Russia planning to destroy JW's literature

[Micah]

RUSSIA: "I've never encountered the practice of destroying religious literature before"

By Felix Corley, Forum 18 News Service

Judge Patimat Dadayeva in Russia's North Caucasus republic of Dagestan has ordered up to 70 copies of translations of 15 different Islamic books, by the late Turkish Muslim theologian Said Nursi, to be destroyed. She refused to tell Forum 18 News Service why she ordered their destruction and refused to order other Islamic books seized from local Muslim Ziyavdin Dapayev to be returned. "This is blasphemy," Dapayev's lawyer Murtazali Barkayev told Forum 18. "I've never encountered the practice of destroying religious literature in Russia before." Four more works by Nursi were in March banned and placed on the Federal List of Extremist Materials. Courts in several places in Russia are also seeking to ban more Jehovah's Witness publications. Elsewhere, prosecutors in Tomsk have today (21 March) failed in their appeal against an earlier court decision rejecting their suit to have the book The Bhagavad-gita As It Is declared extremist. This text is the most important book for Hare Krishna devotees. Tomsk Regional Prosecutor's Office will decide whether to appeal against the latest decision once the Regional Court has issued its full written decision, spokesperson Svetlana Krimskaya told Forum 18.

Patimat Dadayeva, the Judge in Russia's North Caucasian republic of Dagestan who ordered up to seventy copies of fifteen different books by the late Turkish Muslim theologian Said Nursi destroyed, refuses to say why she ordered their destruction or how it will be carried out. "There's a special procedure for this, but I don't have to explain it to you," she told Forum 18 News Service from Makhachkala's Lenin District Court on 21 March, two days after handing down her decision. She refused to say why she refused to order other Islamic books seized from local Muslim Ziyavdin Dapayev to be returned. "This is blasphemy," Dapayev's lawyer Murtazali Barkayev told Forum 18. "I've never encountered the practice of destroying religious literature in Russia before."

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I have not clicked on any of the sites that are listed in the article, so be careful. I have no idea where they will lead. Thanks!!!

[trottigy]

We are extermeists and against other religions - WOW!

Look at this quote:

On local television last month, the city’s chief Russian Orthodox priest, who is a confidant of the region’s most powerful politicians, gave a sermon that was repeated every few hours. His theme: Protestant heretics.

“We deplore those who are led astray — those Jehovah’s Witnesses, Baptists, evangelicals, Pentecostals and many others who cut Christ’s robes like bandits, who are like the soldiers who crucified Christ, who ripped apart Christ’s holy coat,” declared the priest, the Rev. Aleksei D. Zorin.

Such language is familiar to Protestants in Stary Oskol, who number about 2,000 in a city of 225,000.

The Rev. Vladimir Pakhomov, the minister of the Methodist church, recalled a warning from an F.S.B. officer to one of his parishioners: “ ‘Protestantism is facing difficult times — or maybe its end.’ ”

source (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/24/world/europe/24church.html?_r=2&scp=4&sq=russia&st=nyt&oref=slogin)

Nothing extreme there

Interesting video

http://video.nytimes.com/video/2008/04/23/world/1194817098599/a-crackdown-on-russian-protestants.html

[Greenfield]

I have not clicked on any of the sites that are listed in the article, so be careful. I have no idea where they will lead. Thanks!!!

Thanks for sharing Micah. Forum 18 is safe to read, they seem to be focused on issues of religious freedom. There's a lot of stuff on their website about the Witnesses actually, and it seems to be neutral.

[rbrown1205]

The first link took me to an unrelated prankster you tube video!!!

[Greenfield]

The first link took me to an unrelated prankster you tube video!!!

You're right! I'm sure a mod will come fix it soon.

[Micah]

The first link took me to an unrelated prankster you tube video!!!

You're right! I'm sure a mod will come fix it soon.

HA!!! That's wierd......... Good video. Sorry had to watch. LOL

[trottigy]

The first link took me to an unrelated prankster you tube video!!!

You're right! I'm sure a mod will come fix it soon.

HA!!! That's wierd......... Good video. Sorry had to watch. LOL

That was WAY!!! better than the story!!! Do you really want it fixed?

[Greenfield]

That was WAY!!! better than the story!!! Do you really want it fixed?

I like Micah as news anchor. He gives us a long article but also some random YouTube video.

[retroHelen]

I have occasionally looked at Forum 18 for some years now. UK has a similar organisation Amnesty International. They neutrally look at all human rights abuses around the world and report on them and petition the governments perpetrating them to abide by human rights laws these governments have usually signed up to so they can belong to various international peace or trade alliances.

I remember the outcry caused when a previous government in Georgia allowed the beating of our brothers and burned a large warehouse shipment of our literature and Forum 18 and Amnesty International as well as our official website publicised the beatings and burning, with pictures, to many syndicated newspapers around the 'free' world.