The Russian constitution declares "the state is secular and guarantees freedom of religion, equal rights irrespective of religious belief, and the right to worship and profess one’s religion. The law states government officials may prohibit the activity of a religious association for violating public order or engaging in “extremist activity. Russian law identifies Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and Buddhism as the country’s four “traditional” religions and recognizes the special role of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC).
Groups designated “extremist,” “include Jehovah’s Witnesses, the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatars, Hizb ut-Tahrir, Tablighi Jamaat, followers of Turkish Muslim theologian Said Nursi, the Church of Scientology, Falun Gong"....
There are millions of Catholic and Baptist believers in Russia that are not labelled "extremist".
While I'm quite sure that Russian abuses have been made in determinng who is, and who is not extremist, who can deny that other more "civilized" countries have shirked their God ordained responsibility to "bear the sword" and by default enable religious abuses for those trapped in the Watchtower system of things?
When I started attending a different church, my parents never spoke to me again, refused to see their two precioius grandsons when they were born and refused to notify me if a beloved family member got sick etc. Everyone knows that if you attend a different chuch after being a JW, you are viewed as being in league with Satan. My father and brothers, all serving as elders and Ministerial servants refused to even call me when my beoved mother went to hospice. I found out on the internet that my mom died.... two weeks later.
When I found out, I called my dad and told him I was coming over. If he didn't let me in, I was prepared to call the news media and the police and to picket his home in the neighborhood until he did. I got in and found almost any trace of her swept clean. Most of the her belongings and familiar items that would remind someone of her had all been given out to the many JW relatives and friends. I couldn't find anything that would remind me of her. Other people had taken them all away..... except for one item. I remember my mom using this pin cushion when growing up when a garmet tore and needed mending.... a cheap made-in-China pin cushion. I was grateful to get that, but would rather have had family pictures, or something that she valued. Mom probably never thought twice about that pin cushion. It is one of my most prized posessions today.
How can governments who supposedly guarantee the freedom of religion in their constitution, allow a totalitarian "religion" to exist in their borders that makes it all but impossible to have freedom of religion?
But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God's minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil. - Romans 13: 4
Until JW's allow others the same rights that they demand of others, they can all rot in prison as far as I'm concerned.
