On the recognition of the online library of Jehovah's Witnesses as extremist. Activities of the Company in Russia
And I ask again, why do you write if you are not sure of the facts?
They were banned in America after several scandals, but they abandoned some of the dogmas, and the ban was lifted.
What exact incident are you talking about, when did it happen? Please clarify, I will examine the facts you cited.
Among other things, they have a dogma about resurrection in the flesh. But without a soul. This means that the Lord God is so inept and weak that he collects you from the dust on the day of the Last Judgment, and cannot cope if your flesh is incomplete.
Not certainly in that way. If you study the Bible, then according to it, man is the soul. Alive or dead.
From this, in turn, they derive a ban on blood transfusions even for dying children. Others are also prohibited surgical interventions and organ transplantation, full list I don't know.
This is not the case. If you are not competent in medicine and don’t know, why are you writing? Do you know that treatment methods without blood transfusion are more effective than those with transfusion? Do you know that from a blood transfusion there is not only a risk of contracting diseases, but even dying faster than without a transfusion?
It turns out like this. The parishioners say: we have a misfortune, youngest child is dying, an operation is needed no later than tomorrow, and the priests tell them: I FORBIDD the operation, this is a great sin! Pray that you will be rewarded! The parishioners pray, the child dies on the fourth day. (Obviously, gaining little hope of eternal life.)
Nobody forbids! The person makes his own decision! Orthodox and Catholic priests. Humanity no longer needs a human priest!
SI is guided by the principles written in the Bible. It clearly states that blood is sacred to God and cannot be used, without any options. Also in the Bible there are these words: “Whoever saves his soul will lose it, and whoever loses his soul for my sake will save it.”
Yes, they gain hope of eternal life. If you do not believe in eternal life in the future, no one is forcing you. You are a man without hope, alas...
But the horror is that in Russia, as well as in America, some religious people cannot just sacrifice their child, even if it is a hundred times a godly deed, because in any case it is already a crime. After such bans on blood transfusions, they decided to disperse them in America.
This is not a sacrifice. The operations are going well! And the person feels better. A crime is when doctors can transfuse blood without the consent of patients, after which the person may feel like “raped”. In America, the SI feel normal, no one dispersed them since it is a large organization with headquarters in America.
If I wrote it with errors, forgive me.
On March 15, 2017, the Russian Ministry of Justice filed a lawsuit with the Supreme Court demanding that the activities of the religious sect Jehovah's Witnesses be recognized as extremist and a ban on its activities in the country.
The claim was accepted by the Supreme Court and will soon be considered.
Ordinary extremism
A month earlier, on February 15, 2017, the Ministry of Justice, acting jointly with the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation, began an inspection of the “Administrative Center of Jehovah’s Witnesses” operating in Russia, during which over 73 thousand pages of internal documentation were confiscated from the governing body of the sectarians. The inspection took place just before the anniversary of the warning issued by supervisory authorities about the inadmissibility of extremist activity. During this time, many new facts of violation of laws by representatives of the sect were revealed. Let us note that most of the printed materials of Jehovah's Witnesses, in particular, the Watchtower and Awake magazines, which are published in millions of copies around the world, were examined by numerous experts back in 2009 and included in the Federal List of Extremist Materials.
In the service of the CIA
The history of the Jehovah's Witnesses sect begins in the 1870s in the United States. Until 1931, the sect was called “Bible Students.” The heyday of its activities in the United States occurred in the early 1930s, during the Great Depression. The severe economic crisis and the total impoverishment of the population contributed to the growth in the number of followers of this religious sect. Jehovah's Witnesses actively influence human psychology, in fact subjugating and manipulating human consciousness. Indeed, people, intimidated by the upcoming Armageddon, in the hope of getting into Paradise, are ready to give everything they have in their souls to the enterprising leaders of the sect. And, of course, the methods of influence of the sect, which spread throughout the world in the first half of the 20th century, could not but be adopted by the American intelligence services, which began to actively promote the activities of Jehovah's Witnesses and facilitate the dissemination of their materials. Using this sect, the CIA replenished the ranks of its agents of influence. In the Soviet Union, adherents of the Jehovah's Witnesses sect were persecuted as members of an anti-Soviet organization. Their subversive activities are described in the novel by writer Anatoly Ivanov, “Shadows Disappear at Noon,” published in 1963.
The headquarters of Jehovah's Witnesses is located in the United States, in Brooklyn. It is from there that the activities of all organizations and cells of the sect around the world are coordinated, which unite about 8 million adherents (of which Russia accounts for approximately 170 thousand). It is no secret that the Jehovah's Witnesses are protected by the US government and other globalist structures. Therefore, any attempts to limit or ban the activities of Jehovah’s Witnesses immediately entails concern from the State Department about “violations of human rights” and the shrill squealing and howling of various non-profit human rights organizations supported by various Western foundations.
Most of the printed materials of Jehovah's Witnesses, in particular, the Watchtower and Awake magazines, which are published in millions of copies around the world, were examined by numerous experts back in 2009 and included in the Federal List of Extremist Materials. Photo ITAR-TASS/Evgeny Epanchintsev
Regional opposition
At the same time, in Russia last years the state, in cooperation with public organizations, is fighting against illegal activities sectarians. Thus, back in 2004, the Golovinsky District Court of Moscow liquidated the capital’s Jehovah’s Witness community. The sectarians protested this decision to the ECHR, which, of course, sided with them, demanding that the activities of Jehovah's Witnesses be resumed and that moral compensation be paid to them in the amount of 70 thousand euros. Ultimately, in 2015, the registration of the Moscow sectarian community was restored. However, apparently, not for long.
In 2009, the Rostov Regional Court recognized the activities of the Taganrog cell of Jehovah's Witnesses as extremist and included 34 publications from the sect's printed materials in the Federal List of Extremist Materials. Despite the court's decision, sectarians continued to conduct illegal extremist activities. In 2013, sixteen of the most active adherents of the Taganrog community of Jehovah's Witnesses were put on trial and ultimately sentenced to suspended prison sentences and fines.
