R.P.Ts. BELIEVES THAT
JEHOVISTS ARE
PROSECUTED IN RUSSIA NOT FOR FAITH BUT FOR EXTREMISM
Interfax-Religiia,
28 September 2019
The Russian Orthodox
Church (RPTs)
declared that Jehovah's Witnesses, whose organization is
forbidden in the RF,
find themselves in prison not for their religious views but
because of
extremist actions.
"So far as I know, those
Jehovah's
Witnesses who are subjected to imprisonment are subjected to it
not for their
convictions, not for their religious teaching. Nobody will put a
person in
prison on the basis of doctrinal propositions. The issue always
is about
extremism," said the head of the synodal Department of External
Church
Relations, Metropolitan Ilarion, on a broadcast of the program
"Church and
World" on the Rossiia-24 television channel.
Speaking about the
detention of
Jehovists in Surgut, where there appeared reports about the use
of torture on
members of the organization, the metropolitan noted that "in all
concrete
cases it is necessary to investigate concretely." "If we are
talking
about torture, if it is a proven fact, then there cannot be any
justification
for this fact, regardless of who was subjected to
torture—Orthodox, Muslim,
Jew, Baptist, or representative of any sect," the metropolitan
said.
He expressed disagreement
with the
approach of the United States to questions of religious freedom,
speaking of
protests by the State Department against the prosecution of
Jehovah's Witnesses
in Russia.
"Americans have their own
approach
to religious topics: they believe that there should not be
traditional
confessions in one country or another, that all religious
traditions, including
different kinds of sects, should enjoy identical benefits. We
have different
criteria and different approaches, and on a number of criteria
we do not comply
with the American approaches," the metropolitan noted. (tr. by
PDS, posted
30 September 2019)
Related articles:
American government speaks out for Russian
Jehovah's Witnesses
September 23, 2019
Russia to retaliate against U.S. defense of
Jehovah's Witnesses
September 11, 2019
State Department supports Jehovah's
Witnesses in torture claim
September10, 2019
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