nsnbc : The Russian Federation’s Justice Ministry, on Thursday, added Jehova’s Witnesses to a registry of banned organizations after the Supreme Court designated Jehova’s Wintesses as extremist.
The listing of Jehova’s Witnesses / Watchtower and designation as extremist, on par with, for example, the Islamic State, means that any activities by its administrative center and its 395 local branches in Russia are now prohibited.
The listing by the Justice Ministry comes after Jehova’s Witnesses, in July, lost an appeal at the Supreme Court. After the ruling in mid-July, Svetlana Borisova, a representative of the Justice Ministry defended the court’s decision saying the “Administrative Center of the Jehovah’s Witnesses hasn’t ceased its extremist activity and continues to insist that such activity is not extremist.”
The Jehovah’s Witness were prepared for the decision, but a spokesman said the ruling was “still very upsetting.” “The disturbing fact is that despite the overwhelming amount of evidence that points to the contrary, powerful forces within Russian continue to label our organization extremist,” David Semonian.
Jehova’s Witnesses have an international reputation for being a potentially dangerous cult that has not only defrauded millions with false doomsday prophecies, but torn families apart and endangered the lives of members including children.
In April 2017 four former members of Jehovah’s Witnesses said the organization had tried to maintain “total control” over its followers in a testimony before the Supreme Court. Natalia Koretskaya, who was a member from 1995 to 2009, told the court that “Jehovah’s Witnesses formally monitor that people follow rules and regulations, but in fact, we are talking about total control over one’s personal life, intimate life, education and work.”
The organization, which has 171,000 adherents and 2,315 congregations in Russia, was banned as a result of the trial. In July 2017 the independent polling company Levada Center, reported that around 80 percent of Russians support a government ban on Jehovah’s Witnesses. However, more than half of the 1,600 people questioned claimed they knew very little or nothing about the group.
Jehova’s witnesses have propagated one doomsday prophecy after the other, revising the dates of “the end of the world” as new revelations. Paradise, according to Jehova’s Witnesses, is reserved for 144.000 chosen ones only. Members are tasked with distributing PR material and with going from door to door to recruit new members – not even to become one of the 144,000 chosen ones but not to be sent straight to hell.
Numerous members of Jehova’s Witnesses have died because members are not allowed to accept blood transfusions – this includes children whose parents refused to give permission for life-saving blood transfusions.
Describing Jehova’s Witnesses as “extremist” or as a “cult” is no novelty. Designating the organization as an “extremist organization” and banning it does, however, raise a number of concerns about the freedom of religion in the Russian Federation. Rights activists who are concerned that the ban of Jehova’s Witnesses is setting a dangerous precedent argue that public education would be less dangerous and more efficient than a ban.
F/AK – nsnbc 17.08.2017
Source Article from https://nsnbc.me/2017/08/17/russia-designated-jehovas-witnesses-as-extremist-group/
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