During 2014-2016, local communities of Jehovah's Witnesses in Samara, Abinsk, Stary Oskol, Belgorod, Elista, and Orel were recognized as extremist. At the same time, in Belgorod region The public organization "Emergency Youth Aid" played an active role in the fight against sectarians. The Tsargrad correspondent spoke with its leader, a member of the Public Council under the Presidential Commissioner for Children's Rights Anton Androsov.
According to him, Jehovah's Witnesses are now actively sending statements to all media that they are allegedly unfoundedly accused of extremism, and that they are in fact white and fluffy. In fact, this is far from true, as the activists of the "Emergency Youth Aid" could see when they sought to ban the activities of Jehovah's Witnesses in Belgorod and Stary Oskol.
Extremism, ban on blood transfusions and violence against people
“The first, dozens, or even hundreds of Jehovah’s Witnesses magazines are recognized as extremist and included in the list of extremist materials. That is, it was not just one or two experts who decided so, but this different regions, V different time, various experts recognized these magazines as extremist, and as a result they were included in the list of extremist materials. They present their religion above other religions.
Secondly, this is a blood transfusion. I interviewed some Jehovah's Witnesses and asked the question: “If, God forbid, something happens to your child and only a blood transfusion can save him, will you do a transfusion?” - “No, we won’t!” Even when threatened with death, they refuse to give blood transfusions. Each of them is a potential suicide bomber, who always carries with him a written refusal to undergo a blood transfusion. There was a case when in Stary Oskol a married couple of Jehovah's Witnesses was poisoned by mushrooms, and the poison slowly affected all organs. Doctors said that only a blood transfusion would save her. They refused, and moreover, the elders of Jehovah's Witnesses went to the hospital and threatened the doctors. It's in the court papers. Imagine, they go to hospitals and tell doctors that if you give a blood transfusion, if you save people, we will sue you. Isn't this extremism? This pure water extremism.
Third, there is a ban on military service and a ban on taking part in elections. That is, they don't vote. Let's imagine that if tomorrow 51% of the population of our country are Jehovah's Witnesses. This means that we will need to abandon the army, this means that we will need to abandon the state in principle. They answer that if everyone gives up this, there will be peace in the whole world. I say, "Wait, we're talking about only about our country, where you are actively preaching and strive to do everything to ensure that your ranks are replenished. In some countries, you are, as it were, prohibited." They will not be able to answer this. In addition, they are prohibited from serving in the army, but they choose alternative service. Thanks to this alternative service, they end up in nursing homes, hospitals, where they begin to process new adherents. Imagine, a person with a serious illness lies in the hospital. He and his relatives begin to think about what will happen after death... Even just a person in a state of depression, and he begins to scroll through such topics in his head. And then they come , that means young people begin to say: “Do you know what will happen after death? Do you know where we'll end up? Do you know who will be saved? Do you know why God sent us such trials?” and so on. And people, naturally, begin to get carried away by this and, thanks to this, they join their ranks,” a social activist told Tsargrad.
In addition, according to Androsov, the sect is actively extracting money from its adherents in the form of so-called donations for the construction of “world halls of kingdoms” and so on. And in some printed publications“Witnesses” contain samples and instructions on how to correctly transfer your property to the sect.
Also, the head of the "Emergency Youth Aid" focused attention on another postulate of the Jehovah's Witnesses, which characterize the sect as nothing other than totalitarian and extremist. This is a ban on communication even with close family members who are not members of the Jehovah's Witnesses sect.
"Even if you close relative, but do not join the Jehovah’s Witnesses organization; they will not communicate with you,” the expert explains. - Parents do not communicate with their children, children do not communicate with their grandparents. And it often leads to the fact that Jehovah’s Witnesses are disgusted by those who are not in the organization. The victims simply contacted me. For example, a girl who lives with her parents - Jehovah's Witnesses. At 17, she stopped going to the organization. Now the family doesn’t communicate with her, and her father constantly calls her names and even beats her for dating a young man before marriage. Let's say she had a case. She dyes her hair and her father comes up behind her. The two of them were at home. He hits her on the head with an aluminum ladle, drags her by the hair into the corridor, where he begins to beat her. She screams: "Daddy, you're hurting me!" The father responded: “When you, s..., were deprived of your virginity, didn’t it hurt you?” The next day he takes her to the gynecologist, where it turns out that she is a virgin. After that, he beats her again to discourage her."
Androsov also noted that Jehovah’s Witnesses themselves do not celebrate and forbid their children to celebrate any secular holidays, New Year, birthdays. In fact, this is a violation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
“There was a case when in Belgorod an Orthodox grandmother brought her granddaughter candy to school for her birthday to treat her classmates. The Jehovah’s Witness mother found out about this, came to school, took her daughter to the school yard, and in front of all her classmates beat the child with birch branches because she celebrated a holiday that Jehovah’s Witnesses are prohibited from celebrating,” the social activist added.
Small victory for social activists
Androsov also told the Tsargrad correspondent about the methods of anti-sectarian activities of public activists, thanks to which in 2016 the activities of Jehovah’s Witnesses in judicial procedure was declared extremist, and the activities of their branches in Stary Oskol and Belgorod were outlawed.
According to the activist, "Emergency Youth Aid" held pickets and rallies near places where Jehovah's Witnesses usually gathered. People were explained the dangers of this sect and paid attention to its destructive activities. Each such action was actively covered in the local media. Among other things, activists collected numerous testimonies of people who had suffered from sectarians, helped to file applications to law enforcement and supervisory authorities, and repeatedly contacted the prosecutor’s office regarding violations of the Law on Missionary Activities by Jehovah’s Witnesses and their distribution of printed materials recognized by the Russian court as extremist. All this ultimately yielded positive results.
