Jehovah's Witnesses News

Armenian Apostolic Church leader Catholicos Garegin II (L), the head of the Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kirill (C) and Azerbaijan's Shia Muslim leader Sheikh-ul-Islam Allahshukur Pashazade attend a summit of world religious leaders in Baku. AP photo

BAKU – Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

The head of the Armenian Apostolic Church arrived in Baku Monday in his first-ever trip to Azerbaijan, joining a gathering billed as a summit of some 200 religious leaders from around the world, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Armenian and Azerbaijani services reported.

Catholicos Garegin II was invited by Azerbaijan’s longtime Shi’a Muslim leader, Sheikh ul-Islam Allahshukur Pashazade, and Russian Orthodox Church leader Patriarch Kirill.

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While Aliyev touts Baku’s credentials as a center for interfaith dialogue, however, various human rights organizations – as well as a March report from the U.S. State Department – have raised concerns about religious freedom in Azerbaijan. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 5%

By Jackie Alexander

SILVER SPRINGS – Church-goers arrived at the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses at 18081 S.E. 17th St. Sunday to discover vandals had painted graffiti on the wall.

According to the Marion County Sheriff’s Office, someone used dark green spray paint to deface the facility.

Deputies were unable to find any tracks that might belong to suspects due to church traffic.

Deputies also noted a nearby house had similar graffiti painted on it in the same color paint.

Anyone with information can call the Sheriff’s Office at 732-9111 or Crime Stoppers at 368-7867.

Source: www.ocala.com

Popularity: 12%

By Güzide Ceyhan

It was expected that Turkey’s trial of those accused of murdering three Malatya Protestants would end last week, Güzide Ceyhan notes in a commentary for Forum 18 News Service http://www.forum18.org. But an indictment related to Operation Cage – an alleged Navy plan targeting Turkey’s non-Muslim communities – has been added to the case file but not yet merged with the case. The murders of journalist Hrant Dink, Catholic priest Fr Andrea Santoro and the three Malatya Protestants – Necati Aydin, Tillman Geske and Ugur Yüksel – are expressly identified as helping Cage realise its purposes. This Operation aimed to destabilise the AKP government by both targeting non-Muslims and encouraging protests about their targeting. But what have the criminal trials – very important as they are – really revealed? The tragic irony is that even if Cage is fictitious, freedom of religion or belief for all in Turkey is both limited and under threat. The government has focused on the issues which can most damage the AKP, i.e. possibly Ergenekon-related violent attacks on non-Muslim individuals. But Turkey’s many other serious challenges to freedom of religion or belief have not been resolved. The government needs to take action now on those challenges, whether or not they feature in trial proceedings. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 5%

By Felix Corley, Forum 18 News Service

Protestant Christians in Karakalpakstan in north-west Uzbekistan continue to face raids, threats, fines, literature confiscations and court-ordered destruction of religious literature, Forum 18 News Service has been told. In two recent cases in the region, police demanded that Protestants sign statements that they will not associate with other Christians or have any Christian books in their homes. Students in the region and elsewhere have also been put under pressure to be vigilant against “alien for us religious and extremist influences and the impact of inferior ‘mass culture’ ” The unclearly defined phrase occurs in a government programme for 2010, designated “The Year for the Harmonious Development of the Generation”. Religious activity by school and higher-education students has long attracted official hostility. Courts in the region continue to order religious literature to be destroyed, including Bibles and New Testaments, and to find those found in possession of these books. Religious literature seizures continue throughout Uzbekistan. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 4%

For Immediate Release
April 23, 2010

Nagorno-Karabakh—At 8:00 p.m. on March 30, 2010, local officials raided a peaceful religious meeting of Jehovah’s Witnesses who had gathered for the annual commemoration of the death of Jesus Christ. The officials refused to let the religious meeting continue. Two of the men in attendance were taken to the police station, where they were interrogated, fingerprinted, and held until almost midnight. The officials claimed it was illegal for Jehovah’s Witnesses to meet together because they currently do not have official religious registration from the State Registry Department. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 9%

