Forum18News Summary: Azerbaijan, Belarus
14 August 2006
AZERBAIJAN: WHY AND HOW WILL RELIGION LAW BE AMENDED?
http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=827
A parliamentarian preparing changes to Azerbaijan's restrictive Religion Law, Rabiyyat Aslanova, has declined to discuss them or why they are being made, Forum 18 News Service has found. She expressed hostility to "Christian missionaries", who she accused of "working underground and calling for an uprising," but declined to give Forum 18 any proof of her allegations. Aslanova also denied that religious literature censorship exists - until Forum 18 reminded her of its existence - and then defended it, as well as denying both that police have raided religious communities and that religious communities are arbitrarily denied legal status. An official of the State Committee for Work with Religious Organisations could not explain why the state practices religious discrimination. Human rights activists have expressed frustration to Forum 18 at the secretiveness surrounding the new Law, and pessimism that it will bring any improvement to the religious freedom situation.
14 August 2006
AZERBAIJAN: RELIGIOUS MINORITIES WANT RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=828
As Azerbaijan prepares amendments to its Religion Law, religious communities have told Forum 18 News Service of their widely differing views on this. The state-approved Caucasian Muslim Board wants more restrictions, as the current Law "gives great possibilities to all kinds
of destructive and totalitarian sects and pseudo-religions" - although its spokesman repeatedly could not name any such Azeri group. In sharp contrast, religious minorities Forum 18 has spoken to want religious freedom. The major changes they want are: the end of compulsory censorship of religious literature; the removal of practical and legal barriers, such as a requirement that non-Muslim communities have a centre abroad to which they are subject; and an end to the ban on foreigners conducting "missionary activity". They have also told Forum 18 that they want an end to officials' arbitrary powers to interpret the law to restrict religious freedom, or to invent restrictions without any foundation in law.
17 August 2006
BELARUS: POLICE, OFFICIALS AND SOLDIERS DISRUPT CHURCH FAMILY HOLIDAY
http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=832
Officials from Smorgon District Executive Committee and the local departments for Hygiene, Minors and Emergency Situations, as well as soldiers and police, have disrupted a private holiday of families from a number of Minsk charismatic churches, Forum 18 News Service has learnt. After harassing the camp from the start of the holiday, officials claimed on the second day of the camp that it breached health and safety rules and soldiers loaded families onto an inadequate bus, for them to be deported back to Minsk under police escort. As the camp - which was not an official church event - was in the grounds of a house owned by church members, "we didn't think we had to get permission for it," Andrei Frolikhin of Word of Faith Church told Forum 18. State officials in Minsk were reportedly also involved. Church members are complaining about the disruption to their holiday, noting "that the majority of the children and parents are believers of various Protestant churches is no legal basis for interference." The authorities have not answered any questions from Forum 18 about their disruption of the private holiday.
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