"Jehovah's Witnesses are one of the fastest growing organizations in the world. They have everything set up in such a way that they have to preach their doctrine. They think that this will help them to be saved. Therefore, their number is unlikely to decrease, because the organization is aimed at “to bring more and more new adherents,” added Tsargrad’s interlocutor.
“We support the Ministry of Justice’s claim to recognize the extremist activities of the Jehovah’s Witnesses organization in Russia,” Androsov concluded, adding that belonging to the Jehovah’s Witnesses sect is harmful mental health people, and serious mental illnesses among Jehovah's Witnesses are 4 times more common than among ordinary normal people.
Thus, the small victory of social activists became the beginning of a large process to ban the activities of one of the largest totalitarian sects throughout Russia.
…It’s no secret that after the fall of the last ideological barriers in the 1990s, totalitarian pseudo-Christian sects in countries post-Soviet space grew like mushrooms after rain, attracting more and more new adherents into their ranks. And they played a very significant role in all destructive processes. Thus, it is no secret to anyone that one of the leaders of the Kyiv Nazi regime, Alexander Turchinov, by whose decree a punitive operation was launched in the Donbass in April 2014, is the pastor of one of these sects called “Word of Life”. Also, evidence of the involvement of the former Prime Minister of Ukraine and one of the leaders of the Maidan, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, in the totalitarian American sect of Scientologists has repeatedly appeared in many publications.
All these non-traditional pseudo-religious movements pose a serious threat not only to the life and health of individuals who fall under their influence, but also national security generally. This means that their spread and destructive activities must be stopped as soon as possible.
Illustration copyright Alexey Andronov/URA.RU/TASS Image caption A sign is removed from the building of Jehovah's Witnesses in Surgut after the organization was banned
In May 2017, Danish resident of Orel Dennis Christensen and several of his fellow believers gathered in the building for worship to, in their words, read the Bible. A month earlier, the Russian Supreme Court recognized the activities of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia as extremist and banned the organization. The Oryol community was unable to hold a meeting that May evening: FSB officers burst into the hall. They only detained Christensen.
By this time, the Dane had been living in Orel for the last ten years, was married to a Russian woman, and worked as a carpenter. As a result, Christensen became the first Jehovah's Witness to be charged with extremism after the organization was banned in Russia.
According to the Danish lawyer Irina Krasnikova, Christensen is accused of continuing the activities of a local religious organization that had already been banned.
Illustration copyright jw-russia.org Image caption Dennis Christensen became the first follower of Jehovah's Witnesses to be accused of extremism after the organization was banned
“They just gathered to read the Bible. I think accusing a person of extremism because of this is absurd,” says the lawyer. Irina Krasnikova insists: Christensen could not continue the activities of the banned organization, since he was not its founder or leader.
In June, the Dane was arrested; the court rejected all requests from the defense to mitigate the preventive measure and left him under arrest.
“In the pre-trial detention center, his chronic diseases worsened due to the lack of heating and hot water in the cell. He was also limited in visits from his family,” says the lawyer.
Jehovah's Witnesses - who are they?
Jehovah is one of the transcriptions of the name of God, which is found in the Old Testament.
Members of the religious group Jehovah's Witnesses tend to interpret the Bible in their own way (and differently from traditional Christianity) - most often very literally.
Jehovah's Witnesses refuse blood transfusions and do not allow their family members to do so, even for medical reasons.
Preaching is an integral part of their religious practice. Jehovah's Witnesses are required to regularly go to other people's homes, talk about their faith and hand out tracts.
Jehovah's Witnesses do not take part in the political life of society (they do not vote or attend rallies) and do not serve in the army (in Russia they perform alternative service)
They call the places of worship "Kingdom Halls" and the person who conducts the services is called an elder.
The case of Dennis Christensen was one of the reasons why Jehovah's Witnesses no longer meet for corporate worship.
“The ban of Jehovah’s Witnesses by the Supreme Court put all 175 thousand believers in Russia at risk,” says Yaroslav Sivulsky, a former press secretary of the Administrative Center of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia. According to him, the organization’s religious activities in Russia have virtually ceased: believers fear criminal prosecution.
If people gather, it is only in small groups in their apartments. The "Kingdom Halls" stand empty. "As soon as someone starts gathering again, it will be documented immediately. All these people may fall under administrative or criminal liability", says Sivulsky.
Jehovah's Witnesses cannot carry out sermons on the streets that are obligatory for their faith, distribute brochures or knock on people's apartments to “talk about God.” The ban on legal organizations has come to mean the actual ban on religious organizations in Russia.
How they banned"WITHJehovah's Witnesses"
"Jehovah's Witnesses have been persecuted throughout their history," says Vyacheslav Stepanov, a follower of the religion from Sergiev Posad. Thus, he recalls, in Nazi Germany they were sent to concentration camps, and in the Soviet Union they were deported to Siberia by order of Stalin.
In 1998 year, the Moscow community of Jehovah's Witnesses was accused of inducing people to suicide, inciting hatred, refusing blood transfusions and encroaching on the rights and freedoms of citizens. The trial lasted six years and ended with the liquidation of the organization.
In 2009 The organization of Jehovah's Witnesses in Taganrog was banned and liquidated.
In 2011 year, the trial in this case continued. It was designated the “case of sixteen” - the number of professing members of a religious group that ended up in the dock on charges of continuing extremist activities. All of them were found guilty and sentenced to fines or suspended sentences.
IN 2014 local religious organizations of Jehovah's Witnesses in Samara, Abinsk and Belgorod were declared extremist and banned.
WITH2009 to 2015 V different regions There were trials of followers of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia. Regional courts declared their books, brochures and magazines extremist and banned them. Believers themselves have repeatedly reported searches, arson of “kingdom halls” (houses of worship), attacks and disruptions of religious services.
