Jehovah Witness National Service

[Owoeye Heatley]

Thebeliefs and practices of Jehovah's Witnesses have engendered controversy throughout their history. Consequently, the denomination has been opposed by local governments, communities, and religious groups. Many Christian denominations consider the interpretations and doctrines of Jehovah's Witnesses heretical, and some professors of religion have classified the denomination as a cult.[1][2]

During World War II, Jehovah's Witnesses were targeted in the United States, Canada, and many other countries because they refused to serve in the military or contribute to the war effort due to their doctrine of political neutrality. In Canada, Jehovah's Witnesses were interned in camps[4] along with political dissidents and people of Japanese descent.

Jehovah's Witness members have been imprisoned in many countries for their refusal of conscription or compulsory military service. Their religious activities are banned or restricted in some countries, including Singapore, China, Vietnam, Russia and many Muslim-majority countries.[5]

In 1930, the Watch Tower Society had controlling interests in several radio stations in Australia, including 5KA, where presenters were told to preach and in 1931 began broadcasting sermons of Joseph Franklin Rutherford. In 1933, the Australian government banned Rutherford's sermons, which included diatribes against the Catholic Church, the British Empire, and the United States.[6] On 8 January 1941, the Watch Tower Society's stations were closed down, being described as dangerous to national security. Jehovah's Witnesses was declared an illegal organization on 17 January 1941, with World War II described as "an ideal opportunity to get rid of licensees long regarded as deviant".[6]

In the period between 1978 and 2004, Jehovah's Witnesses sought registration as a religious society under the 1874 law, which they were repeatedly prevented from doing by state institutions for various reasons. The ECHR ruled in 2008 that Austria had thus violated Articles 9, 14, 6 and 13 of the Convention on Human Rights.[7]

Jehovah's Witnesses' activities in China are considered illegal. Former Canadian-American Jehovah's Witness missionary Amber Scorah recounted the lengths that she and her husband went through to preach illegally in China in the early 2000s. She describes how local Jehovah's Witnesses were forced to meet secretly in a different location every week, with invites by word-of-mouth only.[14][15] She also describes how they would vet potential converts to make sure they had no Communist ties or leanings.[16][17]

Under Fidel Castro's communist regime, Jehovah's Witnesses were included among groups considered to be "social deviants" and were sent to forced labor concentration camps to be "reeducated".[18] On July 1, 1974 the group was officially banned and their places of worship closed. Following the ban, members who refused military service were imprisoned for three years; it was reported that members were also imprisoned because of their children's refusal to salute the flag.[19]

In Eritrea, the government stripped Jehovah's Witnesses of their civil and political rights in 1994 after their refusal to engage in voting and military service.[20][21][22] Members of all ages have been arrested for participating in religious meetings.[23][24] On 24 September 1994, three members were arrested and imprisoned without trial.[25][26][27] International rights groups are aware of the situation of Jehovah's Witnesses in Eritrea[26] and have repeatedly called for Eritrean authorities to end the persecution.[28]

Prior to World War II, the French government banned the Association of Jehovah's Witnesses in France, and ordered that the French offices of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society be vacated.[Note 1] After the war, Jehovah's Witnesses in France renewed their operations. In December 1952, France's Minister of the Interior banned The Watchtower magazine, citing its position on military service.[34] The ban was lifted on November 26, 1974.[35][36]

In the 1990s and 2000s, the French government included Jehovah's Witnesses on its list of "cults", and governmental ministers made derogatory public statements about Jehovah's Witnesses.[Note 2] Despite a century of activity in the country, France's Ministry of Finance opposed official recognition of the denomination; it was not until June 23, 2000 that France's highest administrative court, the Council of State, ruled that Jehovah's Witnesses qualify as a religion under French law.[38] France's Ministry of the Interior sought to collect 60% of donations made to the denomination's entities; Witnesses called the taxation "confiscatory" and appealed to the European Court of Human Rights.[Note 3][Note 4] On June 30, 2011, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that France's actions violated the religious freedom of Jehovah's Witnesses.[41]

During the ban of The Watchtower in France, publication of the magazine continued in various French territories. In French Polynesia, the magazine was covertly published under the name, La Sentinelle, though it was later learned that The Watchtower had not been banned locally.[42] In Runion, the magazine was published under the name, Bulletin intrieur.[43]

