{"id":778,"date":"2017-04-21T12:30:50","date_gmt":"2017-04-21T12:30:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/europeandrussiablog\/?p=778"},"modified":"2017-04-21T12:30:50","modified_gmt":"2017-04-21T12:30:50","slug":"russia-just-effectively-banned-jehovahs-witnesses-from-the-country","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/europeandrussiablog\/2017\/04\/21\/russia-just-effectively-banned-jehovahs-witnesses-from-the-country\/","title":{"rendered":"Russia just effectively banned Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses from the country"},"content":{"rendered":"

(WASHINGTON POST):\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

For the past few months, Russia’s 175,000 Jehovah’s Witnesses have been on edge. After years, even decades, of persecution against the religious group, the Kremlin moved to get rid of the denomination for good. In February, Jehovah’s Witnesses\u00a0were labeled \u201cextremists\u201d and locked out of their offices.<\/p>\n

Then\u00a0Kremlin officials launched a legal effort to ban the faith.\u00a0That case quickly wound its way to the Supreme Court, where Justice Ministry attorney Svetlana Borisova said the Christian group posed a \u201cthreat\u201d to \u201cpublic order and public security.\u201d<\/p>\n

In court, Borisova brought in\u00a0former followers to testify that top church officials took \u201ctotal control\u201d of their\u00a0\u201cintimate life, education and work.\u201d Lawyers for the Jehovah’s Witnesses roundly denied those allegations. It didn’t matter.\u00a0After six days of hearings, the Supreme Court sided with the government on Thursday.<\/p>\n

They ruled that\u00a0the group’s St. Petersburg headquarters and 395 churches could be seized and liquidated.\u00a0All church activities, including worship and door-to-door evangelizing, were banned. Those who defy the ruling face a fine of several thousand dollars and six to 10 years in prison.<\/p>\n

Human Rights Watch criticized the decision\u00a0Thursday as\u00a0a \u201cterrible blow to freedom of religion and association in Russia.\u201d And religious leaders promised to appeal. But they’re not hopeful. In the Soviet\u00a0era, religion (Karl Marx’s\u00a0\u201copiate of the masses\u201d) was officially banned. Jehovah’s Witnesses were targeted as spies and enemies. One group was shipped off to Siberia.<\/p>\n

The church’s 170,000 Russian members don’t vote, won’t serve in the military and refuse to attend national celebrations that glorify violence. That means they often avoid state-sponsored rallies celebrating, say, the annexation of Crimea.\u00a0That’s a problem for Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is naturally suspicious of groups with pro-Western sympathies (the sect is based in the United States). It’s also a way for him to show support to the Russian Orthodox Church.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(WASHINGTON POST):\u00a0 For the past few months, Russia’s 175,000 Jehovah’s Witnesses have been on edge. After years, even decades, of persecution against the religious group, the Kremlin moved to get rid of the denomination for good. In February, Jehovah’s Witnesses\u00a0were labeled \u201cextremists\u201d and locked out of their offices. Then\u00a0Kremlin officials launched a legal effort to ban the faith.\u00a0That case quickly… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[23,22,10],"class_list":["post-778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-jehovahs-witnesses","tag-putin","tag-russia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/europeandrussiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/europeandrussiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/europeandrussiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/europeandrussiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/europeandrussiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=778"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/europeandrussiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/778\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":779,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/europeandrussiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/778\/revisions\/779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/europeandrussiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/europeandrussiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/europeandrussiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}