I absolutely disagree with Russia banning the JWs and confiscating their property (I believe the undesirable behavior should be banned, NOT the religion), yet this brings me a feeling of joy at the same time. It's so confusing.
St Petersburg Assembly Hall to be given to Russian scientists
by OrphanCrow 25 Replies latest jw friends
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Listener
From JW org posted Dec 25, 2017
https://www.jw.org/en/news/legal/by-region/russia/authorities-seize-assembly-hall-of-jehovahs-witnesses/On December 14, 2017, Russian authorities broke into the Kolomyazhskiy Assembly Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses in St. Petersburg, cordoned off the building, and took control of the property. None of Jehovah’s Witnesses in the hall were injured during the raid, and the building appears to be undamaged.
The Assembly Hall is the largest property that Russian authorities have seized from the Witnesses since the July 17, 2017, ruling of the Appellate Chamber of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation. The Supreme Court ruling ordered the liquidation of all the Witnesses’ legal entities throughout Russia, the banning of their activity, and the seizure of their properties.
The Assembly Hall seats 1,500 and was used for large religious meetings and by local congregations after it was renovated in 2002. Attorneys for the Witnesses learned that the authorities had reregistered the Assembly Hall under the ownership of the Russian Federation. The property has since been transferred to a new owner, a neighboring health center, which has already posted a new sign on the gate.
The seizure follows on the heels of a court ruling just one week earlier that threatens to take possession of the property used by the Witnesses as their national headquarters, located near St. Petersburg. The ruling annulled a 17-year-old contract between the Witnesses’ national headquarters in Russia and the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania. If upheld on appeal, the ruling opens the way for Russian authorities to seize the property and other Witness properties under foreign ownership in Russia.
Jehovah’s Witnesses consider the actions of the Russian government as gross religious intolerance, which has deprived them of not only religious freedom but also their property—much of which was purchased and renovated by Russian citizens of little means. The Witnesses are pursuing every available appeal against the government’s actions, including applications to the European Court of Human Rights and complaints to the UN Human Rights Committee. -
smiddy3
If anybody i don`t care who it is hits their hip pocket it`s fine by me..
Because that`s what the WT is all about $$$$$$
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My Name is of No Consequence
They are appealing to the UN Human Rights Committee? Interesting. Business is business, right?
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Anders Andersen
The ruling annulled a 17-year-old contract between the Witnesses’ national headquarters in Russia and the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania. If upheld on appeal, the ruling opens the way for Russian authorities to seize the property and other Witness properties under foreign ownership in Russia.
Interesting. Apparently the branch office building was owned by Watchtower Pennsylvania, and CCJW Russia then leased it (back)?
Nice way to siphon funds out of a country and protect your real estate portfolio.
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WingCommander
Would anyone be complaining if this were Scientology Centers that the Russian Government had banned and outlawed, then seized their property? I didn't think so. One is as bad as the other!
Fuck the WT!!!! Glad to see a country with some sense taking the initiative to protect it's uneducated citizens from the greedy, manipulative, conniving WT CULT!!!!!
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Doubting Bro
As much as I dislike the WTS, any government seizing privately owned property is frightening. Today, the WT. Tomorrow, you. I am glad that I don't live in a country where unpopular ideas are subject to governmental shutdown.
Punish the actual behavior and compensate individuals that have been harmed by its practices. But, to outright ban a group and just take their property is wrong.
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ttdtt
WingCommader I agree 100%
Let's not forget this is a CULT enslaving people!!!!!!!
FYI they have been going after Scientology just as hard - and deservedly so.
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stuckinarut2
So the Society is going to appeal to the UN Human Rights committee??
Does anyone else see the irony and hypocrisy in that?
The same UN that has been condemned as the Scarlett coloured beast of Revelation? The same UN dept that has the Declaration of Human Rights that states in part no one shall be subjected to religious intolerance or attacks on their family relationships for choosing to change a religious view?
Hopefully the UN will see the obvious irony
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OrphanCrow
AndersAnderson:
Apparently the branch office building was owned by Watchtower Pennsylvania, and CCJW Russia then leased it (back)?Something like that
The property, that the Russian JWs contributed funds and labor towards and had owned at the beginning, was transferred (given away) to the American corporation back in 2000, I believe. It was when the org was facing yet another court case in Russia and they had been banned in Moscow at the time. They transferred ownership of the Russian donations out of their own country in anticipation of this very moment.
Basically, they engaged in quasi-fraudulent behavior and now they are using that behavior to whine about losing their property
And noteworthy too is the failure of the org to scream about the "religion" being discriminated against. Now, the concern is that Russia is being bad towards the org doing business in Russia.
Yeah. Well that was the whole idea all along. As a religion, the org was doing business that wasn't in their charter as a religion to do. And now they whine. Typically, the org is following a century of WT deceptive behavior - they want their cake and they want to eat it too.
The org has spent over a century trying to deceive everyone around them - they pretend to be a religion and yet the org's purpose is to siphon money from other countries around the world all the while claiming that the American corporation is "helping" foreign JWs. It is an upside down and backwards corporate structure that claims to be a religion