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FORUM 18 NEWS SERVICE, Oslo, Norway
http://www.forum18.org/
The right to believe, to worship and witness
The right to change one's belief or religion
The right to join together and express one's belief
================================================
Monday 29 November 2004
RUSSIA: GOVERNOR LINKS JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES AND ISLAMIC MILITANTS AS
"DESTRUCTIVE CULTS"
Stavropol regional governor Aleksandr Chernogorov has linked Jehovah's
Witnesses and Islamic militants as "destructive cults" at a major
local conference on "Totalitarian Sects - the Path to the
Destabilisation of the North Caucasus". Chernogorov maintained that
"Wahhabism" and "Jehovism" [a Soviet-era term for the
Jehovah's Witnesses' faith] had infiltrated into southern Russia and were
now "attacking those confessions which provide the foundation of civil
peace" - Orthodoxy and "traditional" Islam. Jehovah's
Witnesses "think that this might be the beginning of something,"
local Jehovah's Witness representative Ivan Borshchevsky has told Forum 18
News Service. Recently, Jehovah's Witnesses have had increasing
difficulties with the authorities. The Stavropol regional religious affairs
official has declined to discuss these matters with Forum 18.
RUSSIA: GOVERNOR LINKS JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES AND ISLAMIC MILITANTS AS
"DESTRUCTIVE CULTS"
By Geraldine Fagan, Forum 18 News Service
On local state television news on 28 September, the governor of Russia's
southern Stavropol region singled out Jehovah's Witnesses and linked them
as a danger with Islamic militants, at a major local conference on
"Totalitarian Sects - the Path to the Destabilisation of the
North Caucasus". Both groups flourish in conditions of unemployment,
corruption and crime, Aleksandr Chernogorov maintained.
According to his official website, Governor Chernogorov went even further
at a working meeting convened in the spa town of Yessentuki in the wake of
the Beslan atrocity. Chaired by President Vladimir Putin's then
representative in southern Russia, Vladimir Yakovlev, its principal
participants included leaders of the region's "traditional"
confessions - the Russian Orthodox Church, Islam, the Armenian
Apostolic Church, Judaism and Buddhism.
During the recent years of economic and political reform, Chernogorov told
the 9 September meeting, "destructive cults" such as
"Wahhabism" [an all-embracing term commonly used for militant
Islam] and "Jehovism" [a Soviet-era term for the Jehovah's
Witnesses' faith] had infiltrated into southern Russia and were now
"attacking those confessions which provide the foundation of civil
peace" - Orthodoxy and "traditional" Islam. The fact
that this had gone unchecked testified to the flawed nature of Russia's
1997 law on religion, he maintained, leading Stavropol regional
administration to take "several steps to curtail the activities of
destructive sects, with the support of Orthodox and Muslim clergy."
One example, according to Chernogorov, was the recent condemnation and
dismissal of a number of imams with Wahhabi views by village assemblies
(see F18News 2 November 2004
http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=443) .
"We think that this might be the beginning of something," local
Jehovah's Witness representative Ivan Borshchevsky commented to Forum 18 in
Stavropol region's southern spa town of Pyatigorsk on 30 September. When
police officers broke up Jehovah's Witness congresses in the region in
2003, he said, they claimed to be acting in accordance with an order issued
by Governor Chernogorov, but the governor has refrained from publicly
expressing a negative stance towards Jehovah's Witnesses until his recent
statements.
The Jehovah's Witnesses' reported that thousands of Jehovah's Witnesses
were denied entry by Pyatigorsk police to a hired stadium for a three-day
July congress, effectively forcing its cancellation. On 22 and 23 August
2003, the statement continued, police and state officials demanded the
cancellation of a sign-language Jehovah's Witness event at a hired circus
arena in Stavropol city, the participants of which also cited disruptions
to the electricity and water supply. On 29 August, according to the
Witnesses, police similarly curtailed a three-day convention to be attended
by over a thousand Jehovah's Witnesses at a Stavropol stadium.
Ivan Borshchevsky told Forum 18 that court appeals filed against the
authorities' actions in 2003 are still ongoing. While state representatives
argue that they constituted necessary measures in view of possible
terrorist attacks, he added, similar events have been held at the same
venues both before and afterwards without incident.
On 21 June 2004 RIA Novosti Russian news agency reported that Cossacks and
Orthodox clergy in Stavropol region's southern town of Georgiyevsk had
petitioned the local authorities with a request to examine and take
measures against Jehovah's Witness activity in the area, pointing out that
the Moscow community of Jehovah's Witnesses was banned by a court in the
Russian capital on 26 March 2004 (see F18News 29 March 2004
http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=289) .
