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Secular rights advocates defend Jehovah's Witnesses

DOCUMENT:  Declaration of rights defenders;
"Persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia: rehabilitated persons again subjected to repressions"

We, representatives of civic organizations supporting the initiative of an international rights defense network in support of conscripts, military personnel, and conscientious objectors express our concern over the violations of rights of religious organizations of Jehovah's Witnesses in the Russian federation.

The appeal by the international network regarding this problem is explained, inter alia, by the fact that it is the Jehovah's Witnesses who have been, and remain, the most consistent refusers of military service and they constitute a substantial portion of those serving alternative service in those countries of the former USSR where alternative civilian service (AGS) exists. And in those places where AGS still does not exist or where it is little different from military service, Jehovah's Witnesses follow their own teaching all the way to criminal prosecution and prison sentences.

Substantial restrictions of religious freedom of the Jehovah's Witnesses, as well as of a number of other "nontitular" religious communities, are ongoing at the present time not only in Russia, but also in Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, and other states of the region. In Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, activity of the Jehovah's Witnesses is forbidden. Refusal of service in the army is used as one of the bases for the government's struggle with them.

Defense of believers from illegal persecution (even if it is legalized and sanctioned by a court that is not impartial) is urgent everywhere it may be going on. But today we consider it a matter of supreme importance to call special attention to the situation of the Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia, where a situation is unfolding transcending the stage of numerous violations of constitutional rights and freedoms of believers of this confession to the stage of genuine persecution.

The basis for the persecutions of Jehovah's Witnesses, which gives to the actions of the Russian authorities the appearance of legality, has been the accusation of extremist activity, based exclusively on the claim by law enforcement agencies that the religious literature distributed by the Witnesses ("Watchtower" and "Awake" magazines) are extremist materials. The claim that the materials are extremist is based on dishonest, "made to order" expert analyses conducted by experts handpicked by the prosecutor.

Declared to be "extremist" is the affirmation by the Jehovah's Witnesses of the superiority of their religion, their criticism of other confessions, and the existence in the texts of negative evaluations of Orthodox and other clergy. The affirmation of their exclusive truth that is characteristic of all Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam) is interpreted by the prosecutor and court as incitement of religious hatred and enmity, propaganda of religious superiority, and an offense against the feelings of believers (which according to the federal law "On combating extremist activity" constitute indicators of extremism).

The claim that they are extremists has turned tens of thousands of believers into criminals, falling under articles 280 and 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian federation (these articles penalize public calls for the commission of extremist activity and participation in the activity of a religious association where a decision of a court finding it extremist has become legally effective).  Such decisions have already been made by courts and one of them has become legally effective. Criminal prosecution for faith could become a reality any day now.

On 11 September 2009 a Rostov provincial court ruled, on petition from the prosecutor's office, that the Jehovah's Witnesses religious organization in Taganrog is extremist and prohibited its activity. Thirty-four titles of religious literature seized from the congregation were found extremist. On 8 December 2009 this decision was confirmed by the Supreme Court of the Russian federation and took legal effect.

Such texts as this were found extremist:  "False religions, including the Christian world, have supported for a long time impermissible relations with 'the rulers of earth,' but this will lead to the destruction of the false religion. [. . .] So for many decades now we have been calling people to come out of the false religion and to adopt true worship (Revelation 18:4.5)" ("Watchtower," May 1999)

The conclusion of the expert analysis that lay at the basis of the judicial decision:  "This creates a negative image of traditional Christianity and forms the thought of the necessity of distancing one's self from this religion, as well as other religions that differ from the teaching of Jehovah's Witnesses. Consequently, the text contains propaganda of the superiority of Jehovah's Witnesses' teaching and the ineffectiveness of other religions."

Similar cases on the basis of prosecutorial petition have been unfolding throughout the country. Thus, the Supreme Court of the republic of Altai on 1 October 2009 made the decision to assign to the extremist category another 18 items of the Jehovah's Witnesses. This decision has been contested and at the moment the assignment has not taken legal effect.

On 23 December 2009 the Teuchezhsk regional prosecutor of the city of Adygei in Adygei republic issued 11 warnings about the impermissibility of extremist activity, on the basis of the results of an investigation of the local religious organization of Witnesses. All of the warnings pertain only to instances of the distribution of publications found extremist by the Rostov provincial court. No other kinds of "extremist" activity are ascribed to the congregation.