In March 2016 The Prosecutor General's Office issued a warning to the Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia. The document stated that the organization would be liquidated if it did not eliminate violations of the law, which defined the implementation of extremist activities.
March 23, 2016 The Ministry of Justice suspended the activities of the “Management Center” and sent a lawsuit to the Supreme Court to recognize it as an extremist organization.
From 5 to 20 April There were hearings on the case in the Supreme Court. Representatives of the Ministry of Justice stated that the organization poses a danger to the health of citizens, since Jehovah's Witnesses refuse. In addition, according to them, the activities of Jehovah's Witnesses are extremist, since they promote their exclusivity.
20 April The Supreme Court banned the activities of the "Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia"* and all 395 local religious organizations associated with it. The court recognized these organizations as extremist and ordered the confiscation of all their property in favor of the state.
July 18 The appeal by the Jehovah's Witnesses defense did not bring results - the court left its decision unchanged.
* In April, the Supreme Court of Russia declared the activities of the “Administrative Center of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia” and the local religious organizations included in its structure extremist. All of them have been liquidated on Russian territory, and their activities are prohibited.
"This is part of my life"
A taxi driver from the Moscow region, Roman, left Russia with his family a month after the ban on Jehovah's Witnesses. He asked that his last name not be used and that his phone number be deleted immediately after the conversation due to security reasons.
According to him, a week before the decision Supreme Court Law enforcement officers came to his mother’s house in the Kursk region. “My mother and brother lived in the village in a private house. Our meetings took place in this house, local believers gathered, but there were never many people - about 15 people,” Roman said.
He says that the police officers, without presenting any documents, began to ask: “Who are you? Who is coming to you? What is your faith? Are you not Orthodox?”
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Jehovah's Witnesses: “We are accused of absurd violations”The next morning they again came to Roman’s mother - this time with a summons - to the department “for a conversation”
“Mom recorded the conversation on a voice recorder. There was a whole bunch of threats. They said that we were sectarians, insulted us, and threatened us with prison,” the man claims.
“We understood that while the trial was going on... Threats are unpleasant, but we understood that there was no court decision. But when the ban on the activities of Jehovah’s Witnesses happened, we understood that they would be looking. Such things don’t just happen. Of course, such decisions are not made just like that. Of course, there will be public floggings and imprisonments," says Roman.
Just two days after the court decision, he arrived by car in Kursk region and took his mother and brother “with two bags.” The family left the house to friends.
Immediately after this, Roman and his relatives received tourist visas to Finland: “We left with our children, suitcases, and elderly mother. We had no savings or bank accounts, so we left with that. We left literally in a couple of days, as soon as we received visas - at the beginning of June."
They applied for asylum in Finland and are now living in a refugee center.
Image caption “You see, I can’t stop worshiping God, it’s part of my life. I will continue to do it. And not stopping means getting caught like Christensen in Orel. For us, taking all this away is like taking away our health or the most important thing we have,” - Roman explains the need for his departure.
He says that dozens more Jehovah's Witnesses from Russia live in his refugee center. “I heard that in Germany there are many times more than ours,” he says.
The Finnish Migration Service told the BBC that since April, asylum requests for members Russian organization Jehovah's Witnesses applied about 30 times.
A representative of a religious organization in Finland told the BBC that it knows of "less than a hundred" cases of Jehovah's Witnesses moving to Finland.
According to the German Migration Service, from January 1 to June 30, 2017, 81 people with the “Jehovah’s Witness” mark in the “religion” column requested asylum. In 2016, there were half as many such applications - 43. And in 2015 and 2014 - no more than 20.
"We help each other move"
At the end of July, the leader of the Russian group "Zero" Fyodor Chistyakov, while on tour in the United States, announced that he was not going to return to Russia due to the ban on Jehovah's Witnesses.
In a conversation with the BBC Russian Service, he directly stated that he feared criminal prosecution.
“I’m afraid that my passport will be taken away at the entrance, that they will slip me heroin. I think that there may be some interest in me due to my loud statements that I am a rebellious sectarian,” Chistyakov said.
Blogger Anton Chivchalov left Russia for Belarus two years before the ban on the religious organization. According to him, right before leaving, employees of the “E” center called him and invited him for a conversation.
Now, he says, literally every day people write to him and ask how to move: “We are all brothers. We help each other move.” Chivchalov says he personally knows about ten people who left Russia after the April ban.
He also said that after the decision of the Supreme Court, an acquaintance of his, the editor-in-chief of one of the regional television channels, was asked to resign precisely because of his religion. In a conversation with the BBC Russian Service, the journalist confirmed this, but refused to give further comments.
Chivchalov says two more of his acquaintances, Jehovah's Witnesses, were attacked out of hatred for their religion.
Terrorist on trial
In 2013, members of the Jehovah's Witnesses community Andrei Sivak and Vyacheslav Stepanov were accused of organizing “a stable criminal group created for the purpose of inciting interreligious hatred.”
The two men were elders in their “Kingdom Hall” on the outskirts of Sergiev Posad. According to them, police and FSB officers regularly broke into their small house for worship, conducted searches, and took away books, brochures and personal belongings.
Image caption Twice, says Vyacheslav Stepanov, officers in civilian clothes came into the hall: “He was sitting at the very beginning with a purse. I didn’t understand then what he was doing. He turned around with the purse to take off everyone who was here. Then I understood that he was filming."
Another time, according to Andrei Sivak, a law enforcement officer came to a service and sat down exactly in the center of the hall: his video camera was hidden in a button.
All the videos they filmed later formed the basis of the charges and were presented in court. Individual statements made by Sivak and Stepanov at services were found to be extremist by an examination carried out at the request of investigators.
Nevertheless, the Sergiev Posad court pronounced an acquittal. The prosecutor's office immediately appealed the decision, but the court of the next instance concluded that Sivak and Stepanov were innocent. The prosecutor again challenged the verdict.
