Search the Community

Question: Why did Jehovah’s Witnesses recently organize a worldwide letter writing campaign due to the persecution in Russia and not for other countries where there is also persecution?

THE PRESTIGIOUS NEWSWEEK MAGAZINE INFORMS PERSECUTION TO WITNESSES IN RUSSIA. WITNESSES OF JEHOVAH IN RUSSIA INTERROGATED BY THE POLICE MASKED WITH AMETRALADORAS 1 YEAR AFTER THE PROHIBITION With their balaclavas and their machine guns, the police of four Russian cities have assaulted the houses of Jehovah's Witnesses for the past two weeks and have brought members of the religious group to interrogate them, sources related to the group told Newsweek. In Russia, where the Orthodox Christian Church has deep ties to the highest levels of the Kremlin, the government has labeled Jehovah's Witnesses an "extremist" sect. The decision was made exactly one year ago, in April 2017, and came into effect only a few months later when the Supreme Court of Russia dismissed an appeal. The administrative center of the group in St. Petersburg, Russia, was dissolved accordingly, and Jehovah's Witnesses were forced to begin secretly worshiping in their homes after nearly 400 local closed chapters. Meanwhile, many say they have faced systematic harassment by security forces. Since January, group members say they have had their homes raided on at least seven separate occasions, four of which took place in April. "It's a new wave of persecution, we do not know what's going on," Yaroslav Sivulsky, a Jehovah's Witness of Russia who now lives in exile in Latvia, told Newsweek. "If they wanted, they could put several Jehovah's Witnesses in jail because they know that Jehovah's Witnesses are worshiping in their house and can easily find them." http://www.newsweek.com/jehovahs-witnesses-russia-ban-police-903021