A round table of officials in Penza, Russia featured speeches demonizing Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses and calls for harsh repressive measures to be taken against them, according to a March 28, 2008 report by the local web site Penzensky Informatsionny Portal. The report did not offer any direct quotes from the speeches, but consisted of the following summary.

"Sectarianism"--a common pejorative for minority religions-- is a national threat. Evgeny Guseynov, head of the regional department of internal affairs, warned that Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses roam the streets of the city, passing out suspicious literature and knocking on doors. Most terrifyingly of all: "They literally zombify people on the street. Something needs to be done about this."

Vadim Supikov, the deputy chair of the regional parliament, called on residents of Penza to call the police immediately if they see these "sectarians" on the street so that they can be prosecuted. He added that a hot line needed to be set up for complaints about "sects" and rejected the idea of sending "sect" members to sanatoriums for treatment, instead asserting that harsher law enforcement means be used. Anatoly Zagrebaev, a psychiatrist, claimed that it is almost impossible to return a "sectarian" to a "real life" and used the example of a woman who "passed out Bible passages on the street, but in her eyes there was nothing but hate." "Sectarianism" needs to be put on notice, not treated medically, the round table concluded, an obvious endorsement of police methods against followers of minority faiths. The regional diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church and the regional minister of education also participated in the conference.

[HOME] [ACT] [CONNECT] [JOIN] [ABOUT] [SEARCH]