ON EVE OF TRIAL OF JEHOVAH'S
WITNESSES LOCAL PUBLICATION ISSUES CALL "TO GET RID" OF THEM
SOVA Center
for News and Analysis, 1 November 2019
On 31
October 2019, the Tatar internet publication Sobytiia issued a
report devoted to the upcoming trial of Jehovah's Witnesses from
Naberezhnye Chelny Ilkham Karimov, Vladimir Miakushin,
Konstantin Matrashov, and Aidar Yulmetiev. The report is replete
with xenophobic and defamatory statements.
Among
other experts, the authors of the report invoked the former
chair of the department of religious studies of the Kazan
Federal University, Larisa Astakhova, who declared that "since
the state banned them [Jehovah's Witnesses—ed.] as a group of an
extremist nature, that means that it is necessary to get rid of
them."
She also
cited as an example a case from the 1990s, when in Kazan a girl
died whose believing parents refused to give her a blood
transfusion.
The
report included the opinion of an assistant of the dean for
missionary work of Zakamsk district, Sergei Zhelezniak, and a
member of the Council of Ulemas of the Ecclesiastical Board of
Muslims for Tatarstan, Niyaz Sabarov. Both spoke about the
danger of the Jehovah's Witnesses.
Zhelezniak,
whom the authors of the article call a religious studies
specialist, declared: "I would expel from the country all
missionaries who have come to our land. I would put their upper
leadership in jail. It is the upper level that must be
eliminated, but not ensnare the ordinary followers, who are
victims themselves."
Sabirov
accused Jehovah's Witnesses of attempting to destroy society and
he stated that "their ideology and their convictions are not
consistent with our religions."
A
psychologist who was brought in as an expert, Iren Bobrova, also
described the danger of "sects" and particularly the Jehovah's
Witnesses, especially highlighting their refusal of blood
transfusions. We recall that this refusal was not mentioned in
the decision banning the centralized and local organizations of
Jehovah's Witnesses.
We note
that an article against Jehovah's Witnesses was also published
by another popular local publication, Tatar-Inform. (tr. by PDS,
posted 1 November 2019)
REFUSAL OF BLOOD TRANSFUSION AND CALL NOT TO
RECOGNIZE STATE
SYMBOLS: CASE OF JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES SECT IN NABEREZHNYE CHELNY
REACHES COURT
by Elena Saliakhova
A Naberezhnye Chelny court has begun considering
a case of
Jehovah's Witnesses. In the prisoners' dock are four men who are
charged with
organizing a forbidden sect and participating in it. Despite the
fact that
since 2017 the activity of Jehovah's Witnesses has been
forbidden in Russia by
the Supreme Court, stories about the sectarians appear in news
media. Who
Jehovah's Witnesses are and why they fell under a ban in Russia
was reported by
the news agency Tatar-Inform.
In the spring of 2018, police in Naberezhnye
Chelny conducted
searches in apartments of eight members and four organizers of a
cell of the
extremist organization of Jehovah's Witnesses.
On the same day, Vladimir Miakushin, a senior
engineer of one of
the vehicle factories of Avtograd, and Konstantin Matrashov, a
metal worker,
were arrested and placed in custody.
Two days later, in the same case, a builder and
an auto
mechanic, Aidar Yulmetiev and Ilkham Karimov, were arrested in
the same case.
During
the searches, security
agents found religious literature of the Jehovists: more than
500 books, 80
notebooks, and more than 150 pages of texts of lectures and
sermons.
In
addition, in the
suspects' apartments police found more than 1,500 reports about
evangelistic
work, 900 forms concerning refusal of blood transfusion, and
1,000 forms with
an appeal to new converts in the Tatar language.
Law
enforcers also
received documents about contributions received by Jehovah's
Witnesses, after
which a criminal case was opened against Miakushin in the first
department for
especially important cases of the Investigative Committee of
Tatarstan
regarding the fund raising and financing of an extremist
organization.
In June,
all four
detainees were indicted for arranging the activity of an
extremist community.
They spent six months in a SIZO, after which they were placed
under house
arrest or pledged not to depart from place of residence.
The
criminal case was
turned over to the Naberezhnye Chelny court, where a preliminary
hearing was
conducted today.
In
Russia, the
organization of Jehovah's Witnesses was ruled to be extremist in
2017. At that
time the Russian Supreme Court satisfied the lawsuit of the
Russian Ministry of
Justice and ordered the liquidation of the Administrative Center
of Jehovah's
Witnesses in Russia and the banning of its activity on the
territory of the
country.
At the
trial it was
learned that the Russian Ministry of Justice specifically
charges Jehovah's
Witnesses with refusing blood transfusion.
