There’s an interesting pattern developing in Russia. They’ve been banning and restricting a number of religious groups.
A few years ago they decided that Jehovah’s Witnesses were extremists and a threat. Why would a group of people that represent less than 1 % of the Russian population, doesn’t get involved with politics and doesn’t use violence be considered a threat to any country, beats me.
They recently added Scientology to the blacklist. Two key entities of the Church of Scientology have been considered “undesirable” and a “threat to the security of the Russian Federation”.
Russia moves to ban 'undesirable' Church of Scientology groups
I’m not a fan of Scientology, but this strikes me as very strange. As unusual, for lack of a better word, as this organization might be, are they really that much of a threat?
Russia currently has roughly 144 million habitants. That’s a very big country with a lot of people. Scientology only has 8 to 15 million members worldwide. I don’t know how many of them live in Russia, but my guess would be not that many. As far as I was able to find out, scientology loves money and doesn’t like it when people leave, but they don’t seem to promote actions against governments, violent demonstrations or other things of that nature.
If Russia wants to defend the wellbeing of its people, shouldn’t they be doing more to fight corruption, inequality and make sure Russian people have their human rights respected? After all, according to the International Amnesty this is a country where "peaceful protesters, human rights defenders and civic and political activists face arrest and prosecution, torture remains endemic, as does near total impunity for perpetrators. The right to a fair trial is routinely violated while legal amendments result in a further reduction in judicial independence."
(https://www.amnesty.org/en/location/europe-and-central-asia/russian-federation/ )
Is Scientology really that relevant when there are other groups promoting things far worse than greed and strange beliefs? Talk about having priorities straight...
A few years ago they decided that Jehovah’s Witnesses were extremists and a threat. Why would a group of people that represent less than 1 % of the Russian population, doesn’t get involved with politics and doesn’t use violence be considered a threat to any country, beats me.
They recently added Scientology to the blacklist. Two key entities of the Church of Scientology have been considered “undesirable” and a “threat to the security of the Russian Federation”.
Russia moves to ban 'undesirable' Church of Scientology groups
I’m not a fan of Scientology, but this strikes me as very strange. As unusual, for lack of a better word, as this organization might be, are they really that much of a threat?
Russia currently has roughly 144 million habitants. That’s a very big country with a lot of people. Scientology only has 8 to 15 million members worldwide. I don’t know how many of them live in Russia, but my guess would be not that many. As far as I was able to find out, scientology loves money and doesn’t like it when people leave, but they don’t seem to promote actions against governments, violent demonstrations or other things of that nature.
If Russia wants to defend the wellbeing of its people, shouldn’t they be doing more to fight corruption, inequality and make sure Russian people have their human rights respected? After all, according to the International Amnesty this is a country where "peaceful protesters, human rights defenders and civic and political activists face arrest and prosecution, torture remains endemic, as does near total impunity for perpetrators. The right to a fair trial is routinely violated while legal amendments result in a further reduction in judicial independence."
(https://www.amnesty.org/en/location/europe-and-central-asia/russian-federation/ )
Is Scientology really that relevant when there are other groups promoting things far worse than greed and strange beliefs? Talk about having priorities straight...
