Fish,
Barb’s links would help you understand this issue if you would read them.
Russia enacted its extremism law in 2002, just months after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the US. Two of the law's provisions defined religious extremism as promoting the "exclusivity, superiority, or lack of equal worth of an individual" and "incitement of religious discord" in connection with acts or threats of violence.
Officials began to interpret the first provision as promoting the superiority of a belief, and in 2007, Russia amended the law to allow prosecution for inciting religious discord even in the absence of any threat or act of violence.
Since every group believes its own dogma to be in some sense superior, any group could face an extremism charge. And since inciting "religious discord" is no longer linked to advocating or perpetrating violence, those advocating religious views face potential criminal charges of incitement. Other religious groups wishing to practice openly in Russia either don’t have these teachings as part of their religious dogma or they have removed them from materials distributed in Russia. In other words, they complied with the law.
In early 2014, a regional court overturned a 2012 ban of the JW website, and in 2015 the Russian Justice Ministry allowed the Jehovah's Witnesses to operate as a legal community in Moscow. So it is clear the Russian judicial system is trying to be fair minded with the dubs. The Dubs continue to place themselves in the cross hairs of Russian laws because they won’t completely remove teachings related to end of time and the complete destruction of all other religions and governments and their own superiority, which Russian law views as extremist and dangerous.
It’s not just the dubs. A court in 2007 banned the Russian translations of 14 Quran commentaries by Turkish theologian Said Nursi due to his asserting Islam's superiority. It is important to note that followers of Islam in Russia have disavowed Nursi’s writings, distanced themselves from ISIS and other Islamic extremists who preach jihad, the forced spread of Islam, end of time armageddons and superiority over other religions. In September 2013, the Novorossiisk District Court banned a translation of the Quran itself and ordered its destruction, a ruling that was overturned three months later.
The Dark Lords can’t be the Dark Lords without preaching and teaching that they alone have god’s spirit and every other religion and government will soon be destroyed. That is why they are in trouble; they do not deserve our sympathy, and the Russian judicial system has shown restraint and patience, systematically trying to get the Dark Lords and others to comply.
Does Vlad protect the Russian Othrodox Church? Of course. Is Russia reverting back to the pre-Cold War days of suppression and oppression? Perhaps a bit, but the Russian courts are acting like courts in other democratic countries; some interpret the laws one way, and other courts interpret the laws in a different way. The process is working so far; the only thing not working is the arrogant self appointed narcissistic ego driven Dark Lords, who will be forced to re-write every publication distributed in Russia and every teaching proselytized in public in order to comply with the law and avoid being dissolved. My money is on Vlad and his Impalers, and unless the Russian law is changed, which is unlikely to occur, the Dark Lords are going to be on the losing side of this in Russia and unlikely to gain sympathy from the EU. X-tian apologists may whine about it, but Russia has shown restraint, patience and is well within its rights to place reasonable limits on religious freedom.
Religions in Russian and everywhere else are free to believe what they wish. Teaching these beliefs to others and acting on them are a much different matter. I may believe I can fly. But I don’t act on it because I can’t, and I don’t teach others that they can fly because they can’t either. There are many cities that have laws against trying to fly off of buildings, with or without parachutes or mechanical aids and irrespective of one’s attempts to kill one-self. The reason is that your stupid falling body may harm others.
In early US history, Puritans routinely publicly humiliated ‘sinners’ in stockades, burned a few ‘witches’ at the stake and killed a few heretics and children for various ‘crimes’ against the church. Churches supported bans on blacks marrying whites and marriages between gays and lesbians. Religious ‘freedom’ is not a guarantee and every nation/state has a compelling interest and right to place appropriate, rational limits on religion. Warren Jeffs is in prison for a reason.
Governments have an inherent right to establish laws that will limit a group’s abilities to harm others. That is all this is about. Vlad and his Impalers believe the Dark Lords are dangerous and can bring no long term good to his country.
And they are right.