For Immediate Release
April 22, 2010

Council of state upholds right of conscientious objection for reservist in Greece

ATHENS—The plenary session of the Council of State found that Evangelos Delis, who served in the Greek army in 1992 but who has since converted to being one of Jehovah’s Witnesses, had the right to object to serving as a reservist in the military. When called up for reserve training, Delis requested that he be treated as a conscientious objector and, as such, be assigned to alternative civilian service. This request was denied by the authorities, who decided that a reservist did not have the right to make such a claim. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 12%

For Immediate Release
April 19, 2010

Thousands imprisoned, some still not charged with any crime

ASMARA, Eritrea—International human rights organizations tally the members of religious minorities imprisoned in Eritrea at over 3,000. Among them are 58 Christian men, women and children who are Jehovah’s Witnesses. More than nine months ago, on June 28, 2009, police arrested 23 Witnesses, including women and children as young as two years old, who were meeting peacefully in a private home. The husbands and fathers were already in prison, having been collected up long before. The eldest of the women and some of the children were later released, but two of the children—now three and four years old—are still imprisoned along with their mothers. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 9%

MANILA, Philippines – More than 1,000 hearing-impaired individuals from Luzon will gather at the General Trias Convention Center in Poblacion-Malabon, General Trias, Cavite on Sunday to attend a series of lectures that will be presented in Filipino Sign Language (FSL).

With the theme “The Time Left Is Reduced”, the special assembly day of the deaf organized by the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of the Philippines aims to provide encouragement, practical and spiritual counsel to the hearing-impaired and their families. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 34%

By Mushfig Bayram, Forum 18 News Service

Following ex-President of Kyrgyzstan Kurmanbek Bakiev’s departure, Forum 18 News Service has found that Protestant, Catholic, Baha’i, Hare Krishna, and Jehovah’s Witness communities and civil society human rights groups are critical of the harsh Religion Law brought in by Bakiev, and want it to be abolished or radically changed. No-one from the state-backed Muslim Board was willing to talk.
Kanybek Imanaliyev, speaking for the Interim Government led by Roza Otunbaeva, told Forum 18 that “we want to establish freedom of speech and freedom of religion. We will reform the Constitution, the laws as necessary and the Religion Law.” Asked whether religious communities will be able to carry on their normal religious activity while the laws are being changed, Imanaliyev said that “no one can answer that question at the moment,” but he did not think there would be any conflicts.
Tamilla Zeynalova of the Baha’is told Forum 18 that “we want the new government to restore the religious freedoms at least to the level we had before President Bakiev.” Many are uncertain what may happen, a Russian Orthodox Church priest commenting that “it is difficult to say what will take place.” Commenting on Interim Government promises to change laws for the better, the Jehovah’s Witnesses told Forum 18 that “we hope they will keep their promise. We will wait and see.” Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 8%

By Mushfig Bayram, Forum 18 News Service

Tajikistan continues to seriously restrict freedom of religion or belief, Forum 18 News Service has found. At least 236 Five-fold, 48 Central cathedral, and 12 Cathedral mosques, as well as over 12 non-Muslim religious organisations have not been re-registered under the Religion Law. Unregistered religious activity is illegal, against international human rights standards and the Constitution. In contrast to the relaxed attitude shown by the Head Department for Religious Affairs (HDRA) towards the unregistered Council of Ulems’ activity, a diametrically opposed attitude has been shown towards the also unregistered Baptist Union. “It should stop its activity since all unregistered religious activity is considered illegal now according to the new Law,” HDRA Deputy Head Saidbeg Mahmadulloyev told Forum 18. The Jehovah’s Witnesses are still banned, but Tajikistan’s only synagogue is being allowed to operate despite not yet having applied for registration. Officials are imposing “unofficial” restrictions on registered groups, such as limitations on geographic activity and on Islamic preaching. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 7%