Scholars call out Putin and the 'escalation' of persecution against Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia

[Isabella]

A group of 50 religion scholars from around the world is calling on President Vladimir Putin and his administration to end the persecution of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia.

The scholars' statement, released Thursday, follows the Center for Studies on New Religions’ one-day conference, “Jehovah’s Witnesses and Their Opponents: Russia, the West, and Beyond,” held online from Vilnius, Lithuania, in early September.

“As institutions and individuals concerned with religious freedom, we have followed the events in Russia with increasing alarm,” the CESNUR statement reads.

Among those events is a reported armed raid of 110 homes of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia’s Voronezh region in July that the scholars call the “largest number of coordinated raids on Jehovah’s Witnesses in modern Russia” and an “escalation” in the persecution of Witnesses in the country.

More than 170 Jehovah’s Witnesses have reportedly been imprisoned or put in pre-trial detention in Russia since 2017 for practicing their faith.

https://www.sightmagazine.com.au/news/17366-scholars-call-out-putin-and-the-escalation-of-persecution-against-jehovah-s-witnesses-in-russia

https://www.cesnur.org/2020/jehovahs-witnesses-statement.htm

[Srecko Sostar]

21 hours ago, Isabella said:

the CESNUR statement

Signers include conference speakers J Gordon Melton of Baylor University in Waco, Texas; Massimo Introvigne of CESNUR in Torino, Italy; Raffaella Di Marzio of the Center for Studies on Freedom of Belief, Religion and Conscience in Rome; and other international scholars of religion.

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ABOUT US

Sight Magazine is an editorially independent, Australian-based website covering local and global news and issues from a Christian perspective. ....................For a concise statement of our Christian beliefs, we refer to the Nicene Creed.

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Massimo Introvigne (born June 14, 1955, in Rome) is an Italian sociologist of religion[1] and intellectual property attorney.[2][3] He is a founder and the managing director of the Center for Studies on New Religions (CESNUR), a Turin-based organization which has been described as "the highest profile lobbying and information group for controversial religions".[4] .................In 1972, he joined conservative Catholic group Alleanza Cattolica.[8][better source needed] From 2008 to 2016 he has served as vice-president of the group................. he advocates doctrinaire positions that favour groups like Scientology."[4]  In the mid-1990s, Introvigne testified on behalf of Scientologists in a criminal trial in Lyon.[4]................journalists described Introvigne as a "cult apologist", saying he was tied to the Catholic Alliance and Silvio Berlusconi's then ruling party.[22] Introvigne responded that his scholarly and political activities were not connected................He was the Italian director of the Transylvanian Society of Dracula,............In 1997, J. Gordon Melton and Introvigne organized an event at the Westin Hotel in Los Angeles where 1,500 attendees came dressed as vampires,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

?????? and JW's accepts his "concerns" about their future in Russia :))

[JW Insider]

9 minutes ago, Srecko Sostar said:

?????? and JW's accepts his "concerns" about their future in Russia :))

Even the Devil can be right once in a while. Massimo Introvigne is already on jw.org in half a dozen places.

[TrueTomHarley]

On 10/6/2020 at 2:35 PM, JW Insider said:

Massimo Introvigne is already on jw.org in half a dozen places.

As far as I am concerned, that Wiki article (I assume this is the source—if not, it is exactly what they do these days) is a prime example of what co-founder Larry Sanger complained about —that it is no longer unbiased. It is also the first example I have seen of that unbias going beyond politics. (Granted, I don’t pay overly much attention).

Here the bias is to reinforce the anti-cultists. The goal is to discredit Introvigne. Nothing stated is incorrect (probably) but if Sanger’s complaint hold true in scenarios other that pure political, one side is developed in minute detail, and whoever attempts to develop the other side is overwhelmed, or even overruled. 

There are certain hot areas that continually go back and forth on Wiki. One fellow commented on my blog to the effect that he regularly updated Wiki posts about JWs to keep them “right”, and he had to do it constantly because opposers would change them right back to their hot-button issues. I got the impression that that was his assignment, but I could be wrong—he may just have been an independent apologist. At any rate, he was worried that I immerse myself into these things too much and that it would be wearing on me because among them are so many slimeballs. But as it turns out, I don’t immerse myself. Witness prays that I will read all the negative Reddit comments. In fact, I have read some—not yet on the topic she eagerly thinks she has dirt on, but there are no end of such topics, and I have read some. I even have a Reddit presence, r/truetomharley, but I have tired of it.

I don’t think I have ever seen a complete video production, mostly because they are so self-important or tedious or malevolent that the first minute is a turnoff. Rarely do I sample them, and when I do, rarely do I get beyond a minute. It is my own bias—one can read in a minute what some smug and pedantic boor will take 30 to develop. 

Wiki has its place, but it has long fallen from its unbiased perch. Maybe the best way to appreciate its silly underbelly, which increasingly threatens to become the main event, is to look up an obscure historical figure, and find there two or three paragraphs. And then look up a television series and see every single episode written up in endless detail, often meriting a page of it own. How much of Mr. Ed does one need?

[Patiently waiting for Truth]

Tom seems way off topic as usual but then he is a writer and he loves to just burble on.

@JW Insider is quite funny here. But @Srecko Sostar has it in one. 

The GB are getting desperate it seems and need to be 'part of the world' to continue. 

What is happening to JWs in Russia and a few other places is horrible, but it is not just JWs that are suffering in this world. 

If only the GB would repent or better still stand down completely, then maybe God, through Christ, would help the CCJW move forward. 

JWI, maybe the GB are the devil and can be right once in a while  but still need to be gone.  

 

[Srecko Sostar]

5 hours ago, 4Jah2me said:

What is happening to JWs in Russia and a few other places is horrible, but it is not just JWs that are suffering in this world.

This is essential to understand. Victims are victims, and abusers are abusers.

What with violent behavior in shape of shunning? If JW members use bullying behavior in the form of shunning, "social distance" toward ex members or "spiritually weak" members, we can name it as abusers/victims relation. If third party see this and want to stop such relations between them, what tool will they use? Legal, semi legal, illegal? Some western courts decided that JW internal policies (dogmas) are not of concerns for secular authorities and their citizens. Russian courts said opposite. Both decisions are legal according to different courts understanding and their laws. 

What looks like understanding of individuals inside and outside JWorg? According to JW's belief system in "final day" god will violently destroy all violent people. And spare all victims? This illustration (in form of JW hope) shows how "violence" is justified if you used it against "abusers".

JW people are "neutral" in question of wars, revolutions and other "violent" changes inside societies. And want to be "peaceful", but resolutely refuse to change their "shunning policy" parallel with some other questionable directives and instructions. 

Who is who in Russia or in US, Europe etc?