On 28 December 2009 a similar warning was issued by the prosecutor of Arkhangelsk province. Again what is found to be "extremism" is the religious literature seized from the believers, which is legally distributed throughout the whole world in 180 languages with a monthly circulation of more than 76 million copies.

We consider it necessary to make a special note of the accusation that figured in the decision of the Taganrog case that Jehovah's Witnesses encourage members of the organization to refuse to fulfill civic obligations. These actions are not considered extremist, but according to article 14 of the federal law "On freedom of conscience and religious associations" they lead to the liquidation of a religious organization and prohibition of its activity.

In the opinion of the court, proof of "encouragement" was the persuasion of one of the believers to refuse to perform alternative civilian service. At the same time, hundreds of Jehovah's Witnesses who have been sent every year to AGS, including from Rostov province, have served and are serving without refusing, despite the hardships and lower wages.

There have in fact been cases of refusal to perform AGS, but they were based on the defects in the federal law "On alternative civilian service" that permit its performance within organizations under military subdivisions. Jehovah's Witness who have been sent to military factories, even if they are in subdivisions that are not connected with the defense industry, have decided to follow the voice of conscience. They have not refused AGS but they demand genuine civilian service and not its profanation (especially since the law does not prohibit taking into account the selection by a citizen being sent to AGS from an approved list of places for performing the service).

Besides judicial and prosecutorial organs, the Jehovah's Witnesses have experienced strong pressure from regional and local agencies of executive authority. In violation of article 28 of the constitution of Russia, guaranteeing the right of each citizen to profess his own religion, including the right to disseminate his faith and to act in accordance with it, the authorities have prevented believers from conducting services and holding congresses, they have forced lessors to rescind lease agreements with congregations, they have confiscated land previously approved for construction, they have harassed with countless investigations, and they have conducted raids and interrupted meetings. Such actions by the authorities can be considered to be demeaning to human dignity from a position of international antidiscrimination law, since they create around the "unwelcome" believers a threatening, hostile, demeaning, insulting, or intimidating atmosphere.

The confirmation by the Supreme Court of the Russian federation of the decision regarding liquidation of the Taganrog organization has taken the mistreatment of Witnesses to a new level. Now it is legal to arrest them, not only in Rostov province but throughout the whole country, for distribution of "extremist materials." Reports of such instances have already come out. For example, on 8 January 2010, in the city of Pochel of Briansk province, a pair of believers were arrested and taken to the Department of Internal Affairs for "illegal preaching" and "distribution of extremist literature."

The Jehovah's Witnesses were victims of criminal state violence in both Hitlerite Germany and USSR. Thousands of families were subjected to exile to Siberia and Kazakhstan by the soviet state and a multitude of believer was arrested and sent through the camps for adherence to a "superstitious antisoviet sect." After the adoption in 1991 of the law "On rehabilitation of victims of political repression," Jehovah's Witnesses were rehabilitated. The law declared the judicial and extra-judicial persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses to be the caprice of a totalitarian state.

That law has not been rescinded. But believers, many of whom have certificates of rehabilitation, are again being hauled into court. It is just that the antiquated word "antisoviet," that was attached to their faith, has been replaced by the modern "extremist."

Russian rights defense organizations have devoted considerable efforts to the adoption of the federal law "On alternative civilian service," for the improvement of conditions of its implementation, and for the legal education of conscripts. Today, when the term of AGS consists of 21 months, ever more young people are selecting civilian service on the basis of convictions not associated with religion. But until 2007, the term of AGS was the longest in the world, 42 months, and rights defenders did not consider that they had the right to recommend such an alternative, since it was more like punishment for refusal of military service.

Jehovah's Witnesses were not intimidated by such a term. Citizens of Russia should be grateful to them for enduring and taking upon themselves the first, most burdensome period of the creation of AGS in Russia.

We call all branches and levels of the Russian government to see how outrageous and shameful it is, after all the Jehovah's Witnesses experienced in the twentieth century, to whip up anew religious persecutions against them.

