{"id":2638,"date":"2015-06-03T18:07:56","date_gmt":"2015-06-03T15:07:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/news\/2015\/06\/03\/jewish-school-probed-for-extremism-while-jehovahs-witnesses-win-rare-russian-victory\/"},"modified":"2022-12-19T21:56:08","modified_gmt":"2022-12-19T18:56:08","slug":"jewish-school-probed-for-extremism-while-jehovahs-witnesses-win-rare-russian-victory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/jewish-school-probed-for-extremism-while-jehovahs-witnesses-win-rare-russian-victory\/","title":{"rendered":"Jewish School Probed for Extremism While Jehovah’s Witnesses Win Rare Russian Victory"},"content":{"rendered":"

It has been a\u00a0week of\u00a0ups and\u00a0downs for\u00a0religious freedom in\u00a0Russia, with a\u00a0Jewish school having become the\u00a0target of\u00a0an extremism investigation, and\u00a0the beleaguered Jehovah’s Witnesses having gained an\u00a0improbable boost at\u00a0the Justice Ministry’s hand.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors in\u00a0the city of\u00a0Yekaterinburg have removed religious textbooks from\u00a0a local Jewish school to\u00a0review their contents for\u00a0traces of\u00a0extremism, the\u00a0Politsovet news site reported Monday.<\/p>\n

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The\u00a0administration of\u00a0Yekaterinburg’s Ohr Avner Jewish school was told that a\u00a0cultural-linguistic examination would be carried out on\u00a0textbooks about sacred religious texts such as the\u00a0Torah, to\u00a0determine whether they contained extremist materials, according to\u00a0Politsovet.<\/p>\n

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This is not the\u00a0first time the\u00a0Ohr Avner school has ended up in\u00a0hot water with the\u00a0Russian authorities. The\u00a0school faced closure last year after an\u00a0inspection by\u00a0federal government agencies found several violations, ranging from\u00a0its alleged non-compliance with the\u00a0national curriculum to\u00a0poor sanitary conditions, local media reported. Authorities have also complained that the\u00a0school owes more than 40 million rubles ($751,000 at\u00a0the current exchange rate) in\u00a0back rent. The\u00a0school’s administration maintains that it has the\u00a0right to\u00a0occupy the\u00a0premise free of\u00a0charge.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Ohr Avner school was not available for\u00a0comment on\u00a0the latest scandal when contacted Monday afternoon.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the\u00a0Justice Ministry has officially registered Moscow’s branch of\u00a0the Jehovah’s Witnesses as a\u00a0religious organization.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Justice Ministry’s decision, which the\u00a0organization announced Tuesday, represents a\u00a0rare legal victory.<\/p>\n

According to\u00a0the press service of\u00a0the Jehovah’s Witnesses of\u00a0Russia, the\u00a0religious group was banned in\u00a02004 by\u00a0a Moscow court. It was accused of\u00a0recruiting children, prompting believers to\u00a0abandon their families, inciting suicide and\u00a0preventing followers from\u00a0accepting medical treatment, news agency RAPSI reported at\u00a0the time. The\u00a0European Court of\u00a0Human Rights found the\u00a0Moscow court’s decision unjustified in\u00a02010, and\u00a0ruled that it should be overturned.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0much maligned Jehovah’s Witnesses have made many headlines over the\u00a0years for\u00a0the legal troubles they have faced in\u00a0Russia.<\/p>\n

As recently as March of\u00a0this year, a\u00a0court in\u00a0the Krasnodar region denounced the\u00a0group’s local branch as extremist, ordering the\u00a0confiscation of\u00a0their property in\u00a0the area. And\u00a0in December of\u00a0last year, the\u00a0Supreme Court ruled that a\u00a0Jehovah’s Witnesses website and\u00a0three of\u00a0the movement’s religious texts are extremist.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.themoscowtimes.com\/\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It has been a\u00a0week of\u00a0ups and\u00a0downs for\u00a0religious freedom in\u00a0Russia, with a\u00a0Jewish school having become the\u00a0target of\u00a0an extremism investigation, and\u00a0the beleaguered Jehovah’s Witnesses having gained an\u00a0improbable boost at\u00a0the Justice Ministry’s hand. Prosecutors in\u00a0the city of\u00a0Yekaterinburg have…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-news","category-russia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2638"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2638\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5692,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2638\/revisions\/5692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}