Russia - Back to the future for Jehovah's Witnesses?

Russia: February 26, 2010, (PCTV Newsdesk)

Just weeks after Russia's Supreme Court outlawed their literature as extremist, Jehovah's Witnesses are encountering at least ten times the level of state harassment across the country as before the ban, their press secretary has estimated to Forum 18 News Service. Since 8 December, they have catalogued over 30 incidents, including searches, threats and brief detentions. So alarmed are the Jehovah's Witnesses by the growing similarity of their predicament with their repression during the Soviet period that their entire 160,000-strong Russian membership will today (26 February) begin distributing 12 million copies of "Is History Repeating Itself?", a leaflet refuting the religious extremism allegations against them. In December, Russia's Human Rights Ombudsman informed President Dmitry Medvedev of an upsurge in citizens' complaints about religious freedom violations, but his only response was to check if they came from "non-traditional" confessions. Mikhail Odintsov of the Ombudsman's Office declined to answer Forum 18's questions. Readers of the late Turkish Muslim theologian Said Nursi – whose works are also banned - similarly note increased state scrutiny, with raids by the police and FSB security service on dozens of homes in the North Caucasus republic of Dagestan and Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk in the past two months.

Just weeks after Russia's Supreme Court outlawed their literature as extremist, Jehovah's Witnesses are encountering at least ten times the level of state harassment across the country as before the ban, their press secretary has estimated to Forum 18 News Service. Local congregations are admittedly now more likely to report incidents such as brief police detentions, added Grigory Martynov on 22 February, but the Jehovah's Witnesses have become so alarmed by the growing similarity of their predicament with that during the Soviet period that their entire 160,000-strong Russian membership will today (26 February) begin distributing 12 million copies of "Is History Repeating Itself?", a leaflet refuting the religious extremism allegations against them.

Viewed by Forum 18, the leaflet points out that over 9,000 Jehovah's Witnesses were exiled to Siberia for their faith between 1949 and 1951, and that individual Jehovah's Witnesses such as Konstantin Skripchuk and five members of the Klimko family spent decades in prisons and labour camps before rehabilitation as "innocent victims of repression" in 1990. It fears that current branding of Jehovah's Witnesses as extremists "could trigger new persecution" and offers detailed objections to charges that Jehovah's Witnesses incite religious hatred, destroy families and refuse medical treatment. The leaflet will be distributed in town centres, shopping areas and at train stations across Russia from 26-28 February.

Readers of the late Turkish Muslim theologian Said Nursi are similarly noting an upsurge in state scrutiny, with raids by the police and FSB security service on dozens of homes in the North Caucasus republic of Dagestan and Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk in the past two months. Those detained could face extremism charges carrying a prison term of up to three years

To read more visit www.forum18.org