{"id":945,"date":"2012-08-01T21:26:49","date_gmt":"2012-08-01T21:26:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/news\/2012\/08\/01\/jehovahs-witnesses-charged-with-extremism\/"},"modified":"2021-08-18T10:25:35","modified_gmt":"2021-08-18T07:25:35","slug":"jehovahs-witnesses-charged-with-extremism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/jehovahs-witnesses-charged-with-extremism\/","title":{"rendered":"Jehovah&#8217;s Witnesses Charged with Extremism"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align: justify\">Ten Jehovah&#8217;s Witnesses in Chuvashia were charged Monday with criminal acts including the incitement of hatred and extremism in a case that is raising new worries about religious freedom in Russia.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\">&#8220;This situation is a serious breach of the rights of believers in Russia,&#8221; said Sergei Tarasov, a Chuvash human rights activist following the case.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\">&#8220;This is something new \u2014 we have not seen anything like this before,&#8221; he said by phone. &#8220;It creates instability amid an effort to establish an atmosphere of calm and tolerance in our country.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\">The 10 suspects, ages 31 to 64, are accused of distributing banned literature among residents of the towns of Cheboksary, Novocheboksarsk, Kanash and Alatyr. The literature, which is included on a federal list of extremist materials, spreads ideas of exclusivity and superiority and brands those with alternative religious beliefs as inferior, the Investigative Committee said in a statement.<\/div>\n<p> <!--more--> <\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\">According to investigators, the suspects organized a network in the Chuvash towns in November 2009 that spread a religious message denying traditional cultural and moral values and facilitating the incitement of religious and social hostility among residents.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\">Authorities became aware of the &#8220;extremist community&#8221; during the course of a separate criminal investigation involving one of the suspects, a 39-year-old Cheboksary resident, the statement said.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\">The Jehovah&#8217;s Witness community in Russia, which numbers over 130,000 members, has endured a continuous struggle with authorities over its religious beliefs. In 2004, the country&#8217;s highest court labeled 34 of the group&#8217;s publications extremist and banned the activities of its Moscow branch.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\">Tarasov said 29 Jehovah&#8217;s Witness groups have recently ceased activities in Russia through personal choice or because of state intervention.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\">http:\/\/www.themoscowtimes.com<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ten Jehovah&#8217;s Witnesses in Chuvashia were charged Monday with criminal acts including the incitement of hatred and extremism in a case that is raising new worries about religious freedom in Russia. &#8220;This situation is a&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-945","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\/945","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=945"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/945\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5771,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/945\/revisions\/5771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}