While litigation was going on in the courts, Stepanov and Sivak discovered that their names were on the list of terrorists and extremists published by Rosfinmonitoring.
“I had $200, and I decided to exchange it at a commercial bank. The girl at the bank checked something in the system, looked at me so scared and said that I was on the terrorist list,” says Sivak.
Now neither one nor the other can officially get a job and have no right to open a bank account.
“We think that our investigator was behind this. I don’t know why we were included there. We lost our jobs and now we have to live in very cramped circumstances,” says Sivak.
In August 2017, the Moscow District Court made a final decision: Sivak and Stepanov are innocent and have the right to rehabilitation.
Bible vs. Constitution
In August, a Vyborg court declared the book “New World Translation,” a modern translation of the Bible into extremist English language. The translation was carried out by Jehovah's Witnesses, and the book became one of the main ones used in religious practice.
The New World Translation has sold more than 200 million copies and has been published in more than 120 languages.
By Russian law, sacred texts (Bible, Koran, Tanakh and Ganjur) are inviolable and cannot be considered extremist. However, the court ruled that the New World Translation was not the Bible and could therefore be banned.
Illustration copyright The Washington Post Image caption From 2009 to 2016, about 100 books and brochures of Jehovah's Witnesses were banned in Russia. In the photo - the book "Translation of the New World", banned in Russia as extremist
In its decision, the Vyborg court was based on the expertise of Natalya Kryukova, who heads the Center for Sociocultural Expertise. She and her center carried out most of the examinations, on the basis of which the courts banned many printed materials of Jehovah's Witnesses.
It was Kryukova who recognized the statement “Orthodoxy or death!” as containing extremism.
In their examination of the New World Translation, experts compared the text with the Synodal Translation of the Bible used by the Russian Orthodox Church. One of the main reasons why experts felt that the Translation was not the Bible was the use of the name "Jehovah" instead of the word "God."
In addition, CSE experts found calls for violent change in Translation constitutional order Russia and its violation territorial integrity, and also concluded that Jehovah's Witnesses promote the superiority of their religion over others and create an “enemy image” in the face of other religions and the state system.
“...they believe that they are governed by the rulers of the Kingdom, headed by Jesus Christ, and in his name “his faithful and trustworthy servant” rules on earth (that is, the control center in Brooklyn). In the above reasoning<...>it is stated that there is an imminent change in the existing Russian Federation systems of social, economic and political-legal relations,<...>its violent form is confirmed - everyone will die except Jehovah's Witnesses - by divine providence (Jehovah's desire)," says the examination, which is at the disposal of the BBC.
The court refused to conduct a re-examination of the New World Translation, lawyer Anton Bogdanov told the BBC. And despite the testimony of a religious scholar and linguist who stated the similarities between this translation and the Bible, the court declared the text extremist and banned it.
“I believe that there is reason to believe that the situation with the New World Translation fits into the mainstream of general events related to the restriction of the rights of Jehovah’s Witnesses,” Bogdanov is confident.
"It's hard to live in such circumstances"
Lawyers for an organization banned in Russia continue to fight in the courts.
In September, they filed an appeal with the Presidium of the Supreme Court with a request to overturn the ban decision made on April 20. “We don’t have any special hopes for this,” says Sivulsky. “The complaint will be considered by one judge and without the presence of the parties. We file in order to exhaust all available stages of appeal.”
Illustration copyright
Victoria Odissonova / « New Newspaper»
Image caption Believers no longer gather in “Kingdom halls” - they are afraid of criminal prosecution
In parallel, the defense of Jehovah's Witnesses is preparing a lawsuit in the European Court of Human Rights: they are going to challenge both the ban on legal organizations and other cases of persecution by the Russian authorities in the ECHR.
Vyacheslav Stepanov and Andrey Sivak are going to apply for rehabilitation and appeal the appearance of their names on the list of extremists and terrorists. But they do not plan to leave Russia.
"I feel good here. It’s just hard to live in such circumstances. I would really like to continue my pedagogical activity" says Sivak, who worked as a physical education teacher before the criminal case.
Roman, who left for Finland with his family, on the contrary, is preparing for the fact that he will never return to his homeland.
“We go to services here, preach among the Russian-speaking population. In this regard, there is freedom here. If everything returned to normal, then I would return to Russia, this is my country. But I am responsible for myself and my family, that’s why I made this decision," he explains.
Experts predict that there will only be more criminal cases against the Witnesses. “This is a direct consequence of the ban,” says Alexander Verkhovsky from the SOVA information and analytical center.
Illustration copyright AFP Image caption Congress of Jehovah's Witnesses in Kyiv in 2003
According to Verkhovsky, in addition to pressure from the authorities, Jehovah's Witnesses also face aggression from ordinary citizens.
According to the Levada Center, almost 80% of Russians supported the ban on the organization’s activities. “People know about Jehovah’s Witnesses only what they heard about them on TV. Perhaps someone once met them during their missionary activities, but no more,” says Verkhovsky.
At the same time, the Russian authorities are in no hurry to confiscate the property of Jehovah's Witnesses, says Sivulsky. According to him, there were only a few cases “when an entry appeared in the register that property was transferred to the benefit of the state.”
According to the Investigation Management Center, legal entities Before the ban, Jehovah's Witnesses owned 211 real estate properties in 57 regions of Russia. The total cost of these objects is estimated at almost 2 billion rubles.
"For my name..."
Some experts associate the fact that Jehovah's Witnesses were banned in Russia with the growing influence of the Russian Orthodox Church. Some say this could be part of a campaign to combat "foreign agents."
The Russian Orthodox Church welcomed the decision of the Supreme Court, but the head of the Synodal Department for External Church Relations, Metropolitan Hilarion, publicly stated that the church had nothing to do with the ban.
Roman, who left for Finland, believes that “Russian intelligence services saw an imaginary threat in the fact that Jehovah’s Witnesses reject state control - they do not participate in political life and do not perform military service.