We appeal to the president of Russia that he use all of his legal and political capacities for putting an end to the outrages against believing citizens of Russia and to act as the guarantor of their religious freedom.

We appeal to the Prosecutor General of the Russian federation that he put an end to turning the agency subject to him into a religious inquisition and recognize the priority of human rights and freedom and monitor the illegal judicial decisions with regard to Jehovah's Witnesses.

We appeal to the Plenipotentiary for Human Rights in the Russian federation, the Public Chamber, the Council for Cooperation in the Development of Institutions of Civil Society and Human Rights of the Presidential Administration of RF that they exert efforts for the cessation of governmental persecution of religious minorities.

20 January 2010

(tr. by PDS, posted 22 January 2010)

[signed by 42 Russian rights defenders]

Russian original posted on site of Slavic Legal Center, 22 January 2010

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Majority of Russians oppose their children studying Orthodoxy

MORE THAN HALF OF KRASNOIARSK PARENTS SELECT SECULAR ETHICS FOR THEIR CHILDREN
Portal-credo.ru, 20 January 2010

The Ministry of Education of Krasnoiarsk territory published data regarding the choice of parents of one of the six modules within the parameters of the experimental study of "Foundations of Religious Cultures and Secular Ethics."

As indicated in the report of the regional ministry, "the distribution of students in the modules after conducting a written survey among parents" showed that secular ethics is desired for study by 14,646 families of Krasnoiarsk fourth graders, which constitutes 58.2% of the total number of pupils who are included within the experiment. Foundations of Religious Cultures was chosen by 5,417 parents (21.5%) and somewhat fewer, Foundations of Orthodox Culture, 4804 or 19.1%.

A total of 1% of those surveyed spoke in favor of the remaining three modules. Thus it is calculated that 231 families (0.9%) will have their children study Foundations of Islamic Culture, 26 (0.1%), Foundations of Buddhist Culture, and 22 (0.08%), Foundations of Jewish Culture.

An expert of the International Institute of Humanities and Political Research, a sociologist and religious studies specialist, kandidat of philosophic sciences Mikhail Zherebiatiev, commented on the Krasnoiarsk result in an interview with Portal-credo.ru. The researcher said that Krasnoiarsk territory is the third region of Russia, after Stavropol and Sverdlovsk, to confirm the existence of this trend in society as a whole. In all three regions, parents' sympathies toward the subjects are distributed in identical proportions with very close indications.  In Sverdlovsk province, Secular Ethics received support of 54.6% of those surveyed, Foundations of World Religious Cultures, 23%, and Foundations of Orthodox Culture, 20.6%. A very similar result, the expert noted, was produced in an initial survey in Stavropol, which was reproduced after the bishop of RPTsMP expressed his dismay over the result of the choice of subjects.

The stable position, but not first place in the list of choices, of Foundations of Orthodox Culture is an indicator that "Foundations of Orthodox Culture has a rather strong reputation as a confessional subject among Russians, similar to the pre-Revolutionary Law of God," the analyst concludes.  (tr. by PDS, posted 20 January 2010)

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Literary censorship expanding in Russia

KIROV PROVINCE PROSECUTOR FINDS BROCHURE EXTREMIST
Portal-credo.ru, 20 January 2010

The First of May regional court satisfied the petition of the prosecutor of the October region of the city of Kirov to find recently published printed materials extremist. It ruled that the brochure "Russian [Rossiiskaia] Orthodox Church and the Contemporary Preantichrist Epoch. Confessional Concept of the Russian Orthodox Church" contains expressions intended to propagate the idea of the superiority of an Orthodox monarchy and the worthlessness of other religions as well as covert calls for incitement of national strife. The decision of the court has already taken legal effect, the publication "Novosti-Kirov" reports.

Now, in accordance with the federal law "On combating extremist activity," this work, whose author is unknown, is included in the list of extremist materials and is removed from free circulation. Since 2004, more than 450 magazines, newspapers, pamphlets, texts of songs, and video materials have been entered into the federal list created by the Ministry of Justice of RF. Twenty of these materials have been recognized as extremist on the basis of petitions from prosecutors of cities and regions of Kirov province.

