what the Russians did because the move limits religious freedom and now an entire religion is banned there. However, where you live in a land where proselytism is frowned upon, you have to follow the Law. Twelvth Article of Faith.

That is why the Mormons by and large have a fairly good relationship with most of the governments that they encounter. They follow the law.