"An
expert
analysis was conducted on Jehovah's Witnesses information
brochures, and the
specialists came to the conclusion that the information
contained in them
represents a threat to health," a representative of the Russian
Ministry
of Justice, Svetlana Borisova, told RIA Novosti, at the time.
The
ministry is sure
that the work of the Jehovah's Witnesses threatens the rights
and interests of
society and public safety. According to Borisova's information,
by decisions of
Russian courts, 95 Jehovah's Witnesses' brochures have been
ruled to be
extremist, just like the activity of eight organizations in
Russian regions.
Nevertheless,
the
Jehovists continue to exist and to open cells of the
organization and draw new
members into the sect. As a rule, they go door to door, pester
passers-by on
the street, and invite people to their meetings. However, not
many think about
what dangers are lurking in the Jehovah's Witnesses.
"Psychologists
used
to be approached often by people who encountered Jehovah's
Witnesses. They
described how their loved ones changed their conduct, broke off
their social
connections, or totally left their families to join the sect,"
Iren
Bobrova, a practicing psychologist, explained.
According
to the
psychologist, people who join the Jehovists, as a rule, totally
change their
way of life, values, and views, and they begin to live by the
ideas of the
sect.
"At that
point,
people's critical thinking is violated. They think that
everything that is
going on around them is improper. They have a sharp division
between 'ours' and
'not ours.' They do not recognize the state flag and army
service. Most
undesirable is their refusal of blood transfusions before an
operation. And
there were such cases in Tatarstan, and in the end people died,"
practicing psychologist Iren Bobrova explained.
The
psychologist said
that most often the people who fall under the influence of
Jehovah's Witnesses
are experiencing difficulties, problems at work, or in the
family and at
school.
Bobrova
recalled an
incident from her own experience. A family from Zelenodolsk
turned to her and
asked for help for a relative who had fallen under the influence
of Jehovah's
Witnesses. At the time the girl was a student.
"Two
evangelists
approached her on the street. And they literally got to the
point because at
the time the girl was having difficulties at school and problems
with a young
man," Iren Bobrova related.
Soon the
girl left
her family and began spending more and more time away from home
and she even
quit school, after which her parents sounded the alarm.
"The
parents and
friends of the girl were determined to help her leave the sect.
Great efforts
were made so that the girl would return to the social
environment," Iren
Bobrova related.
The
psychologist said
that it is quite possible to notice that a person has fallen
under the
influence of Jehovah's Witnesses or under the influence of
another sect. As a
rule, he becomes secretive and begins to be drawn to strange
literature.
In order
to protect
one's loved one from the influence of the Jehovah's Witnesses or
any other sect
the psychologist advises giving him timely support by turning to
specialists.
In the
opinion of a
religious studies scholar and legal expert, Larisa Astakhova, it
is necessary
to get rid of Jehovah's Witnesses as an extremist organization.
"Jehovah's
Witnesses—this
is the first experience in Russia when a religious organization
was ruled to be extremist and was banned. Since the government
has banned them
as a group of an extremist nature, that means it is necessary to
get rid of
them," Larisa Astakhova said.
Astakhova
said that
Tatarstan is the first region where an attempt was made to bring
adherents of
the Jehovists to criminal accountability. At the time, in the
1990s, a girl
died in Kazan, after her parents forbade physicians to give her
a blood
transfusion.
An
assistant of the
dean for missionary work in Zakamsk district, a religious
studies expert,
Sergei Zhelezniak, thinks that the teaching of Jehovah's
Witnesses is
destructive for a person's life and dangerous for his health.
However,
in order to
get rid of the sect, Sergei Zhelezniak thinks, it is necessary
in the first
place to decapitate it.
"I would
expel from
the country all missionaries who have come here. I would put
their higher
leadership in jail. It is the upper level that it is necessary
to eliminate and
not ensnare ordinary adherents, who are victims themselves,"
Sergei
Zhelezniak said.
A member
of the
Council of Ulemas of the Ecclesiastical Board of Muslims of the
republic of
Tatarstan, Niiaz Sabirov, thinks that Jehovah's Witnesses, like
any other sect,
cause great harm. They destroy not only families but also they
can destroy the
whole society.
Jehovah's
Witnesses
are a nontraditional movement. Their ideology and their
convictions are not
consistent with our religions. It is very important to preserve
our customs and
traditions, which our ancestors followed," Niiaz Sabirov said.
In
Sabirov's opinion,
not only the state should struggle with Jehovah's Witnesses but
the people
themselves also. (tr. by PDS, posted 2 November 2019)
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