As the secretary of Viatsk diocese of RPTsMP, priest Alexander Balyberdin, explained, the indicated work has nothing to do with the Russian Orthodox church of the Moscow patriarchate. "I have not read this book and therefore I cannot comment on it. However I can say that 'Russian [Rosssiiskaia] Orthodox Church' does not refer to the official Russian [Russkaia] Orthodox Church," the priest declared. "After reading a genuinely Orthodox book, one's soul should have a feeling of love and if a work evokes aggression, then it can hardly be called Orthodox." (tr. by PDS, posted 20 January 2010)

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Critic's view of religion in schools

ORTHODOXY WITHOUT HUMANISM, BUT WITH ADMINISTRATIVE RESOURCES
by Svetlana Solodovnik
Ezhednevnyi zhurnal, 18 January 2010

It turned out as it was supposed to. Many observers warned about this when the decision regarding the start of an experiment with the teaching in the schools of a "Foundations of Religious Cultures and Secular Ethics" course had just been made. It is impossible in such a short space of time, 3-4 months, to create a decent textbook, even an extremely small one, of one and a half printed pages. Orthodox culture found itself in a better position than all the rest; at least the teaching of Foundations of Orthodox culture has been going on in the schools for almost fifteen years, dozens of resources have been written, and a solid methodological base has been worked out. The rest of the confessions permitted in the schools have Sunday schools which also make possible the accumulation of not quite so much but at least some experience of work with children. It was most difficult for the developers of secular ethics. There are absolutely no textbooks on this topic for children of young school age in Russia. Not surprisingly, many famous Russian academic ethicists refused to participate in the experiment. But the unrealistic time frame is not the only reason, nor even the main reason.

The group of the developers of the course, as its coordinator, the head of the Department of Philosophy of Religion and Religious Studies of the Philosophy faculty of St. Petersburg State University, Marianna Shaxhnovich said, faced from the very beginning rather stern conditions. "Mrs. Shevchenko [the representative of the Russian Orthodox church to the team of developersÑed.] vetoed the word 'humanism,' contained in the 'Secular Ethics' module, back when the general structure of all textbooks was being worked out; that supposedly is unacceptable to an Orthodox audience. And for the sake of reaching a consensus, without which it would be impossible to make progress, we went along with that. In addition, the writers get to read each others' texts. On one hand, that is proper; everything that could evoke hostility or is unacceptable to representatives of all sides should be removed; but on the other hand, rejecting such basic principles of intercultural dialogue as 'humanism,' 'tolerance,' and 'common human values' can right away evoke mutual intolerance."

The word "humanism" was removed from the structure of the course, without prohibiting its use in the textbook itself. Alas, even that did not help. At the end of last week, a sensation arose over the textbook on secular ethics, which after long entreaties the Petersburg scholar Vadim Perov agreed to write on 8 December (!). After receiving a draft of the course, the "Prosveshchenie" publishing house, where the textbook will be brought up to standard, requested that the definition of secular ethics as nonreligious be removed, because "clergymen will not like this."

Vadim Perov thought that the request of the editorial council did not accord with his professional ethics, and he refused to cooperate with the publisher any further.

As he could, support for his colleague was expressed by Archdeacon Andrei Kuraev, who had joined the group of developers on 12 January; up to that time he had participated in writing the text for Foundations of Orthodox culture at the behest of the patriarchate and was a member of the interagency council, which had not yet been implemented by the Ministry of Education. In some way which is not known (the authors were most strictly forbidden to make the materials public before their final approval and Perov had honestly fulfilled this requirement) Kuraev got hold of the chapters of Perov's text and subjected them to a critical analysis on his blog. Kuraev was upset, for example, be the phrase "Trying to understand the world and explain how man was created, people created religion." "This is a wild assumption," he wrote. "It is an incorrect projection of the values of the era of the Enlightenment into antiquity." But any unprejudiced person will understand that Perov's phrase is the mirror expression of the assertion of the archdeacon himself in his Orthodox part of the course:  "God is free Reason, who created the world and loves his creation." It is simply that each one is operating within the coordinates of his own system. However the coordinates of Perov's system, in Kuraev's eyes, do not have the right to exist.

