The right to believe, to worship and witness
The right to change one’s belief or religion
The right to join together and express one’s belief
24 November 2003
BELARUS: Religious freedom survey, November 2003
In its survey analysis of the religious freedom situation in Belarus, Forum 18 News Service notes the various ways in which the Belarusian state limits religious freedom. These include denial of state registration, breaking up home worship meetings, restrictions on religious events held in public, refusal of permission to build, purchase or reclaim premises, and restrictions on the right to invite foreigners for religious work. Although there is a strong Soviet-era tradition of state hostility towards religion in Belarus, government officials currently seem willing to give at least symbolic support for the Belarusian Orthodox Church if this is thought to serve the government's geopolitical interests.
24 November 2003
TURKMENISTAN: President falsely claims no religious prisoners
Under pressure from a draft UN resolution sponsored by the EU and US, the Turkmen president, Saparmurat Niyazov, has defended his record with the claim that Turkmenistan has never had religious prisoners of conscience and cooperates fully with international human rights bodies. However, Forum 18 News Service knows of Jehovah's Witness prisoners and an imam in internal exile. Also imprisoned for his faith was Baptist Shagildy Atakov. Turkmenistan has both consistently failed to cooperate with the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief and other UN human rights agencies and also has this month introduced a harsh new religion law outlawing all unregistered religious activity, which defies international human rights agreements it has signed.
21 November 2003
UZBEKISTAN: Illegal secret police raid is "legal"
Velorom Kasymova, an official who took part in a secret police raid on a Jehovah's Witness meeting, has claimed to Forum 18 News Service that stopping the meeting, interrogating the participants, and banning future meetings is legal, even though she cannot state any legal basis for this despite Forum 18's repeated requests. She claimed that members of a religious organisation can only meet at the address where the community is registered, yet the building is in fact registered to the Jehovah's Witnesses. The unrelated legal articles she quoted forbid: unlawful juridical activity; refusal to register a religious organisations statutes; running children's and young people's clubs; and running labour, literary and other clubs. Also banned is giving religious instruction without specialist religious training or the permission of the central administration office of the religious organisation, and giving religious instruction in a private capacity. Yet none of these activities took place.
20 November 2003
GEORGIA: Orthodox permission needed for religious literature imports
Baptists, Pentecostals, Lutherans, Muslims and Jehovah's Witnesses have told Forum 18 News Service that importing religious literature can be difficult and expensive, or even impossible, due both to obstruction from the Orthodox Patriarchate and also to corruption among officials. There is repeatedly said to be an unpublished instruction to Customs officials from Patriarch Ilya banning the religious literature imports without his permission. Giorgi Andriadze of the Patriarchate told Forum 18 that the Patriarchate only objects to large quantities of non-Orthodox literature being imported. "It's a question of proselytism. If groups bring in millions of books, that means they intend to proselytise. If they bring in enough for their own followers, it's their right." The Armenian Apostolic and Jewish communities have not had any problems with literature importation.
20 November 2003
GEORGIA: Can religious minorities publish religious literature?
The Salvation Army, True Orthodox Church, and Pentecostals have told Forum 18 News Service that they cannot print religious literature in Georgia, as publishers refuse to accept it without the blessing of the Orthodox Patriarchate. Giorgi Andriadze, parliamentary secretary of the Orthodox Patriarchate denies that it has any influence over what publishers may produce. "They can publish what they like," he told Forum 18. Tamaz Papuashvili, of the State Chancellery, told Forum 18 that his office has received complaints about the difficulty of printing religious literature, but says Protestants and others should simply ignore the Patriarchate. "They know perfectly well that the Patriarchate is not a state organ." Latin-rite Catholics, Assyrian Chaldean Catholics, Yezidis, and Baptists have not encountered problems in printing publications.
20 November 2003
TAJIKISTAN: Religious freedom survey, November 2003
In its survey analysis of the religious freedom situation in Tajikistan, Forum 18 News Service reports on the confusion that leads to officials wrongly insisting that registration of religious communities is compulsory. Unregistered religious communities do encounter difficulties with the authorities, but Forum 18 has been told that excesses "are not as a rule state policy, but simply the arbitrary actions of local officials." Compared to neighbouring Uzbekistan, Tajikistan generally follows a more lenient policy towards unregistered religious communities. This may be because Tajikistan, after a civil war, is not able to exert such harsh controls as Uzbekistan can. The Tajik authorities are most concerned with controlling Muslim life, because Muslims make up more than 90 per cent of the country's population, and because of the aftermath of the civil war. The possibility exists that government pressure on believers may intensify in the near future, under a proposed new law on religion.
19 November 2003
GEORGIA: Religious minorities concerned by "voluntary" 'Religion and Culture' classes
Leaders of the Yezidi, Jehovah's Witness, Pentecostal, True Orthodox, Latin-rite Catholic, and Assyrian Chaldean Catholic communities have all told Forum 18 News Service of their concerns about school "Religion and Culture" classes being compulsory and confessionally Orthodox, not voluntary and informational. Forum 18 found only one school in Tbilisi offering non-Orthodox religion classes, Rabbi Avimelech Rosenblath of the capital's synagogue describing a state school offering Jewish classes, and some Russian-language schools in the city do not have religion classes. Catholic Bishop Pasotto told Forum 18 that some schools in southern Georgia offer Catholic religion classes. Surprisingly, unregistered Baptists have not complained about the Orthodox classes.
