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\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\nUnder the guise of battling \u00e2\u20ac\u0153extremism,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Russian authorities decided last month to ban the Jehovah’s Witnesses religious organization. The decision to prohibit the organization, seize its property, and shut down its operations came in the form of a Supreme Court ruling upholding a request from the Russian Ministry of Justice. The estimated 170,000 Russian adherents are forbidden from meeting or worshiping, and could risk jail for doing so. Some of the group’s literature and publications were already banned in Russia as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153extremist,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and now, all of it is. The move follows similar attacks on religious freedom by Russian authorities aimed at evangelical Christians and other Christian denominations.\u00c2\u00a0 \u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
According to the Interfax news service, Russian Justice Ministry attorney Svetlana Borisova told the Russian Supreme Court that the Jehovah\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Witnesses \u00e2\u20ac\u0153pose a threat to the rights of the citizens, public order and public security.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Among other concerns, Borisova noted that the group’s religious-based opposition to blood transfusions was a violation of Russia’s healthcare laws. The state also claimed that the Jehovah\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Witnesses were violating a 2002 Russian law banning \u00e2\u20ac\u0153extremism,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d a statute that has been weaponized and abused to harass multiple religious groups, particularly Christian organizations and denominations not affiliated with the Russian state.<\/p>\n
The Supreme Court agreed with the Justice Ministry that the Jehovah\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Witnesses were extreme, and therefore upheld the ban on April 20. Under the verdict, Judge Yury Ivanenko ordered the disbanding of all 400 local branches of the group, as well as the confiscation of their property by the government. The court cited a wide array of publications and documents \u00e2\u20ac\u201d some of which the organization claimed were planted by authorities \u00e2\u20ac\u201d in justifying the ban and asset forfeiture. The ruling makes all religious activity by adherents of the organization, which prosecutors described as a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153sect\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153cult,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d illegal and punishable as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153extremism\u00e2\u20ac\u009d under criminal law. An effort days later seeking to have the order declared illegal was denied.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
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In a statement after the ruling, Jehovah\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Witnesses spokesman Yaroslav Sivulsky blasted the ruling. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We are greatly disappointed by this development and deeply concerned about how this will affect our religious activity,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said, adding that the group, which shuns politics and violence, planned to appeal the decision, potentially to an international tribunal. On the Jehovah\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Witnesses website, which was also declared to be illegal extremism, the group warned that the ruling would also lead \u00e2\u20ac\u0153to grim consequences to the adherents of different denominations,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d as well as potentially damaging \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Russia\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s international image.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Foreign governments, the European Union, and non-governmental organizations also rushed to decry the controversial ban. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The supreme court\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ruling to shut down the Jehovah\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Witnesses in Russia is a terrible blow to freedom of religion and association in Russia,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d argued Rachel Denber, deputy Europe and Central Asia director for the group Human Rights Watch. The EU’s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153European External Action Service\u00e2\u20ac\u009d put out a statement slamming the ban as well, pointing to Russia’s Constitution and to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Russia’s international commitments and international human rights standards.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Numerous governments issued condemnations of the action, too.<\/p>\n
While reports of President Trump speaking out were reportedly false, the Trump administration’s State Department did release a statement condemning the ruling. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The United States is extremely concerned by the Russian government’s actions targeting and repressing members of religious minorities, including Jehovah’s Witnesses, under the pretense of combating extremism,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said State Department spokesman Mark Toner, adding that Russian authorities should not misuse legislation on terror and extremism to target \u00e2\u20ac\u0153peaceful religious minorities.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d He, too, pointed to Russia’s Constitution and said that freedom of religion is not only guaranteed, but \u00e2\u20ac\u0153critical\u00e2\u20ac\u009d to peaceful and stable societies. \u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
One organization that celebrated the ruling was the Russian Orthodox Church, which said the Supreme Court made the right decision and that the ban would protect families. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153This will save families and people\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s lives and I think a (court) ruling of this kind is only welcome,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d declared Metropolitan Ilarion, the head of Moscow Patriarchate\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Department for External Church Relations. Conceding that the ruling would not be able to completely eradicate the Jehovah\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Witnesses in Russia, he said it was good that the group’s impact would be reduced. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153To paraphrase it, this product won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be represented anymore on the market of existing denominations of Christianity,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Metropolitan Ilarion said, adding that the ROC had not been involved in the court ruling.<\/p>\n
Of course, it is true that there are key differences between the Jehovah’s Witnesses and Christendom more broadly. Indeed, the Witnesses, who eschew politics, violence, and especially military service, hold some highly unorthodox views on the Bible. For example, they do not accept the traditional Christian doctrine of the Trinity, or the existence of hell. Perhaps most importantly, the Jehovah’s Witnesses deny the deity of Christ, arguing that He was a created being. The Witnesses, well known for proselytizing worldwide, also have their own translation of the Bible, known as the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153New World Translation,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d that tends to support their doctrines.<\/p>\n
But despite their unorthodox doctrines, the Witnesses are hardly alone in facing the wrath of Russian authorities under strongman Vladimir Putin. In fact, the same statutes ostensibly targeting \u00e2\u20ac\u0153extremism\u00e2\u20ac\u009d have also been used to target more traditional Christians, including protestants, evangelicals, and more. Last summer, Moscow even adopted a law purporting to ban Christian evangelism anywhere outside of church buildings registered with the state. The law also purports to ban house churches and requires missionaries to have government permits, along with myriad other draconian restrictions that have been widely condemned by Christians across Russia and around the world.<\/p>\n
