Postcard from Bishkek

Last year we saw calls from leaders of the Muslim community for the faithful to refrain from participating in the celebrations as they bear no relation to Islam … nor to traditional Kyrgyz culture.  As it happens, the call was more or less ignored and the festivities progressed as usual.

As the New Year Celebrations approach, there is, however, one group that will certainly be taking up the call to ignore the general merrymaking – both Christmas and New Year – which because they believe are based on (or massively contaminated by) pagan customs and religions. : Jehovah’s Witnesses.

For the record: The Jehovah’s Witnesses are members of a Christian-based religious movement, founded in the USA towards the end of the 19th century by Charles Russell who grew up in a Presbyterian family in Pittsburgh.

In fact, the name dates back only to about 1931 – before that members of the group were known simply as Bible Students.

The organization’s headquarters is in New York, but there are about eight million believers in almost 250 countries – including Kyrgyzstan, where the church has about 10000 members.

Although “Christian-based”, the group believes that the traditional Christian Churches have deviated from the true teachings of the Bible, and do not work in full harmony with God.  For their part, the traditional Christian Churches do not regard the movement as a mainstream Christian denomination because it rejects the Christian doctrine of the Trinity, which it regards as both irrational and unbiblical.

Jehovah’s Witnesses base their beliefs solely on the text of the Bible which they believe is the Word of God and consider its 66 books to be divinely inspired and historically accurate.  They reject what they see as “the sinful values of the secular world” and maintain a degree of separation from non-believers – they are “in the world” but not “of the world“.

The church is strongly “millennial” and believes that humanity is now in the ‘last days’ and that the final battle between good and evil will happen soon.  Russell actually predicted the “anointed” would be “called to Heaven” in 1914 – but this date was later amended … although without abandoning this as one of the central tenets of their faith.

 

There have been Jehovah’s Witnesses in Kyrgyzstan since at least the 1950′s, when the Soviets relocated many believers here, after having spent many years in exile in Siberia for their beliefs.  During the Soviet period, members of the organization suffered hardship, discrimination, arrest and imprisonment at the hands of the authorities.  As one Witness once told me, the authorities “saw that the organization’s headquarters was in Brooklyn and automatically assumed that we were all Foreign Agents” – the Soviet euphemism for “spies”.

It seems that, with Independence a greater tolerance was experienced, but it wasn’t until August 1998 that they managed to obtain registration as a religious organization under Kyrgyz legislation – at least on a national level … there are still problems facing local congregations that try to apply.   Having said that, there are something like 40 local congregations registered, in five of the nine administrative units of the country, plus the National Center based on a former sewing factory on the outskirts of Bishkek.

The Center serves as offices for the organization as well as having a “Kingdom Hall” and offering accommodation for the staff who are drawn from all the regions and work basically as volunteers rather salaried staff.  It is possible for visitors to take a tour of the center.

Registration in the southern oblasts however has proved to be difficult – if not impossible.  To date, all applications have been turned down at one stage of the procedure or another.

For the record: As I understand it, to register as a religious organization they need to produce a list 200 founding members – adult citizens who are also resident in Kyrgyzstan.  Before the current law was enacted in 2008 this requirement was much lower, I believe just 10.  Once the list has been verified by the local authority, then the organization submits an application to the Standing Commission on Religious Affairs together with a series of supporting documents.

Without registration, it is claimed, believers are not allowed to practice their belief; the use and distribution of religious literature is banned … unless in a “place of worship”, for which registration is necessary – a veritable “Chicken and Egg” situation.

They claim that the current law places an unfair and unreasonable burden on believers … is arbitrarily administered and enforced.  It seems, for example,  that when the local groups have appealed to the courts after they have received letters informing that their applications registration cannot be processed for one reason or another do not constitute “decisions” and therefore cannot be challenged.

As a result they have submitted their case to the United Nations Human Rights Committee and are asking for the government to make arrangements for them to duly register.

