Tajikistan bans the Truth!!!

Tajikistan has banned Jehovah's Witnesses throughout the country, including stripping the organisation of its legal status and giving it a notice that they should stop all of their activities. A Culture Ministry official cited as reasons for the ban including that they refuse military service and proclaim their faith in public. It appears Tajikistan has cemented their status as a backwards country and religious persecutor.

For more information on this, visit Forum 18.

Back in the USSR...

Jehovah's Witnesses in Uzbekistan are increasingly fearful that their activities will soon be banned in the country altogether. At the moment their is only one registered congregation that is legal, and it seems that this congregation could too be stripped of its legality. They fear a return to the Soviet days when they were also banned in the country. To read more on this story, visit Forum 18.

The ConVersion Code

Roman Catholic, Orthodox, mainstream Protestant and now evangelical groups have joined together to create a common code of conduct for religious conversions that would allow Christians to spread their religion while avoiding conflicts with other faiths. The World Council of Churches, World Evangelical Alliance and the Vatican are in the process of talks that create a code that would ease the tensions with Muslims and other religions that are worried about losing adherents. For example in the largely Hindu Indian state of Rajasthan, proselytizing carries a punishment of five years imprisonment.

Source - http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/world/wire/sns-ap-christians-conversion-code,0,1695197.story

Religious minorities suffer in Iraq mess

The recent suicide bombings againgst the Yazidi secti in Iraq have brought to the fore the insecurity of many minority religious groups in the country. These minority religions make up less than 3% of the total population, and this figure is dwindling as many of them leave the country, hoping to avoid being targeted or simply get caught up in intra-Islam fighting.

One of the more interesting minority groups which are fleeing the country is the Sabean Mandaeans, a group that follows the teachings of John the Baptist. Their number has gone from 25,000 in 2003 to 5,000 in 2007. For more information on this group, check out their Wikipedia article.

Source - http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/world/wire/sns-ap-iraq-religious-minorities,0,3688910.story

Doctors refusing treatments on medical grouns

Although we are usually concerned with issues arising out of a patient's refusal of medical treatment (abortion, transfusions, euthanasia, etc.), some Doctors have been getting into hot water after refusing treatment due to their religious convictions.

USA Today reports:

When does the freedom to practice religion become discrimination?
The California Supreme Court is being asked to answer that question when it hears a legal dispute between a lesbian mom and two doctors who refused to artificially
inseminate her for religious reasons.
...
The dispute arose in 2000 after San Diego-area doctors Christine Brody and Douglas Fenton refused to artificially inseminate Benitez, a lesbian who lives with her partner, Joanne Clark, in Oceanside, north of San Diego.
...
In 2001, Benitez sued the doctors, claiming that they violated California's anti-discrimination laws that protect gays and lesbians.

Apparently, over 40 differents groups have filed with the court to be heard over the matter, both on the side of Doctor's religious rights and the opposing side.

Persecution continues in former USSR

With intense persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses in Kazakhstan, Armenia and Georgia by their respective governments, officials and religious clerics, the former USSR and surrounding areas have given us some horrifying stories.

One of these countries that has been particular bad of late is Uzbekistan. Some Jehovah's Witnesses have recently been freed from a forced labour camp known as Camp No. 29 in Uzbekistan where they have been held for crimes such as "being a member of a banned religious organisation" and "illegally teaching religion".

They reported on conditions at the camp:

"drinking water is contaminated with chlorine, salt and sand. Prisoners are assigned to the production of quicklime and household soap. The manufacturing
processes used are harmful to health... this means that levels of sickness among prisoners are very high... on arrival prisoners are forced through a corridor of
guards, who beat them from both sides with 30 inch truncheons... prisoners are forced to clean out the communical toilet with their bare hands..."

Truly barbaric!

Vatican vs China

The Pope has written a letter to China's governing authorities asking them to respect religious freedom in their country and to investigate re-starting diplomatic ties that were severed in the 1950s.

The Roman Catholic Church doesn't officiacially operate in China, but people who share the faith come under the organisation called the 'Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association' which numbers around four million and appoints its own Bishops. There is estimated to be millions more followers that operate underground and owe allegiance to the Roman Pope.
Source - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6261260.stm

More persecution in Uzbekistan

From the Forum 18 News Service:

Samarkand City Court sentenced Jehovah's Witness Irfon Hamidov on 14 May to two years in a labour camp on charges of "illegally" teaching his faith in a trial Jehovah's Witnesses say was marred by "procedural violations".

This is the latest in a long line of persecution against JWs in Uzbekistan. Only one of the Jehovah's Witness congregations are allowed to operate in the whole of Uzbekistan, the many other congregations operate "illegally" against threats of fines and beatings. Some brothers and sisters have been fined amounts so large that they have been faced with not being able to buy food for 8 months (no doubt only able to survive by the charity of others in the congregation).

U.N. HRC passes resolution against religious defamation

This news article comments on a resolution that has just been pushed through the United Nations Human Rights Council that promotes a global prohibition on the defamation of religion. It was supported mainly by Islamic nations as a response to the "Danish Mohammed cartoons" controversy.

It mentions only Islam and no other religions, and has already begun to draw alot of criticism from other human rights organisations as well as Japan, Canada, South Korea and many European nations.

Israel moves towards religious freedom

The Attorney-General of Israel has ruled that the Haifa Convention Center in Haifa, Israel, must not continue to discriminate against Jehovah's Witnesses, who wished to rent out space at the centre, but were turned down due to pressure from religious authorities and the town's mayor. Click here to read the story as reported in the Jerusalem Post. Here is an excerpt:

Atai Tsimhoni, the attorney that represented Jehovah's Witnesses, said that "the court and the attorney-general reached the right conclusion. A minority group of haredim cannot force their will on a business that provides services to the public."