19 November 2003
GEORGIA: Voluntary 'Religion and Culture' classes compulsory, parents complain
Parents of children in Georgian schools have complained to Forum 18 News Service that voluntary "Religion and Culture" school classes are confessionally Orthodox in nature and are compulsory. However Zurab Tsokhvrebadze, of the Orthodox Patriarchate, denied that religious education is confessional Orthodox. "Schools are state-run and religious education is general Christian education," he told Forum 18. "Teachers have to follow the state syllabus. It is impossible for teachers to propagandise for any one faith, including Orthodoxy." Tamaz Papuashvili, of the State Chancellery, is critical of the system. "It is only compulsory in that teachers give pupils the lowest possible mark if they don't go." and said that pupils are sometimes required to pray. "I haven't visited these classes, but parents tell me this," he told Forum 18. "Some think it's good, others think it's bad. I believe prayer should be in church, not in school."
19 November 2003
TURKMENISTAN: Secret police close down mosque refusing to go against Islam
The State Security Ministry (MSS) (ex-KGB) has closed down a mosque for not putting the Ruhnama (Book of the Soul), President Saparmurat Niyazov's spiritual writings, on the same stand as the Koran during Friday prayers to be filmed for TV, Forum 18 News Service has learnt. Turkmen officials liken the Ruhnama to the Koran or the Bible, and it plays a large role in the President's personality cult, being compulsorily imposed on schools and the wider public. All large mosques are required to put the Ruhnama alongside the Koran during prayers. Forum 18 has learnt that mosque leaders refused to do this, saying it would contradict Islamic teachings to use books other than the Koran in prayers. The MSS interrogated the mosque leader, banned him from attending the mosque or to hold a position at another mosque, and closed down the mosque with locks on the doors. Many mosques and other places of worship have been closed by Turkmen authorities in the past five years.
18 November 2003
BELARUS: Lingering legacy of militant atheism
Forum 18 News Service has found indications that the influence of Soviet-era atheist ideology on Belarus remains strong. Many of the officials who worked for the Soviet-era Council for Religious Affairs reportedly continue to staff the State Committee for Religious and Ethnic Affairs, which has a far more extensive network of officials than similar bodies in Russia. Also, texts used for instruction in state education maintain, for example, that "Religion's promises to give a person everything that he seeks in it are but illusion and deception." and that "no religion was accorded any preference or subjected to any form of oppression" in Belarus after 1918. Pentecostal Assistant Bishop Naum Sakhanchuk has told Forum 18 that the current repression of non-Orthodox confessions is much more closely connected with this atheist legacy than with state support for the Belarusian Orthodox Church. An anonymous Orthodox source agreed, commenting to Forum 18 that the 2002 religion law was not in fact designed to benefit the Patriarchate. "Now the atheists say it is against sects, but they are waiting for the day when they can persecute everybody."
17 November 2003
GEORGIA: "We want legal status!" say minority faiths
Leaders of many religious minorities have told Forum 18 News Service that they want legal status, as without this they cannot own property, maintain bank accounts, or go to law as communal entities. "All confessions were equal until the concordat with the Patriarchate was adopted," Tamaz Papuashvili of the State Chancellery told Forum 18, "then the Patriarchate was given special privileges.". A seemingly disused Soviet-era legal quirk punishes refusal to register congregations and organising religious work with young people. But police recently cited it in a letter to Pentecostal Pastor Nikolai Kalutsky banning him from using his home for religious services without special permission and warning him that if he did this, he would be fined twice the minimum monthly wage. Kalutsky has been prevented from holding services at his home by self-styled Orthodox mobs. Baptist Bishop Malkhaz Songulashvili points out that major politicians have not publicly spoken up for religious freedom and believes the political climate has worsened since the election. "We question the genuineness of the pro-Western, democratic political forces – none of them have raised their voice against religious violence, for example," he told Forum 18.
14 November 2003
GEORGIA: Why can't minority faiths build places of worship?
Latin-rite Catholics, Assyrian Chaldean Catholics, Pentecostals, Yezidis (a uniquely Kurdish ancient faith), True Orthodox, Lutherans, Old Believers, Muslims and Jehovah's Witnesses have all told Forum 18 News Service that the Georgian Orthodox Patriarchate has either caused them problems in or prevented them from acquiring, building or reclaiming places of worship. A leading Yezidi, Agit Mirzoev, told Forum 18 that he had been told by friends of Patriarch Ilya "that it would be an insult for the patriarch to even discuss the subject". However, the Salvation Army, possibly because of its social projects, has not had problems and nor has either the Armenian Apostolic Church, or the Hare Krishna community. The Georgian Orthodox Patriarchate itself is currently building many new churches.