In essence, the patriarchate is continuing to retain the crafty position that it has maintained all these years when the disputes about the appropriateness of religious subject in the schools have been going on. "Foundations of Orthodox culture" were not adopted in pure form; there appeared "Spiritual-Moral Culture," and when that did not work, "Foundations of Religious Cultures and Secular Ethics" were born. The course is purely culturological, secular, but it is just that use of the word "nonreligious" is forbidden. Will the children suddenly learn that not everybody believes in God and some think that he doesn't exist at all?

And there is no way that this can be ascribed to Kuraev's independent action. Patriarch Kirill fully shares this position.  "It is very important that the foundations of secular ethics, which will be taught in the schools along with the foundations of traditional religions, be the very same system of values as religious ethics," he said at a recent meeting with associations of the Accounting Chamber. That is, we do not have any other system of values beside religious values; who does not now understand that?"

So Archdeacon Kuraev is spoiling for a fight. Secular ethics and the entire experiment of teaching religion in the schools itself are under threat!  He, the valiant knight, is ready to take upon himself the heavy burden and write this textbook himself.

However the situation is not as critical as our archdeacon father tries to make it out to be. The textbook has been written.  "Perov has refused the editing of the textbook and fixing it up in accordance with the rules that have been proposed by the 'Prosveshchenie' publishing house, which is engaged in fine tuning the course," Marianna Shakhnovich says. "But there are qualified people working in the press, who are fully up to the task, if we do not succeed in persuading Perov. The text, written in two weeks, naturally requires improvement, principally adjusting the style to be appropriate for children of 10-11 years. There is not going to be any breakdown of the project."

It is necessary merely to understand that the patriarchate, despite Andrei Kuraev's shrill laments, is not so much interested in the perfection of the secular module by the hands of scholars. All the hopes were placed on the mission and the catechetical work through the general education schools on a scale much greater than Sunday schools. "The idea of teaching religious subjects in middle schools was promoted by the Russian Orthodox church, and it wants to play the leading role in this story, setting for itself the goal of changing the cultural content of the course into indoctrination," says Actual State Counselor of the Russian Federation First Class Andrei Sebentsov, who has worked for many years in the governmental Commission on Affairs of Religious Associations. "This has been a deliberate policy pursued consistently by the church for 15 years."

And a majority of the parents in many regions of our profoundly Orthodox (as the bishops love to emphasize) motherland have chosen secular ethics, not "Foundations of Orthodox culture by any means." In Kamensk-Uralsk there is general confusion: 93% of the parents prefer ethics to the religious courses. Archbishop of Ekaterinburg Vikenty had to conduct an "explanatory conversation" with the teachers. The city administration reports that parents now have offered "to choose again." It is even interesting just how effective the "conversation" turned out to be. Soon the administration will have to take recourse to a sin well known from soviet timesÑmisrepresentations.

Well, after this can secular ethics be "nonreligious"? After all these years of striving? In the opinion of Andrei Sebentsov, the church has conducted its policy with the help of a gradual shift in concepts. In international acts, and in Russian ones following them (for example, in the federal law of 1998 "On the basic guarantees of children's rights in the Russian federation") the series of concepts "physical, intellectual, psychological, spiritual, and moral" is used as various aspects of the development of personality. "That is, 'spiritual' is used in a secular sense in order to distinguish the spiritual qualities of the individualÑthought, consciousness, will, feeling, imagination, intuitionÑfrom the corporeal, and morality is viewed as a distinct important aspect," Andrei Sebentsov explains. "In the future, instead of 'spiritual and moral' there will appear in various acts the concept of 'spiritual-moral' in an undefined secular system. Although in the religious system of concepts, it has a clear orientation to the divine, spiritual-moral education will be understood as deliberate activity directed to individual ascent to the higher and celestial world. This is fine, but it does not comport with a secular approach to education." In 2007 standards were incorporated into the law "On education" (articles 9 and 14) in accordance with which curricula of general education include materials providing for spiritual-moral development, and the contents of education are supposed to secure the formation of a spiritual-moral individual. "These terminological niceties today serve the church as occasion for conducting its own line in the transformation of the culturological courses of 'Foundations of Religious Cultures and Secular Ethics" into catechetical (for children raised in Orthodoxy) and evangelistic (for the rest) classes," Sebentsov says.