Illustration copyright The Washington Post Image caption Worship service of Jehovah's Witnesses in Taganrog, 2015
“A campaign of such duration and such a scale is unprecedented. Formally, the initiative came from the Prosecutor General’s Office. I don’t know whether Mr. Chaika’s personal preferences are relevant to the case. The final chord in the form of a ban on all organizations, which put more than 100 thousand people at risk of criminal prosecution, "I suspect there was some kind of political justification. Most likely, someone at the top sees some kind of conspiracy theory in which Jehovah's Witnesses play a significant role," says Verkhovsky.
HRC member Vladimir Ryakhovsky believes that by banning and persecuting Witnesses, Russian security agencies are trying to “create the appearance of fighting extremism.” “The stick system—there’s no escape from it. It’s much easier to identify Jehovah’s Witnesses than to fight real extremists and terrorists,” he says.
Religious scholar Roman Lunkin believes that the persecution was necessary for the state to “intimidate representatives of other missionary active religious movements.” According to Lunkin, the ban on Jehovah's Witnesses became part of a "patriotic wave to protect Russian traditional values."
“The competitors of the Russian Orthodox Church are Protestants - they pose the greatest threat from the point of view of law enforcement agencies. They are carriers of the ideas of democracy and human rights and cultivate civil activism in their followers,” says Lunkin.
The Jehovah's Witnesses themselves, speaking about the ban, quote biblical words about the persecution of the disciples of Jesus Christ: “...you will be hated by all nations because of My name.”
While the whole world stands up for diversity of opinions and peaceful coexistence of faiths, Russia stubbornly goes its own way. As part of the government's policy towards traditionalism, even seemingly harmless religions are coming under attack. It is difficult for outsiders to understand why Jehovah's Witnesses were banned in Russia. This requires a deeper dive into the history of the issue.
Who are Jehovah's Witnesses?
The beginning dates back to 1870 in Pittsburgh, when the Watch Tower Society was born through a local Bible student movement. Over almost 150 years of existence, it has transformed into a powerful organization with a rigid hierarchical structure, the governing body of which is located in New York.
Today Jehovah witnesses(and this is what the Society is now most often called) represents one of the largest Christian denominations:
- The number of its members has exceeded 8 million people;
- About 20 million people take part in mass religious events on her behalf every year;
- The number of parishes is almost 120 thousand. They are dispersed in most countries of the world.
In popular culture, the attitude towards them is predominantly negative, and not least due to harsh propaganda activities. Adherents of the confession visit the homes of ordinary citizens and conduct personal conversations with the goal of converting them to their faith, which they call nothing more than “ true».
Key religious views
Let's list basic principles of doctrine:
- The central figure in the world of the Society's followers is the one God, whom they call Jehovah. The consequence of this idea is the rejection of the concept of the Trinity and hypostasis;
- A very specific view of the central figure for Christians around the world, Jesus Christ. He is perceived only as the first person ( exactly the person, without any divine power), who saw this light before Adam;
- There is no idea about afterlife and, accordingly, about heaven and hell. Sinners will not suffer - but after death they lose all possibility of resurrection;
- The soul is inseparable from the body, so it dies with it. Not only the soul, but also the physical shell receives resurrection;
- In their opinion, the second coming has already taken place (!). This significant event took place back in 1914. It only takes a little more time until the presence of Christ becomes evident.
Criticism of Jehovah's Witnesses
The number of sect members increases from year to year, but the number of their ill-wishers also increases in the same progression. List of complaints to this religious movement is quite extensive.
Let's list just a few of them:
- false prophecy. The Watchtower Society has been repeatedly accused of loosely interpreting Bible prophecies. Forecasts of future eschatological events (1914, 1915, 1918, 1925 and 1975) were interpreted by adherents as an immutable truth, and then happily fell into oblivion;
- Creationism. Any near-Christian confession sooner or later comes into conflict with accepted scientific ideas about the creation of life on Earth and the appearance of man;
- Free interpretation of world history. Followers of the movement believe that Jerusalem was defeated by the Babylonians in 607 BC. e. and remained uninhabited for 70 years. According to modern secular sources, this happened in 587;
- Denial of a number of existing social and political institutions. Thus, the Watchtower Society's negative attitude towards the UN is widely known. The latter is considered to be the embodiment of the “image of the beast” from the Revelation of John.
Why are Jehovah's Witnesses dangerous?
The movement is quite serious a threat to the social and mental life of its adherents:
- Decline financial well-being and the impossibility of professional realization. Ordinary members are forced to spend a huge amount of time on preaching, which leaves them behind healthy social competition;
- Formation of a stable complex of self-doubt. The most important point teaching is to look for problems in life within yourself, and not outside. A monstrous shift in the locus of control deals a strong blow to the psyche;
- The organization is completely immune to criticism. Any “heretic” who dares to expose the fundamentals of the teaching is subject to exclusion and social isolation from all other members;
- Refusal of a life-saving blood transfusion. This is a very loose interpretation of the biblical postulate about the sacredness of blood. Implementing it can lead to the death of a person.
Activities of the Company in Russia
The history of the activities of Jehovah's Witnesses on the territory of our country can be divided into four stages:
- Pre-revolutionary. The first copies of religious literature entered the territory of the empire back in the late 70s of the 19th century. Despite the fact that the state religion was Orthodoxy, the number of Jehovah's Witnesses grew. In 1913 they officially registered their organization;
- Soviet. The short period of freedom brought by the October Revolution of 1917 gave way to significant oppression with the rise to power of Stalin. The most common practice of the struggle was mass expulsions (thousands of people) in the territory of Siberia and the Far East;
- Democratic Russia. Perestroika and the changes it provoked in society had a beneficial effect on freedom of religion. This allowed Jehovah's Witnesses to obtain official registration and carry out their activities on equal rights with other faiths;
- Putin's Russia. Attacks on the organization began in the early 2000s, but full-scale discrimination and banning began in the next decade.
