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Jehovah's Witnesses lose another judicial appeal

SUPREME COURT OF ALTAI REPUBLIC CONFIRMED DECISION FINDING 18 JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES' BOOKS EXTREMIST
Religiia v svetskom obshchestve, 27 January 2010

On 27 January the Judicial College on Civil Affairs of the Supreme Court of the Altai republic left in force the decision of the city court of Gorno Altaisk of 1 October 2009 finding 18 liturgical publications of the Jehovah's Witnesses to be extremist materials.

We recall that earlier Russian rights advocates spoke out in defense of Jehovah's Witnesses [See Secular rights advocates defend Jehovah's Witnesses , January 20, 2010]. (tr. by PDS, posted 28 January 2010)

ONE MORE COURT DECISION GIVES EVIDENCE OF RESTRICTION OF FREEDOMS IN RUSSIA

On 27 January 2010 the Supreme Court of the Altai republic left in force the decision of a lower court finding 18 liturgical publication of the Jehovah's Witnesses to be extremist materials. In this case it is impossible not to note the similarity with the decision issued by the Supreme Court of the Russian federation on a similar case in December of last year. For rights defenders and many other persons such a development of events evokes alarm with respect to tendencies observed in Russia. Horst Henshel, a representative of the Watchtower, Bible, and Tract Society of the Jehovah's Witnesses in Germany expressed the following opinion:  "Hanging the 'extremist materials' notice on our publication is, in our view, absurd, especially if one considers that our literature encourages readers to strengthen family bonds, respect governmental authorities, and love their neighbors. What kind of a country would refuse to have citizens who hold to these principles? We are certain that millions of people will express their concern regarding this decision, which reflects existing reality: Russia is being turned into a country in which ever more often rights to freedom of thought and the expression of opinion are being restricted."

The conculsions of experts, which played a key role in this case, evoked from many Russian and foreign visitors to the www.jw-russia.org web site extreme amazement, especially after they became acquainted with the very publications that are posted on this site. In January of this year a number of international rights defense organizations addressed to the president of the Russian federation an open declaration in which they expressed their uneasiness with the violations of the rights of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia. The statement said specifically:  "The finding of the materials as extremist is based on ill-advised "on-demand" expert analyses, produced by experts hand-picked by the prosecutor's office. . . .  Finding them extremists turns tens of thousands of believers into criminals. . . . Criminal prosecution for faith could become a reality any day now."

In Russia there are 160,000 Jehovah's Witnesses, and around 300,000 people attend the most significant annual celebration of the Witnesses.  (tr. by PDS, posted 28 January 2010)

Russian original posted on Religiia v svetskom obshchestve (SOVA) site, 27 January 2010

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Preparation of textbook for religion in schools

PROBLEMS WITH ETHICS
Leading secular scholars refuse to work on creating a new state textbook "Foundations of Religious Cultures and Secular Ethics"
by Nikita Aronov
The New Times, 25 January 2010

The textbook is one of the chief projects of Patriarch Kirill. After years-long debates about the permissibility of teaching Orthodoxy in the schools, it seemed that a compromise had been found.  At a meeting with representatives of the clergy on 21 July 2009 Dmitry Medvedev announced the start of an educational experiment. By this spring, beginning in the last quarter, fourth grades of 19 Russian regions will study a new subject, "Foundations of Religious Cultures and Secular Ethics." The course is divided into six parts and it is supposed to inform school children about the four most populous religions in Russia, Orthodoxy, Islam, Buddhism, and Judaism. It also contains two secular parts:  History of Religious Cultures and Secular Ethics. Parents of school children are supposed to select one division from this abundance, which the child will study for a half year, the last quarter of the 4th grade and first quarter of the 5th. This plan for the course was worked out in the Ministry of Education and Science in September 2009. The director of the ministry's Department of State Policy in the Area of Education, Igor Remorenko, then noted that "all modules of the new course will have a strictly secular, culturological character; the teaching will be conducted by ordinary teachers using secular, academic resources."

Legends and Anecdotes

But it soon became clear that the writing of three religious texts was assigned to representatives of the confessions and not academic religious studies scholars (excepting the text on Islam, which has been prepared by the pedagogue Diliara Latyshina). "They did not even contact the department regarding the textbook," the head of the religious studies program of the philosophy faculty of MGU, Igor Yablokov, said with amazement. The Orthodox part was prepared by Archdeacon Andrei Kuraev, the Buddhist by Babu-Lama, and the Jewish by an aide to Berl Lazar, Andrei Glotser.