Recently he gave a lecture to "trainers," who will prepare teachers of the "Foundations" courses. They also were amazed at what they were supposed to deal with. "In their majority they do not wish to evangelize; their attitude toward this is critical," Andrei Sebentsov told Ezhednevnyi Zhurnal. "It is fine to promote what you firmly believe in, but if you do not believe very much, or not at all, then you will hardly have a desire to promote religious faith."

Professor Shakhnovich acknowledges that "one feels in all textbooks written by representatives of the confessions an attempt at indoctrination. Really, only Aleksei Muraviev's strictly holds to the culturological principle, but he is an historian of religion, and thus he exercises the phenomenological description of the approaches adopted by this discipline. But if all the other module textbooks can be edited but Kuraev's text cannot be, then his goal is evangelistic and its genre is propaganda."

This journal's sources are of a unanimous opinion: the main problem now is whether the secular character of education in the schools will be retained or not. "It seems to us," Marianna Shakhovich continues, "the order was for the teaching of knowledge of religion, but a change has occurred. Instead of teaching knowledge of religion it has turned out to be teaching religion. It is one thing to tell a story about Christ or the gospel, but it is another to suggest that the child pray, as Kuraev's textbook suggests.  Interminable speculation is underway regarding the meaning of the word 'secular,' and in the end it turns out that secularity is when the church slips into the embrace of the state."

So far it has turned out to be difficult to reconcile all points of view. "It is a hard task," the coordinator of the preparers does not conceal. "But I hope never the less for a positive outcome, because both the colleagues of the Ministry of Education and Bishop of Zaraisk Merkury [a member of the interagency council from RPTsÑed.] and the publisherÑnone of them wants to do things badly. We have tried to avoid many risks, the risk of dividing the children, for example. We have agreed that there will be general classes, where children will invite the parents and do something together. Let's say, to tell one another about holidays, family traditions, even cuisine. But the project has been dragged into the realm of worldview and, despite the common desire to observe the constitution and the law 'On education' and to operate primarily on the conception of 'the dialogue of cultures in the name of civic peace and harmony,' it still is not very clear how this finds expression."  (tr. by PDS, posted 18 January 2010)

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Jehovah's Witnesses hounded in aftermath of court decisions against them

JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES' HOUSE OF WORSHIP PELTED WITH STONES
Portal-credo.ru, 18 January 2010

A group of 5 or 6 persons threw stones at a building for divine worship services of Jehovah's Witnesses in the city of Sochi during the night of 9 January 2009 [sic]. The criminals shouted vulgar expressions against the faith of the Jehovah's Witnesses, threatened the people in the building with physical violence, and even broke out a part of the fence, trying to get inside. Two of the attackers were arrested by the squad of police who were summoned, the press service of the Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia reports.

Attacks on premises occupied by Jehovah's Witnesses have increased after the decision of the Supreme Court of RF on the liquidation of the local Jehovah's Witnesses religious organization in Taganrog. Thus, in the night of 1 January, unknown persons in Volzhsk threw two bottles with a flammable mixture through the window of Kingdom Hall.

There also have appeared instances of prosecution of Jehovah's Witnesses for spreading their teaching. Thus, the press service of the Administrative Center reported about the arrest in Pochep, Briansk province, on 8 January 2010, of two members of the Jehovah's Witnesses organization, L.M. Tomaev, 26, and A.G. Ibragimov, 28, who were taken to the Department of Internal Affairs of Pochep region for "illegal preaching" and "distribution of extremist literature." Although they had their own passports, they were detained for 24 hours "for determination of identity."

When the actions of the police were reported to the Service of Personal Security of the Dept. of Internal Affairs, the contents of the accusations were changed. Justice of the Peace V.I. Shchemelinin hastily issued an order for a ten-day incarceration of Tomaev and Ibragimov for allegedly "expressing extreme vulgarities to passers-by." At the same time the documents contain no mention of witnesses and victims. In appeals to a higher court the young people maintain that the accusation is absolutely baseless and ludicrous. The order can take effect only on 19 January, but they have already begun serving the sentence in the local temporary isolation cell.

On 14 January 2010 a Briansk district court reviewed the appeals of Tomaev and Ibragimov and ordered their release because of the absence of criminality in their actions. (tr. by PDS, posted 18 January 2010)

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