Ivan Borshchevsky told Forum 18 that he was currently unaware of any plans
to prosecute Jehovah's Witnesses in Stavropol region in the same way as
Moscow. The Cossacks' complaint came in the wake of a June 2004 Jehovah's
Witness congress held at a congregation's own building near Georgiyevsk, he
said, remarking that Jehovah's Witnesses were now able to hold such events
only on their own premises, so that approximately a thousand participants
for whom there was no room in the Nezlobnaya Kingdom Hall had to sit on
chairs outside. Borshchevsky also remarked that it was no longer possible
to advertise congresses: "Earlier we used to invite the press and
place advertisements in newspapers, but now we issue only oral
invitations." Cossacks and Russian National Unity nationalists broke
up a Jehovah's Witness congress held in Georgiyevsk in 1999, he pointed
out.
Ivan Borshchevsky also remarked to Forum 18 that, while all congregations
in his area hold state registration, several encounter restrictions in
gathering for worship. Denied permission to buy or rent property, a
congregation of approximately 100 members in the town of Lermontov is
obliged to meet in several house groups, he said, while one in Yessentuki
is down to its last option of premises for rental. Before Borshchevsky's
own Pyatigorsk congregation successfully appealed last year against the
local authorities' refusal to allow the refurbishment of a canteen it had
purchased, he added, one official explained that they had promised then
local Orthodox Metropolitan Gedeon (Dokunin) of Stavropol and Vladikavkaz
"not to let Jehovah's Witnesses into the town".
Speaking to Forum 18 on 29 October, Stavropol regional religious affairs
official Vasili Shnyukov declined to respond to questions by telephone.
According to Ivan Borshchevsky, approximately 2,500 Jehovah's Witnesses now
live in the spa-town area of Kavkazskiye Mineralnyye Vody. Rather than the
product of recent foreign mission, he said, Jehovah's Witnesses first
appeared in the region in the mid-1950s after Stalin's order exiling them
to Siberia was annulled: "They were forbidden from returning to either
their place of origin or major industrial centres." Later in Soviet
times, in 1972, disquieted by the growth of Jehovah's Witnesses activity in
the area, Stavropol regional Council for Religious Affairs compiled a
detailed report on what it called the "antisocial nature of this
sectarian organisation".
For more background information see Forum 18's Russia religious freedom
survey at http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=116
A printer-friendly map of Russia is available at
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/atlas/index.html?Parent=europe&Rootmap=russi
(END)
© Forum 18 News Service. All rights reserved.
You may reproduce or quote this article provided that credit is given to
F18News http://www.forum18.org/
Past and current Forum 18 information can be found at
http://www.forum18.org/
http://www.forum18.org/
The right to believe, to worship and witness
The right to change one's belief or religion
The right to join together and express one's belief
================================================
Monday 29 November 2004
RUSSIA: GOVERNOR LINKS JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES AND ISLAMIC MILITANTS AS
"DESTRUCTIVE CULTS"
Stavropol regional governor Aleksandr Chernogorov has linked Jehovah's
Witnesses and Islamic militants as "destructive cults" at a major
local conference on "Totalitarian Sects - the Path to the
Destabilisation of the North Caucasus". Chernogorov maintained that
"Wahhabism" and "Jehovism" [a Soviet-era term for the
Jehovah's Witnesses' faith] had infiltrated into southern Russia and were
now "attacking those confessions which provide the foundation of civil
peace" - Orthodoxy and "traditional" Islam. Jehovah's
Witnesses "think that this might be the beginning of something,"
local Jehovah's Witness representative Ivan Borshchevsky has told Forum 18
News Service. Recently, Jehovah's Witnesses have had increasing
difficulties with the authorities. The Stavropol regional religious affairs
official has declined to discuss these matters with Forum 18.
RUSSIA: GOVERNOR LINKS JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES AND ISLAMIC MILITANTS AS
"DESTRUCTIVE CULTS"
By Geraldine Fagan, Forum 18 News Service
On local state television news on 28 September, the governor of Russia's
southern Stavropol region singled out Jehovah's Witnesses and linked them
as a danger with Islamic militants, at a major local conference on
"Totalitarian Sects - the Path to the Destabilisation of the
North Caucasus". Both groups flourish in conditions of unemployment,
corruption and crime, Aleksandr Chernogorov maintained.
According to his official website, Governor Chernogorov went even further
at a working meeting convened in the spa town of Yessentuki in the wake of
the Beslan atrocity. Chaired by President Vladimir Putin's then
representative in southern Russia, Vladimir Yakovlev, its principal
participants included leaders of the region's "traditional"
confessions - the Russian Orthodox Church, Islam, the Armenian
Apostolic Church, Judaism and Buddhism.