Why were Jehovah's Witnesses banned?
As of the end of the 2010s, the organization's activities banned in China, Islamic states of northern Africa and the Middle East, as well as in Russia. In our country this happened in 2017.
Reasons There were several solutions for this:
- Extremism- this is the main accusation put forward by the authorities. Allegedly, Jehovah's Witnesses adhere to extreme views and methods that have a clear antisocial orientation;
- The persecution of the sect began back in 2009, when the Taganrog community fell out of favor with the local administration for “inciting interreligious hatred”;
- A number of experts believe that the real reason persecution is strengthening the position of the Russian Orthodox Church and turning it into a de facto state religion in our country. The European Court of Human Rights came to such conclusions back in 2010 (the case of the dissolution of the capital’s community);
- The final banning of the organization in our country took place in 2017 under the guise of the same extremism. Now her followers were deprived of the right to hold mass actions and conduct propaganda.
Sectarianism is an integral part of religious pluralism. You can give any arguments in favor of why Jehovah's Witnesses were banned in Russia. But the fact remains: this decision of those in power drives the last nail into the coffin of freedom of conscience in our country.
Video about the activities of the Witnesses after the ban
In this video, correspondent Evgeny Vasiliev will tell you why the activities of Jehovah's Witnesses were recognized as extremist, and where the organization went after the ban:
Today, when there is a bloody battle against ISIS, many people have learned in practice what religious extremism in Islam is. Using individual phrases taken from the Koran, religious extremists dress up in the clothes of devout Muslims and strive to turn Islam into the bloodiest religion in human history in order to dominate people with its help. Controlling people through their faith in God, turning religious teachings into carrots and sticks, is very effective and profitable. Many people eastern countries, unlike the Western world, are not greedy for money and pleasure, therefore, to manipulate them, more weighty arguments are needed, such as faith in the Creator and his justice, love for one’s neighbor and compassion. Therefore, clever people have long been shaking ancient traditional religions with all their might, creating on their basis various kinds of extremist sects that seek to seize power first over the minds of people, and then over their lives and property.
Extremism does not begin with gunshots or explosions. It begins with the propaganda of extremist views and teachings that undermine the traditional foundations of society, sow hostility and hostility. Religious extremism is always dangerous and has unpredictable consequences.
However, today only a few experts know that extremist sects arise not only in Islam, on the basis of individual texts of the Koran, but also in Christianity, on the basis of the Bible. The most typical example is the American sect "Jehovah's Witnesses", which today has spread its activities to 240 countries of the world, and outwardly looks like a kind of semi-secular religion. There are no human or animal sacrifices. There are no cruel religious rituals either. Jehovah's Witnesses appear to be well-mannered and neatly dressed people. European cut suits, shirts, ties; women do not wear trousers or miniskirts; when praying, they cover their heads with a scarf or other headdress. They greet you politely. They smile sweetly, like the Japanese with thirty-two teeth. It seems that they value family and constantly take care of it. But here's the problem! We can see all this among Jehovah's Witnesses only on the front side of their façade. But behind this facade everything is completely different. That’s why the sectarians don’t let anyone in behind the façade. So what is hiding behind the seemingly harmless sign “Jehovah’s Witnesses”? Why did government experts recognize about 100 publications of the sect as extremist? Maybe these nice people are wrongly slandered and punished in vain for distributing literature and holding rallies (meetings)?
Radicalism is an extreme uncompromising commitment to any views, not taking into account the opinions of other people, and incapable of compromise. Jehovah's Witnesses are Christian radicalism in action. Members of this sect do not care about the centuries-old history of the Christian religion, about its moral values, among which the main one is love for a person who does not share your beliefs. This is why Jehovah's Witnesses like to portray people who refuse to accept their absurd teachings as pigs wallowing in the mud. And this is no coincidence. The fact is that in the history of Christianity there already existed a sect of Pharisees who called themselves by this self-name, emphasizing their “separation from the world of the wicked.” According to the teachings of the Pharisees and Jehovah's Witnesses, only they are righteous before God, and all the rest are wicked, whom God will soon destroy. Therefore, the righteous Pharisees treated all other people with poorly concealed disdain, as second-class people, and called them “pagans.” That is why the Pharisees were the initiators of the arrest and execution of Jesus Christ and many of his disciples. That is why Jehovah's Witnesses are not some new, previously unknown religion, but this is the religion of the Pharisees, which is based not on racial, but on the religious superiority of some people over others.
We will not waste time here examining the statements of Jehovah's Witnesses in their literature. Those interested can refer to the website “Jehovah’s Witnesses: Nowhere to Go,” where evidence of the extremist nature of the sect’s modern literature is present in abundance. To understand who Jehovah's Witnesses really are, and not on the covers of their colorful magazines, we just need to delve a little into the history of the emergence of this very negative religion of Armageddon.
Few people know, but for the first time, Jehovah's Witnesses, or rather their religious leaders - the publishers of the Watchtower of Zion magazine, led by the President of the Watchtower Society, Joseph Rutherford, were arrested for their religious extremism and the publication of the extremist book "The Accomplished Mystery" in the United States in May 1918. During this same period, criminal charges were filed against the Watch Tower and Tract Society. The reason for these actions against the sectarians was their proclamation of the imminent destruction of world governments, including the governments of the USA and Canada. Therefore, the Canadian branch of the sect and the main headquarters in Brooklyn were closed, accounts and property were seized, and the organizers of the religious coven called “Armageddon for all the churches of the Christian world” were taken into custody.
The reasons for such actions by the governments of both countries were very compelling. Half a century ago, interreligious clashes took place in several US states, which threatened to develop into a religious battle following the example of the Thirty Years' War of Catholics and Protestants in Europe, the cause of which was the famous St. Bartholomew's Night, when in Paris on the night of August 24, 1572, Catholics began to exterminate Protestants and killed not only opposing them political party Admiral Coligny, but also several thousand Parisians. And later religious battles spread to the United States.
