RUSSIA: Jehovah’s Witnesses Banned After Supreme Court Rejects Appeals

[The Librarian]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

July 17, 2017

RUSSIA: Jehovah’s Witnesses Banned After Supreme Court Rejects Appeals

USCIRF Condemns the Banning of the Jehovah’s Witnesses

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) denounces the Russian Supreme Court ruling on Monday rejecting an appeal by the Jehovah’s Witnesses against an April decision declaring them as extremist. USCIRF Chairman Daniel Mark commented that “The Supreme Court’s decision sadly reflects the government’s continued equating of peaceful religious freedom practice to extremism. The Witnesses are not an extremist group, and should be able to practice their faith openly and freely and without government repression.”

This ruling clears the way for the Russian government to seize the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ assets and property throughout the country.  In recent years, the Witnesses have been subject to government-sanctioned harassment, have had their legal existence banned, and now will lose their physical presence as their meeting halls, known as Kingdom Halls, become the property of a government that violates the rights of religious groups as a matter of law.

In an April 20^th statement, USCIRF condemned the Russian Supreme Court’s decision to ban the Jehovah’s Witnesses (click here to read the statement).

USCIRF recommended in 2017 for the first time ever that Russia be designated a “country of particular concern” (or CPC) for systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom. Chairman Mark added “This latest move by the Russian government confirms that our 2017 Annual Report recommendation is well-deserved. The Russian government is intensifying its crackdown on religious freedom at home while also extending its repressive policies to neighboring states.”

Click here to see the 2017 Annual Report chapter on Russia in English. Click here to see the chapter in Russian.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom is an independent, bipartisan U.S. federal government commission, the first of its kind in the world. USCIRF reviews the facts and circumstances of religious freedom violations abroad and makes policy recommendations to the President, the Secretary of State, and Congress. USCIRF Commissioners are appointed by the President and the Congressional leadership of both political parties. To interview a Commissioner, please contact USCIRF at Media@USCIRF.gov or John D. Lawrence, Director of Communications (JLawrence@USCIRF.gov/+1-202-786-0611).

http://www.uscirf.gov/news-room/press-releases/russia-jehovah-s-witnesses-banned-after-supreme-court-rejects-appeals

[The Librarian]

Did Jehovah respond with an Earthquake?

The timing might be a little off though.

[Evacuated]

3 hours ago, The Librarian said:

This ruling clears the way for the Russian government to seize the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ assets and property throughout the country.

( I know your are just quoting a report here, @Librarian)

This baseless dishonesty reminds me of the spirit shown in the despicable treatment Armeniens received at the hands of the crumbling Ottoman Empire during the First World War period. 

United States Ambassador Henry Morgenthau remembers that Interior Minister, Mehmet Talaat Pasha, asked him to assist in persuading the New York Life Insurance Company and other firms that had issued policies to now “vanished” Armenians to escheat their benefits to the Ottoman state, since the "disappeared" persons were Ottoman subjects and no living heirs were to be found.

In Chap. 25 of his memoir, Morgenthau recounts the following exchange in the late summer of 1915: "One day Talaat made what was perhaps the most astonishing request I had ever heard. The New York Life Insurance Company and the Equitable Life of New York had for years done considerable business among the Armenians. The extent to which this people insured their lives was merely another indicator of their thrifty habits. “I wish,” Talaat now said, “that you would get the American life insurance companies to send us a complete list of their Armenian policy holders. They are practically all dead now and have left no heirs to collect the money. It of course all escheats to the State. The Government is the beneficiary now. Will you do so?” This was almost too much and I lost my temper “You will get no such list from me,” I said, and I got up and left him." (Ambassador Morgenthau's Story. Henry Morgenthau. Dobleday, Page and Company. 1918).

(The fact that it took some 90 years, until 2004 to actually settle the policy issue is another story entirely. http://www.cbsnews.com/news/20m-settlement-for-armenians/)

[TrueTomHarley]

8 hours ago, The Librarian said:

Did Jehovah respond with an Earthquake?

It's a very large country. I'd be more persuaded if the courthouse curtains ripped in two.

[bruceq]

9 hours ago, The Librarian said:

Did Jehovah respond with an Earthquake?

The timing might be a little off though.

I am sure this means nothing but since the verdict yesterday 15 earthquakes have occurred in Russia the largest being the 7.7 that happened 7 hours after the verdict. More earthquakes than anywhere else on earth according to the USGS. But like I said - this probably is normal - right? We certainly don't want to shake anyone into believing that Jehovah is the true God after the way they taunted him lately. 

 

1. 4.4

   214km ESE of Nikol'skoye, Russia

   2017-07-18 10:39:32 (UTC)

   10.0 km
2. 4.1

   230km ESE of Nikol'skoye, Russia

   2017-07-18 09:34:10 (UTC)

   10.0 km
3. 4.2

   109km WNW of Attu Station, Alaska

   2017-07-18 08:40:34 (UTC)

   23.3 km
4. 4.1

   230km ESE of Nikol'skoye, Russia

   2017-07-18 08:00:01 (UTC)

   10.0 km
5. 5.3

   69km E of Nikol'skoye, Russia

   2017-07-18 06:02:39 (UTC)

   10.0 km
6. 5.1

   47km ENE of Nikol'skoye, Russia

   2017-07-18 01:51:37 (UTC)

   10.0 km
7. 5.0

   222km WNW of Attu Station, Alaska

   2017-07-18 01:06:36 (UTC)

   10.0 km
8. 4.6

   86km E of Nikol'skoye, Russia

   2017-07-18 01:03:05 (UTC)

   10.0 km
9. 4.4

   213km ESE of Nikol'skoye, Russia

   2017-07-18 00:51:20 (UTC)

   34.2 km
10. 5.3

    252km ESE of Nikol'skoye, Russia

    2017-07-18 00:26:24 (UTC)

    10.0 km
11. 5.2

    127km WNW of Attu Station, Alaska

    2017-07-17 23:57:43 (UTC)

    23.4 km
12. 5.1

    95km WNW of Attu Station, Alaska

    2017-07-17 23:52:49 (UTC)

    24.9 km
13. 5.1

    235km ESE of Nikol'skoye, Russia

    2017-07-17 23:49:29 (UTC)

    22.9 km
14. 7.7

    198km ESE of Nikol'skoye, Russia

    2017-07-17 23:34:13 (UTC)

    11.0 km