During the recent years of economic and political reform, Chernogorov told
the 9 September meeting, "destructive cults" such as
"Wahhabism" [an all-embracing term commonly used for militant
Islam] and "Jehovism" [a Soviet-era term for the Jehovah's
Witnesses' faith] had infiltrated into southern Russia and were now
"attacking those confessions which provide the foundation of civil
peace" - Orthodoxy and "traditional" Islam. The fact
that this had gone unchecked testified to the flawed nature of Russia's
1997 law on religion, he maintained, leading Stavropol regional
administration to take "several steps to curtail the activities of
destructive sects, with the support of Orthodox and Muslim clergy."
One example, according to Chernogorov, was the recent condemnation and
dismissal of a number of imams with Wahhabi views by village assemblies
(see F18News 2 November 2004
http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=443) .
"We think that this might be the beginning of something," local
Jehovah's Witness representative Ivan Borshchevsky commented to Forum 18 in
Stavropol region's southern spa town of Pyatigorsk on 30 September. When
police officers broke up Jehovah's Witness congresses in the region in
2003, he said, they claimed to be acting in accordance with an order issued
by Governor Chernogorov, but the governor has refrained from publicly
expressing a negative stance towards Jehovah's Witnesses until his recent
statements.
The Jehovah's Witnesses' reported that thousands of Jehovah's Witnesses
were denied entry by Pyatigorsk police to a hired stadium for a three-day
July congress, effectively forcing its cancellation. On 22 and 23 August
2003, the statement continued, police and state officials demanded the
cancellation of a sign-language Jehovah's Witness event at a hired circus
arena in Stavropol city, the participants of which also cited disruptions
to the electricity and water supply. On 29 August, according to the
Witnesses, police similarly curtailed a three-day convention to be attended
by over a thousand Jehovah's Witnesses at a Stavropol stadium.
Ivan Borshchevsky told Forum 18 that court appeals filed against the
authorities' actions in 2003 are still ongoing. While state representatives
argue that they constituted necessary measures in view of possible
terrorist attacks, he added, similar events have been held at the same
venues both before and afterwards without incident.
On 21 June 2004 RIA Novosti Russian news agency reported that Cossacks and
Orthodox clergy in Stavropol region's southern town of Georgiyevsk had
petitioned the local authorities with a request to examine and take
measures against Jehovah's Witness activity in the area, pointing out that
the Moscow community of Jehovah's Witnesses was banned by a court in the
Russian capital on 26 March 2004 (see F18News 29 March 2004
http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=289) .
Ivan Borshchevsky told Forum 18 that he was currently unaware of any plans
to prosecute Jehovah's Witnesses in Stavropol region in the same way as
Moscow. The Cossacks' complaint came in the wake of a June 2004 Jehovah's
Witness congress held at a congregation's own building near Georgiyevsk, he
said, remarking that Jehovah's Witnesses were now able to hold such events
only on their own premises, so that approximately a thousand participants
for whom there was no room in the Nezlobnaya Kingdom Hall had to sit on
chairs outside. Borshchevsky also remarked that it was no longer possible
to advertise congresses: "Earlier we used to invite the press and
place advertisements in newspapers, but now we issue only oral
invitations." Cossacks and Russian National Unity nationalists broke
up a Jehovah's Witness congress held in Georgiyevsk in 1999, he pointed
out.
Ivan Borshchevsky also remarked to Forum 18 that, while all congregations
in his area hold state registration, several encounter restrictions in
gathering for worship. Denied permission to buy or rent property, a
congregation of approximately 100 members in the town of Lermontov is
obliged to meet in several house groups, he said, while one in Yessentuki
is down to its last option of premises for rental. Before Borshchevsky's
own Pyatigorsk congregation successfully appealed last year against the
local authorities' refusal to allow the refurbishment of a canteen it had
purchased, he added, one official explained that they had promised then
local Orthodox Metropolitan Gedeon (Dokunin) of Stavropol and Vladikavkaz
"not to let Jehovah's Witnesses into the town".
Speaking to Forum 18 on 29 October, Stavropol regional religious affairs
official Vasili Shnyukov declined to respond to questions by telephone.
According to Ivan Borshchevsky, approximately 2,500 Jehovah's Witnesses now
live in the spa-town area of Kavkazskiye Mineralnyye Vody. Rather than the
product of recent foreign mission, he said, Jehovah's Witnesses first
appeared in the region in the mid-1950s after Stalin's order exiling them
to Siberia was annulled: "They were forbidden from returning to either
their place of origin or major industrial centres." Later in Soviet
times, in 1972, disquieted by the growth of Jehovah's Witnesses activity in
the area, Stavropol regional Council for Religious Affairs compiled a
detailed report on what it called the "antisocial nature of this
sectarian organisation".
For more background information see Forum 18's Russia religious freedom
survey at http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=116
A printer-friendly map of Russia is available at
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/atlas/index.html?Parent=europe&Rootmap=russi
(END)
© Forum 18 News Service. All rights reserved.
You may reproduce or quote this article provided that credit is given to
F18News http://www.forum18.org/
Past and current Forum 18 information can be found at
http://www.forum18.org/