OSCE Press release - Head of OSCE human rights office dismayed about appeals hearing of Kazakh human rights defender

OSCE Press release - Head of OSCE human rights office dismayed about appeals hearing of Kazakh human rights defender

LDS Newsroom (Mormons): Elder Dallin H. Oaks: Religious Freedom at Risk

13 October 2009 Transcript of Elder Dallin H. Oaks speech given at BYU-Idaho on 13 October 2009.

My dear young friends, I am pleased to speak to this BYU-Idaho audience. I am conscious that I am also speaking to many in other places. In this time of the Internet, what we say in one place is instantly put before a wider audience, including many to whom we do not intend to speak. That complicates my task, so I ask your understanding as I speak to a very diverse audience.

In choosing my subject I have relied on an old military maxim that when there is a battle underway, persons who desire to join the fray should “march to the sound of the guns.”[i] So it is that I invite you to march with me as I speak about religious freedom under the United States Constitution. There is a battle over the meaning of that freedom. The contest is of eternal importance, and it is your generation that must understand the issues and make the efforts to prevail.
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BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | 'Moonies' mull future without founder

By Christopher Landau
BBC religious affairs correspondent, Seoul


It is one of the most controversial religious movements of the last century.

Founded in Seoul in the 1950s by the Reverend Sun Myung Moon, Unificationism has attracted hundreds of thousands of members worldwide. But the movement has been accused of cult-like practices, with its leader's followers dubbed "Moonies". As Sun Myung Moon approaches his 90th birthday, he has handed over key responsibilities to one of his sons.

Hyung Jin Moon is just 30 years old and grew up in the United States, where he studied theology at Harvard University.
His background means he has already been exposed to a wide range of religious traditions and seems unafraid to introduce aspects of how other faiths worship into Unification Church services.
Attending a meeting for English speakers on a Saturday afternoon at the Unification Church's Korean headquarters, the very first sounds I heard were pretty unexpected.
Family values
Earlier that week, I had interviewed Hyung Jin Moon and met members of the church's choir, rehearsing for the weekend's services.
They had been singing a specially written song about true love, reflecting the traditional family values which are so important in Unificationist beliefs.
But the service I attended began not with one of the movement's own hymns, but with contemporary mainstream Christian songs written in the US.

"It's modified greatly, where now people can meet, they can date, find out about each other"

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RUSSIA: Altai court condemns Jehovah’s Witnesses for “extremism”

THE INSTITUTE on Religion and Public Policy

Some of the groups publications are blamed for inciting religious confrontation. Jehovah's Witnesses respond saying the texts in question are distributed in 200 countries around the world. The Altai court ruling is like one handed down in Rostov in mid-September. Similar trials are underway before other Russian courts.

Moscow (AsiaNews/Agencies)  A city court in the city of Gorno-Altaisk, Altai Republic, found the Jehovahs Witnesses guilty of religious extremism. The sentence follows a similar decision handed down against the religious group in mid-September by a court in Rostov, which ruled that the groups publications contain extremist material (see Court in Rostov bans Jehovahs Witnesses for being religious extremists, AsiaNews, 17 September 2009). Altogether the court in the Siberian Republic banned 18 publications by the Jehovahs Witnesses after they were submitted to expert analysis, which concluded they included incitement to religious confrontation.

The Jehovahs Witnesses Administrative Centre in Moscow, which is recognised by Russian authorities, has already appealed the decision by the court in Gorno-Altaisk. However, the situation for the religious group is very delicate. The latest ruling comes in the wake of that in Rostov and before others expected in other regions of the Russian Federation, where legal proceedings are currently underway. The charge is the same: incitement of religious extremism.

The "Grand Inquisitor" on YouTube

Tom Sackville, the new president of FECRIS once again making outrageous statements at the OSCE. He is slandering religious minority groups and calling on the OSCE to shut them out of their human rights conferences. The moderator (once again - like before in Vienna) corrected him for not being aligned with OSCE policy on minorities.