"I have seen all four confessional modules and I can say that instead of an introduction to culture these turned out to be evangelistic texts, intended for the indoctrination of children. For example, in Andrei Kuraev's part a boy protected a kitten from a dog and he was not afraid because God was with him. Where is the culture here?" the vice-director of the Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Andrei Smirnov, said with amazement; he is a former member of the working group for preparing the textbook.  "When it became clear that we were talking about the introduction of the 'Law of God' on orders from the very top, I quit the working group."

Of the confessional parts, the public at large has still had access only to "Foundations of Orthodox Culture" by Archdeacon Andrei Kuraev. At the beginning of his text there actually is a story about the young boy Vanya, who saved a kitten from a dog. It is explained that faith enabled him to perform the feat.

However in an interview with The New Times, Andrei Kuraev himself rejected the charge that there is some kind of religious propaganda in the pages of the textbook:  "I can guarantee that in my textbook there are no calls to actions of a confessional character. All appeals to the child are calls to follow common human values and not confessional ones." "All teaching of religion is evangelism," considers the famous publicist and public figure Father Alexander Borisov. "A religious textbook should be written by a religious person, who knows the question from the inside. After all, how can you write about some country if you have never been there? Just as a teacher of a language should be a speaker of the language. If it is writing about secular ethics, then one can turn to nonreligious philosophers, who deal with this issue."

Shortage of Ethics

But right off the authors of the secular section of the textbook refused to turn to philosophers for support.  "At the beginning of each religious module the sacred books are laid out, and I decided to present to the children the basic ethical teachings: Aristotle, Kant, Utilitarians," Alexander Razin, author of textbooks and a specialist from MGU, explains; it is he who was assigned the secular division of the book. "But when it was already half done, the publisher began to impose new conditions. They said to me that the philosophers were too complex and they proposed writing the textbook on the basis of Russian folklore.  I refused."

Having argued with Muscovite scholars (already earlier the director of the ethics section of the Institute of Philosophy, Ruben Apresian, had refused to work on the book), in December 2009 the publishers turned to Vadim Perov of St. Petersburg State University. The scholar agreed, although they gave him only a few weeks to prepare the course. "When I turned in the draft, the publisher issued several claims," Perov recalls. "They said to me that the textbook turned out to be too cosmopolitan, that I could not write about a multiplicity of cultures, since the children would think that there can be different morals. They also asked me to remove a passage to the effect that for religious ethics the chief value is God, but for secular ethics it is man, on the basis that such words would displease clergy." Finally Archdeacon Kuraev got hold of the draft of the textbook, and he critiqued the text on his blog. After this Perov broke off relations with the publisher for good.

Orthodoxy on the Outside

What the fate of the textbook now has come to is not clear. The only part of the course over which an uproar has not erupted is the History of Religious Cultures. It was written by associates of the Institute of World History of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and they say that the work has gone according to plan and it has not evoked any censures from the publisher. "The outline of the course has been set and the text will be available at the announced time," Aleksei Rytov, the first prorector of the Academy of Continuing Education and Training of Educational Workers, stated without qualification. At the present time, at the campus of the academy a thousand methodologists are studying, who are supposed to train, in March, 15,145 school teachers for teaching the new course. The prorector is filled with optimism regarding the contents of the textbook:  "I am sure that the draft of Kuraev's section is not finalized and it is too early to be concerned. I think that the editors at 'Prosveshchenie' will remove from the book any religious propaganda." "There is enough time left to give the teachers the necessary minimum knowledge," says one of the Moscow methodologists. "The question is different. It is good that only those who want to teach will teach. We have a majority of teachers who were trained in the spirit of atheism, and they can hardly teach an interesting religion course. The teaching of the new subject could turn out to be teaching about Muscovite or world artistic culture. It is not very clear how the teaching process will come out; after all, the children will have to be divided into six groups and that means each school will have to find six teachers each." The situation has turned out rather strangely, since despite the hopes of the Russian Orthodox church the majority of the parents in the experimental regions have already chosen for their children not "Foundations of Orthodox Culture" at all. The record was set by Kamensk-Uralsk of Sverdlov province, where 93% of fourth graders expressed the desire to study secular ethics. After this confusion, on 13 January Archbishop of Ekaterinburg and Verkhotursk Vikenty got in touch with the mayor of the city. The next day it was proposed to the parents of the school children that they rethink their choice for their children. (tr. by PDS, posted 27 January 2010)

Russian original posted on Portal-credo.ru site, 27 January 2010

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