 

Jehovah’s Witnesses are probably best known worldwide for their devotion, dedication and perseverance to “bearing witness for Jehovah” – hence the name which they adopted in 1931.  It’s considered a religious duty and the commonly perceived image is of a couple arriving at the door offering to talk about God, Religion or the purpose of Life, and proferring copies of their magazines Watchtower, (which is meant to serve as an outreach tool) and/or Awake, (which is meant as a devotional or educational magazine targeted at the faithful – or at least interested person),  and a religious.  It’s a characteristic trait which is sometimes treated as the butt of a joke but, more often than not, is seen as an annoyance.

The law actually prohibits “proselytism” and the “public” use of printed materials like the magazines.  As I understand it, believers can have copies for their own use and IF requested can bring a copy for the interested enquirer … on a subsequent visit, but their “public” use is restricted to a registered place of worship.

 

The possession of printed materials can lead to police raids, arrest and prosecution.  In perhaps the strangest case, two Jehovah’s Witnesses in Southern Kyrgyzstan were arrested and accused of being members of the banned Islamic Hizb ut Tahir group when CDs containing literature from the group were “discovered” in a raid.

 

This question of “proselytism” arises in another aspect as well.  Shariah law prohibits an apostasy – changing one’s religion – and although Kyrgyzstan is a secular country, so Islamic law has no legal force, it helps to shape social attitudes amongst the population.  Several families where someone has converted to Christianity, (perhaps as Jehovah’s Witnesses or perhaps as Baptists), are often ostracized and may come under considerable social pressure to “return” to their traditional religious roots.

This seems to become most evident when it comes to burial and there are accounts of families being refused a plot in a local cemetery and having to travel from community to community in order to seek a final resting place for their recently departed relative – adding to the stress of an already upsetting period.

As I understand it, the local communities of Jehovah’s Witnesses have a number of cemeteries around the country where plots can be assigned to members of the church, but often far from the believer’s home.

 

Indeed, it’s not just Christmas and New Year that Jehovah’s Witnesses do not commemorate, they also refrain form celebrating anniversaries such as Birthdays – which certainly marks them out from the crowd here, where Birthdays are an important aspect of everyday life.  Apparently, however, (and I have never understood the logic of this), they will mark a Wedding Anniversary.  They do not celebrate Easter, but they do commemorate the Crucifixion which they time according to the traditional Jewish Calendar to coincide with Passover.

Another issue which the Jehovah’s Witnesses have referred to the UN Human Rights Committee concerns the treatment of Conscientious Objectors.  Over the years and around the globe, this issue has caused conflict between Jehovah’s Witnesses and many different governments – even getting many of them sent to Nazi Concentration Camps where they forced to wear a purple triangle.

Military Service is a requirement and civil obligation for all males aged 17 to 25 here in Kyrgyzstan – although provisions exist for certain categories of men military age to undertake “alternative service”, paying a fee instead.  However, the law was changed in 2009 to the effect that the money paid into special account of the Ministry of Defense as this fee, is to be “ used for the support of and provisions for troops, for conducting training assemblies, upgrading educational facilities, and increasing social security for military personnel.”

This created a problem because many Jehovah’s Witnesses of military age consider that this requirement to make payments to the Ministry of Defense for support of the military violates their principles of conscience – although, if I understand correctly, they would be happy to complete some form of “civil obligation”, not in the military sphere or under military control.  Indeed there are some cases where Witnesses have been convicted for refusing to pay their “monetary contribution” and thus of evading alternative service.

It seems, however, that approaches have been moderately successful in that the Parliament has been asked to consider amending the Law on Military Service to make provision for a civilian alternative to undertaking military service.

To be honest, I am not aware of any impact here in Kyrgyzstan of another characteristic trait of Jehovah’s Witnesses, the refusal to accept blood transfusions.

 

 

Tags: Life_in_Kyrgyzstan, Organizations, Religion