This is a US born cult. Americans cringe when their doorbells ring with these idiots and their Watchtower magazines. They brainwash their followers. Most Jehovah Witness men are alcoholics that beat and mentally abuse their wives and families. Both this cult and Scientology should be completely banned in Russia!!

"At the meetings, they allegedly incited hatred against other religions, circulated extremist literature and called for military draft dodging."

I hope you notice the inherent contradictions present in the above charges?

JW's reject military service because they do not want to kill or do any type of physical violence to other people.

They usually are willing to do other types of volunteer service in place of required military service; however that is left as a personal choice.
Some of them refuse to do even that and willingly go to jail instead of serving in the military in any capacity.
But, it is based on their respect for the bible, and not wanting to violate Exodus 20:13 "Thou shalt not kill"; instead of any form of political extremism.

Their meetings are dedicated to bible study (at least as the core motive) and they began over 100 years ago as informal groups called (International Bible Students) where people got together to study the bible and verify if the teachings of their own churches agreed with what they read in the bible itself.
They changed their name to Jehovah's Witnesses in 1935.


Saying they "incite hatred" against other religions is an interpretive issue.

Usually the concept of "inciting hatred" involves some sort of physical violence or the implied threat of violence in order to be valid; and neither of these is possible with the JW's as they reject any and all form of violence completely.

However, their interpretations of the bible may not be in agreement with those of other religious organizations; but that is more a matter of principled debate about the underlying meanings of bible verses; and has no relation toward "incitement of hatred" against other religions at all.

Also, calling their literature "extremist" is another issue as the underlying purpose of it is to study the bible, and it is difficult to justify calling the act of studying the bible as extremist if the only fault is by reaching differing interpretations or conclusions about the meanings of bible verses than other religious organizations do.

However, there is no violent or coercive elements present in their activities, so it seems difficult to justify calling any of their literature as "extremist" if there is no possible aspect of violence involved in it.

Of course, JW's have children and bring their children to worship services just like any other religion and they also need to collect money to finance their congregational activities, so that seems a strange charge to make against them.


Given that the bible is also used in both the Orthodox and the Roman Catholic Churches as well, it is difficult to understand how it is possible to accuse the JW's of any sort of criminal or extremist activity, when all they do is try to study the bible and understand it to the best of their abilities?


I'm not writing this to speak for or defend JW's, and I do not have that authority anyways.

I am merely writing this from the perspective of an outside observer who is somewhat familiar with them and who has attended their meetings and studied the bible with them on occasion.

However, if you are going to charge a religious group with a crime for their beliefs, perhaps it would be helpful if there was some accuracy present in knowing what it is that they actually do at their meetings?

Saying they "incite hatred" or "circulate extremist literature" destroys the very meaning of those charges as both are entirely impossible with the JW's.

They are not a cult either, as a cult involves physical control and isolation of its members and the JW's do neither of these.

Also, both Roman Catholics and Orthodox allow unrestricted drinking, while the JW's allow drinking only in moderation, and anyone abusing alcohol would face extreme internal consequences; so statistically the likelihood of the average JW's being more prone to alcoholism or spousal abuse than the average Roman Catholic or Orthodox Christian is impossible.

However, making that claim appears as a possible attempt to falsely portray them as violent in order to support the charges of extremism and inciting religious hatred being made against them.

And again, the motive of their refusal of military service contradicts the first two charges, as their purpose is to abstain from killing or doing any form of violence towards their neighbors.

What I don't understand is: Russia (an ECHR signatory) can lock up JWs, who maybe really annoying but are mostly harmless. UK cannot deport convicted terrorists and other foreign criminals because it would be against their human rights, as described in the ECHR.