In 1996, a year after Georgia adopted its post-USSR Constitution,[44] the country's Ministry of Internal Affairs began a campaign to confiscate religious literature belonging to Jehovah's Witnesses.[45][46] Individual Witnesses fled Georgia seeking religious refugee status in other nations.[47] Government officials refused permits for Jehovah's Witnesses to organize assemblies, and law enforcement officials dispersed legal assemblies. In September 2000, "Georgian police and security officials fired blank anti-tank shells and used force to disperse an outdoor gathering of some 700 Jehovah's Witnesses in the town of Natuliki in northwestern Georgia on 8 September, AP and Caucasus Press reported."[48] In 2002, prosecution of a priest who instigated violence against Jehovah's Witness members was impeded by a lack of cooperation by government and law enforcement.[49]

In July 2017, the Supreme Court of South Ossetia ruled that Jehovah's Witnesses were an extreme organization. The court declared a penalty of ten years' imprisonment for "any religious activities such as assembly and distributing literature".[56][57]

During 1931 and 1932, more than 2000 legal actions were instigated against Jehovah's Witnesses in Germany and members of the group were dismissed from employment.[58] Persecution intensified following Adolf Hitler's appointment as chancellor in 1933 and continued until 1945.[59] A "Declaration of Facts" was issued at a Jehovah's Witness convention in Berlin on June 25, 1933, asserting the group's political neutrality and calling for an end to government opposition. More than 2.1 million copies of the statement were distributed throughout Germany,[60] but its distribution prompted a new wave of persecution against members of the denomination in Germany, whose refusal to give the Nazi salute, join Nazi organizations or perform military service demonstrated their opposition to the totalitarian ideology of National Socialism.[61]

About 10,000 Witnesses were imprisoned, including 2000 sent to concentration camps, where they were identified by purple triangles; as many as 1200 died, including 250 who were executed.[64][65] From 1935 Gestapo officers offered members a document to sign indicating renouncement of their faith, submission to state authority, and support of the German military. Historian Detlef Garbe says a "relatively high number" of people signed the statement before the war, but "extremely low numbers" of Bible Student prisoners did so in concentration camps in later years.[66]

Despite more than a century of conspicuous activity in the country, Jehovah's Witnesses in Germany were not granted legal recognition until March 25, 2005, in Berlin;[Note 6] in 2006 Germany's Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig extended the local decision to apply nationwide.[68]

Jehovah's Witnesses' Office of Public Information has documented a number of mob attacks in India.[69] It states that these instances of violence "reveal the country's hostility toward its own citizens who are Christians."[70][failed verification] There have been reports that police assist mob attacks on Jehovah's Witnesses or lay charges against the Witnesses while failing to charge other participants involved.[71]

In Davangere on December 20, 2010 a mob confronted two female Witnesses. The mob broke into the home of one of the Witnesses where they had taken refuge. Property was damaged and one of the Witnesses was assaulted. When the police arrived, the Witnesses were arrested and charged with blasphemy.[72][failed verification] In another incident on December 6, 2011, three Witnesses were attacked by a mob in Madikeri.[73][failed verification] The male Witness "was kicked and pummeled by the mob" and then dragged towards a nearby temple; while making lewd remarks, the mob "tried to tear the clothes off of the female Witnesses". According to the Watch Tower Society, the police "took the three Witnesses to the police station and filed charges against them rather than the mob".[74][failed verification] During a July 2012 incident, a group of fifteen men assaulted four Witnesses in Madikeri. The group was taken to a police station and charged with "insulting the religion or religious beliefs of another class" before being released on bail.[75]

In October 2023, a bomb blast at a Jehovah's Witnesses annual convention in Kerala killed 7 people and injured 50 others. The suspect claimed to be a disillusioned member of the Jehovah's Witnesses, and said he resented the Witnesses' anti-national doctrines.[76][77][78]

Jehovah's Witnesses' activities in Kazakhstan were banned until 1997.[79] After the ban was lifted, members continued to experience police disruption and imprisonment.[80][81][82] Their activities are currently registered only in some regions of Kazakhstan, and the Watch Tower Society reports that the use of their literature is restricted.[83][84]

3a8082e126