In an open letter, Russia\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Baptist Council of Churches wrote that the new religion regime would \u00e2\u20ac\u0153create conditions for the repression of all Christians.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Any person who mentions their religious view or reflections out loud or puts them in writing, without the relevant documents, could be accused of illegal missionary activity,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d the Baptist Council warned. In an open letter to Russian leader Putin, Sergei Ryakhovsky, head of the Protestant Churches of Russia, warned of even more terrifying implications. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Soviet history shows us how many people of different faiths have been persecuted for spreading the word of God,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153This law brings us back to that shameful past.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
But one ostensibly Christian church has fared very well under the Putin government \u00e2\u20ac\u201d the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC). Many conservatives and Christians in the United States have even cited that fact as supposed evidence of Putin’s Christianity and support for traditional values. However, as\u00c2\u00a0The New American<\/em>‘s Senior Editor William F. Jasper\u00c2\u00a0explained in a cover story for this magazine<\/a>, there is much more to the story than meets the eye. The first thing that must be understood, he explained, is that Putin is a creature of the Soviet KGB, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153a truly diabolical organization nonpareil, which stood for murder, terror, and grand deception.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n Indeed, the mass-murdering Soviet Communist Party used the KGB to brutally suppress religion, persecute and ruthlessly torture Christians, demolish churches, infiltrate religious organizations to subvert them, and much more. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The KGB destroyed thousands of Christian churches, monasteries, convents, and schools, and slaughtered millions of Christians,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Jasper pointed out. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153But it did not destroy the churches utterly. There remained an underground church, whose members were always at risk of discovery, arrest, torture, and martyrdom. Above ground, the KGB took control of the Russian Orthodox Church, which became a very useful organ of the Soviet atheist state.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n And that extends all the way to the ROC’s present-day leadership. In 2009, Vladimir Mikhailovich Gundyaev, known today as Metropolitan Kirill, was chosen to serve as the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d the highest position of authority in the Russian Orthodox Church. Metropolitan Kirill took over after the death of Patriarch Alexy II, who led the ROC from 1990 and, prior to his post at the head of the ROC, was a longtime KGB agent code-named Drozdov, or \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Blackbird.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d In other words, Jasper explained, he was a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153traitor to his Christian brethren and the God he claimed to serve.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d But he was not alone.<\/p>\n Indeed, all three of the candidates to replace Alexy II were also reliably identified as agents of the KGB\/FSB, including Metropolitan Kirill who ultimately got the job. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153According to material from the Soviet archives, Kirill was a KGB agent (as was Alexei),\u00e2\u20ac\u009d explained Russia expert David Satter, a former Moscow correspondent for the\u00c2\u00a0Financial Times<\/em>\u00c2\u00a0(of London) and the\u00c2\u00a0Wall Street Journal<\/em>, in a 2009 article for\u00c2\u00a0Forbes<\/em>. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153This means he was more than just an informer, of whom there were millions in the Soviet Union. He was an active officer of the organization. Neither Kirill nor Alexei ever acknowledged or apologized for their ties with the security agencies.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 \u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n Of course, the abuse of the term \u00e2\u20ac\u0153extremism\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153religious extremism\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is not unique to Russia under former KGB\/FSB boss Putin. Even in the United States, anti-Christian left-wing extremists in positions of power have gone so far as to smear evangelical\u00c2\u00a0Christians, Catholics, and Orthodox Jews as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153religious extremists\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u201d the same as Hamas, al-Qaeda, and other terrorist organizations \u00e2\u20ac\u201d in an official presentation forced on U.S. troops<\/a>. More recently, official documents revealed that the FBI was\u00c2\u00a0conscripting schoolteachers into the war on \u00e2\u20ac\u0153extremism<\/a>,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d asking them to report potentially \u00e2\u20ac\u0153extremist\u00e2\u20ac\u009d students who displayed bias against homosexuality or even Islam.<\/p>\n Outside of the United States, the trend is even more advanced \u00e2\u20ac\u201d and more alarming. The United Nations, for example,\u00c2\u00a0has called for a global jihad against free speech<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0and\u00c2\u00a0unapproved “ideologies” under the guise of stopping \u00e2\u20ac\u0153extremism<\/a>\u00e2\u20ac\u009d on the Internet. In Europe, Europol, the fledgling EU \u00e2\u20ac\u0153law enforcement\u00e2\u20ac\u009d agency,\u00c2\u00a0announced plans to censor the Internet to tackle \u00e2\u20ac\u0153extremism<\/a>.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d And in the United Kingdom, even believing in unapproved \u00e2\u20ac\u0153conspiracy theories\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and End-Times theology was labeled by\u00c2\u00a0then-Prime Minister David Cameron as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153non-violent extremism\u00e2\u20ac\u009d that must be battled by governments and the UN<\/a>.<\/p>\n Unfortunately for Christians and dissidents in Russia and all around the world, the fast-expanding global war on \u00e2\u20ac\u0153extremism\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is likely to target those who believe in liberty, the Bible, and more. Americans, at least, whose religious freedom and free-speech rights are protected by the First Amendment, must ensure that those rights continue to be protected. The alternative is unlimited government, tyranny, and ultimately, persecution of those who disagree with the establishment and speak the truth. While you may not be a Jehovah’s Witness in Russia, they will certainly not be the last to find themselves in the crosshairs of a would-be almighty state.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 \u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n Alex Newman, a foreign correspondent for\u00c2\u00a0<\/em>The New American, is normally based in Europe. Follow him on Twitter\u00c2\u00a0@ALEXNEWMAN_JOU<\/a><\/em>\u00c2\u00a0or on\u00c2\u00a0Facebook<\/a>. He can be reached at\u00c2\u00a0anewman@thenewamerican.com<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>.<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/em>\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Under the guise of battling \u00e2\u20ac\u0153extremism,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Russian authorities decided last month to ban the Jehovah’s Witnesses religious organization. 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