In August 1834, fifty fanatics gathered near the Ursuline convent school in Boston and burned it. The crime was prepared in advance and carefully. The pretext for the action was the release of a girl allegedly illegally held within the monastery walls. The Catholics did not remain in debt, also showing aggression.
In May 1832, attending a meeting of the New York Protestant Association, they provoked religious discussions that ended in bloody fights. In 1834, a group of Catholics attacked a Baptist preacher in Baltimore and beat him to a pulp.
In May and July 1844, armed clashes between Catholics and Protestants took place in Philadelphia. Dozens of houses were set on fire and destroyed public buildings, dozens of people died. Government troops had to “clear the streets” of Philadelphia using sabers, rifle butts and bayonets. As a result of the bloody incidents, about thirty people were killed and several hundred were injured. Then in 1844, in Nauvoo, Illinois, the founder of the Mormon Church or Jesus Christ and the Saints was killed by his religious opponents last days Joseph Smith and his brother
It must be said that the years of the First World War led to rapid migration of the population to this island of peace. More than one million people arrived in the United States every year, and each of them had their own religion and were ready to defend their religious position, including with weapons in their hands. Today ISIS members are fleeing to Europe and Russia. And then, people with combat experience on the fronts of the First World War fled to the United States. Therefore, many US cities at the beginning of the 20th century resembled a powder keg, which could be ignited by any national enmity, and especially religious enmity.
And in such a tense situation, in US cities, sectarians of the Watch Tower Society begin to actively distribute the book “The Accomplished Mystery,” published at the end of 1917, in which the following is directly written: “In 1918, God will immediately destroy all the churches and millions of their members.”
The accomplished mystery, page 542, Ezek. 35:15. Just as you rejoiced because the inheritance of the house of Israel was desolate, so will I do to you: you will be desolate, Mount Seir and all Idumea together, and they will know that I am the Lord. – Just as all Christian apostates, mired in carnal thoughts, in solidarity with radicals and revolutionaries, will rejoice at the legacy of devastation that will befall the Christian world after 1918, so will God deal with the victorious revolutionary movement; it will be completely devastated, “all together.” All traces of it will disappear in the fury of worldwide, all-consuming anarchy in the fall of 1920 (Revelation 11:7-13).
Therefore, in order to avoid analogues of the Massacre of St. Bartholomew, in the United States, the government arrests sectarians and confiscates their provocative literature. Thus, a limit was put on the extremist calls of Jehovah's Witnesses for the immediate end of the world and Armageddon, and all uncirculated copies of extremist literature were confiscated and destroyed.
Only nine months later, when the threat of sectarian massacre had passed, in March 1919, all eight arrested members of the sect's board, along with Josephor Rutherford, were released. But as time has shown, the arrest of the sect leaders for extremism in that situation was simply necessary. Later, Jehovah's Witnesses beat those who came to protest against the unfounded slander of Catholics. When Catholics, outraged by the fact that Rutherford called them “children of the devil,” came to one of the congresses of Jehovah’s Witnesses, the sectarians were waiting for them, having prepared in advance and armed with sticks.
Another time, one of the sectarians opened fire from his revolver at a car that drove up to one of the Kingdom Halls where Jehovah's Witnesses were meeting. One person was wounded and another was killed. Of course, the religious leaders of the sect are primarily to blame for these tragedies, who with their speeches actually provoked these inter-religious clashes, which led to bloody consequences. Yes, the word of religious leaders kills, just like a charge of TNT or a weapon that falls into the hands of sectarians.
Have Jehovah's Witnesses changed their position, have they become more tolerant of people from other religions? Unfortunately no. These past years, almost a century long, have not taught them anything. Judge this for yourself by the statements in their literature:
"Is there any alternative organization outside the true Christian flock (i.e., outside the SI)? Only SATAN'S ORGANIZATION, consisting of his POLITICAL "WILD BEAST", and His BABYLONIAN WORLD EMPIRE of false religion" (Watchtower Magazine 01.03 .1979, p.24).
“TODAY THE CHRISTIAN WORLD occupies a LEADING POSITION IN BABYLON THE GREAT” (Watchtower Magazine, 03/01/2001, p. 15).
“IT IS CHRISTIANITY, THE POWERFUL AND CLIMBING ORGANIZATION OF THE DEVIL, that is worthy of greater reproach than any other power that has existed before.” “Soon God will DESTROY the Devil and HIS FALSE ORGANIZATION” (“Life”, p.81-83, “Liberation” p.204, “Disclosure” p.57,62). Jehovah's Witnesses are still ready today to constantly dwell on the “sins” of all religions except their own. And today they are relentlessly preparing for the destruction of all humanity - this is how they see the spiritual battle of Armageddon in the Bible, and who knows what role they will have in this self-made Armageddon if this sect hates all people who do not support their radical religion? Do you know that the word of religious leaders who do not take up arms kills with the hands of others?
MOSCOW, January 16. /TASS/. The Moscow City Court recognized as legal a warning for extremist activities against the centralized religious organization Administrative Center "Jehovah's Witnesses". In case of repeated violation of the law on extremist activities, the branch of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia will be closed and its property will be confiscated.
On October 12, 2016, the Tver court issued a warning to the organization’s administrative center for extremist activities. According to Russian legislation, if the warning was not appealed in court or was not declared illegal by the court, and also if within the period established in the warning religious association the violations that served as the basis for issuing the warning have not been eliminated, or if, within 12 months from the date of issuing the warning, new facts have been identified indicating the presence of signs of extremism in their activities, this organization subject to liquidation.
That is why on April 20, 2017, by decision of the Supreme Court, the extremist activities of the Jehovah's Witnesses sect were rightly prohibited, and its property was declared subject to confiscation...
