07AR12-42

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Apologia Report 12:42

November 16, 2007

Subject: New Religious Movements in Europe

In this issue:

ISLAM - institutionalizing a moderate, Euro-friendly Muslim core

JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES - vs. the Orthodox Church in a Russian court

RELIGIOUS FREEDOM - charting NRMs in Eastern Europe

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ISLAM

"Overhauling Islam: Representation, Construction, and Cooption of 'Moderate Islam' in Western Europe" by Yvonne Yazbeck Haddad and Tyler Golson -- begins: "In the wake of September 11 and the attacks in Amsterdam, London, and Madrid, governments in Western Europe have initiated bold and controversial new policies aimed at the institutionalization of a moderate, Euro-friendly Islam. ...

"This essay will highlight the growing trend among European governments to adopt interventionist policies in the religious affairs of Muslims since September 11, focusing on two that are particularly central to the agendas of the respective state: (1) institutionalizing representative Islamic bodies and empowering designated Muslim interlocutors, and (2) facilitating the construction and maintenance of Islamic spaces. ... [Governmental] concern is not how to outsource Muslim spiritual leadership so as to maintain allegiance to their native lands, but how to fashion loyal Muslim citizens that share European values." The authors' study "suggests that the European powers have begun to rethink the scope and consequences of their policies of multiculturalism and pluralism as they apply to each country's growing Muslim population." (This last line echoes what Melanie Phillips writes in her book, Londonistan [1].)

The authors conclude in part that "It is doubtful whether governmental manipulation of 'mainstream Islam' can rein in a population that rejects both government policy and 'mainstream Islam' itself." Once again, majority rule may decide the eventual outcome. Lengthy. Journal of Church and State, 49:3 - 2007, pp487-515.

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JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES

"Contested Victims: Jehovah's Witnesses and the Russian Orthodox Church, 1990Ê-Ê2004" by Emily B. Baran -- summarizes the history of conflict between the two groups and details the resulting protracted Russian court battle which bears directly on the future of religious freedom in the former Soviet republic.

"Perhaps more than any other religious organisation outside the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC), the Jehovah's Witnesses (JWs) sparked discussion over the role of religion in postsoviet society. ...

"This article analyses how two religious organisations in postsoviet Russia, the JWs and the ROC, grappled with the legacy of the Soviet past in the light of Russia's emerging democracy. ... Every religion believes itself to be the one, true faith, and certainly the JWs and ROC are no exceptions, although their attacks on one another may be considered unusually hostile. Orthodox and JW critiques of one another, however, moved beyond criticism on grounds of religious differences into attacks on one another's narratives of Soviet-era victimisation and resistance. Each found the other's responses to Soviet repression to be fundamentally flawed and inferior to its own. Most importantly, both the ROC and the JWs used their narratives of Soviet-era repression to appeal to the postsoviet Russian state to endorse their vision of the proper limits of religious freedom. My article therefore examines the postsoviet religious climate in Russia through the lenses of both the JWs and the ROC.

"My intent therefore is not to examine the actual experience of Soviet repression by individual JWs, but rather to explore how the JW organization after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 presented these experiences and for what purpose." Baran appears to depend exclusively on JW publications for this portion of her study.

"To discuss how the Orthodox community reacted to the JWs, I tap a wide range of sources that convey the views not only of church hierarchs but also of the larger Russian Orthodox community. ... In particular, I draw on the work of Aleksandr Dvorkin, the head of the church's most prominent anticult organisation, the St. Irenaeus of Lyon Information-Consultation Center (Informatsionno-konsul' tatsionny tsentr sv. Ireneya Lionskogo). ...

"The trial [in Russia between the groups] concluded in February 2001 in favour of the JWs. That decision was overturned on appeal in 2004 and the JWs have filed an appeal with the European Court of Human Rights, which has yet to take action on the case."

Baran concludes: "First, the JWs made their Soviet repression into a rallying point for their international movement, and within Russia, into a platform for demanding equal rights as a religious organisation. ...

"Second, the JWs exposed a major fault-line in Russia's transition to a democratic, postsoviet state. Linking their postsoviet existence to the emerging democracy, the JWs cast their ability to operate openly as a barometer of the status of religious freedom in general in Russia. The ROC, in turn, viewed the JWs as undermining the traditional religious foundations of Russia and as exploiting their Soviet victimisation in order to lure citizens away from Russian Orthodoxy. ...

"Russia's reticence to address the crimes of the Soviet past has not made this issue disappear, but has rather left society to shoulder the responsibility of sorting out the victims from the collaborators and perpetrators." Religion, State and Society, 35:3 - 2007, pp261-278.

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RELIGIOUS FREEDOM

"New Religions in 'New Europe'" by Ales Crnic -- using an abundance of charts, the author compares the eight first post-socialist member states of the European Union (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, and Slovenia) in four areas:

1) The "general religious picture in each country" (identifying the major religions and their sizes)

2) Legislation related to religion and religious distinctions

3) A "general overview" of New Religious movements ("NRMs," including their number, size, and date of origin in each country)

4) Public reaction to NRMs ("the role of the media, court cases involving NRMs, other noticeable incidents or controversies involving NRMs, anticult activities, how the dominant church - in most cases Roman Catholicism - reacts toward NRMs")

While Crnic provides plentiful source credits, readers will likely find the brevity of his findings quite frustrating. Crnic concludes that "in these traditional societies, numerous attempts have been made to limit the scope of pluralism of values and worldviews." Religious freedom "is far too often meant only as freedom for the traditional church or churches - often at the expense of other religious communities. Such notions are far from true religious freedom that should be guaranteed to every individual and group - no matter to what tradition they belong."

Crnic explains that in the future he plans to include other Central and Eastern European countries in his research (Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia). Journal of Church and State, 49:3 - 2007, pp517-551.

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Sources, Monographs:

1 - Londonistan, by Melanie Phillips (Encounter, 2007 rev ed, paperback, 212 pages)

<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1594031975/apologiareport>

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