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BELARUS: Pentecostal Church demolished, members harassed

BELARUS: In the footsteps of Russia: Pentecostal Church demolished, members harassed

New Life Pentecostal Church was razed to the ground in June. Members are told they are not allowed to gather outdoors and not even online

by Massimo Introvigne

Bitter Winter (15.08.2023) – Belarus’ President Aljaksandr Lukašėnka behaves more and more like a miniature version of Vladimir Putin, even when it comes to persecuting minority religions.

In Russia, leading anti-cultist Alexander Novopashin, affiliated until March 2023 with the French-supported European federation of anti-cult movements FECRIS, in an interview of August 7 declared all Pentecostals “non-Christian” and part of “cults.” He quoted the Berlin Declaration of 1909 where he claims German Evangelicals supported his position.

This was, however, 1909. More recently, prominent German Evangelical theologians have condemned the Berlin declaration and apologized for it. Pope Francis also apologized for past declarations where Catholics called Pentecostalism “a cult” when he visited a Pentecostal church in Caserta, Italy, in 2014.

All this is, however, irrelevant for Novopashin, the Russian anti-cultists, and their Belarusian sidekicks. New Life Church, founded in 1992, is one of the most successful Pentecostal churches in Belarus, with some 1,500 members. In 2002, New Life purchased part of a farm in Minsk and converted it into a church.

The church never had an easy life, but the situation took a turn for the worst when in 2020 its pastor Vyacheslav Goncharenko posted a video criticizing the fraudulent 2020 Presidential elections. In February 2021, New Life was informed it should vacate the building it used as a church.

Devotees continued to meet outdoors, in the former church’s car park. Their participation with other Evangelical churches in March 2022 in prayer events for Ukraine and to ask that Belarus did not participate in the war did not contribute to endear them to the regime.

In September 2022, Goncharenko was informed that the outdoor meetings were illegal and shortly detained. Pastor Antoni Bokun of Minsk’s John the Baptist Pentecostal Church, who publicly supported New Life, was also detained.

New Life was informed it was also under prohibition to rent any premises for worship purposes. On June 20, 2023, state bulldozers razed New Life’s former place of worship to the ground.

Activities continued online (and sometimes at Protestant God’s Grace Church in Minsk). However, earlier this month, the government shut down New Life’s website, and asked the church to pay the equivalent of Euro 167,000 as a fine for the past outdoor gatherings. The Prosecutor also informed New Life that it is being investigated as an “extremist” organization and may be liquidated.

The process of transforming Belarus into a miniature and somewhat caricatural version of Russia continues.

More photos here

Massimo Introvigne (born June 14, 1955 in Rome) is an Italian sociologist of religions. He is the founder and managing director of the Center for Studies on New Religions (CESNUR), an international network of scholars who study new religious movements. Introvigne is the author of some 70 books and more than 100 articles in the field of sociology of religion. He was the main author of the Enciclopedia delle religioni in Italia (Encyclopedia of Religions in Italy). He is a member of the editorial board for the Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion and of the executive board of University of California Press’ Nova Religio.  From January 5 to December 31, 2011, he has served as the “Representative on combating racism, xenophobia and discrimination, with a special focus on discrimination against Christians and members of other religions” of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). From 2012 to 2015 he served as chairperson of the Observatory of Religious Liberty, instituted by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in order to monitor problems of religious liberty on a worldwide scale.

Photo: New Life service in the restored Minsk farm building they converted into a church.

Further reading about FORB in Belarus on HRWF website





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RUSSIE: Infiltration de la branche russe de la FECRIS en Belgique

Profondes inquiétudes concernant l’infiltration de la branche russe de la FECRIS en Belgique

HRWF (07.12.2022) – Human Rights Without Frontiers est très préoccupé concernant l’infiltration depuis des années par des propagandistes pro-Poutine et anti-ukrainiens dans la politique belge, y compris le parlement fédéral de la Belgique

Bitter Winter a récemment publié plusieurs documents d’enquête sur la branche russe de la FECRIS : le 23 novembre, le 4 novembre et le 17 octobre. Un nouveau document a été publié le 5 décembre. Il est intitulé “Novopashin confirme : ‘Les anti-sectes russes font toujours partie de la FECRIS’,” par Massimo Introvigne.

HRWF (07.12.2022) – Le 19 mai 2017, Alexander Korelov, l’avocat de plusieurs propagandistes orthodoxes radicaux russes bien connus et hostiles aux Témoins de Jéhovah ainsi qu’à d’autres minorités religieuses en Russie, comme Alexander Dvorkin, a été invité par la FECRIS (Fédération européenne des centres de recherche et d’information sur les cultes et les sectes) au Parlement belge à une conférence controversée présidée par le député belge André Frédéric.

 

L’homme politique belge est le président d’AVISO, identifiée comme une association anti-sectes en Belgique affiliée à la FECRIS. En 2021, il a été nommé président de la FECRIS après avoir été membre de leur conseil d’administration pendant plusieurs années, avec Alexander Dvorkin, ancien vice-président de la FECRIS pendant plusieurs années et connu comme un propagandiste orthodoxe extrémiste. Cette personnalité belge est très utile à la FECRIS car elle peut leur donner accès aux locaux du Parlement fédéral belge pour leurs conférences et bénéficier ainsi d’une certaine aura et d’une légitimité apparente mais fausse.

 

Le 14 juin 2022, André Frédéric a accueilli une autre conférence de la FECRIS, en tant que président, dans les locaux du Parlement fédéral belge. Et il publie un article dans un grand journal francophone, Le Soir, évoquant leur combat pour l’aide aux victimes de sectes. Les victimes de n’importe quel type d’agresseurs méritent toujours d’être aidées, mais dans le cas de la FECRIS, la soi-disant assistance cache un agenda idéologique anti-sectes. En réalité, la FECRIS, ses affiliés et d’autres groupes anti-sectes stigmatisent et diffament de manière répétée un certain nombre de groupes religieux ou de croyances qu’ils n’aiment pas ou dont ils ont été membres, mais ils ont perdu un certain nombre d’affaires dans divers tribunaux, un domaine dans lequel HRWF a spécifiquement enquêté.

 

Alors, pendant combien de temps le Parlement fédéral belge va-t-il continuer à tolérer des conférences stigmatisant des communautés convictionnelles minoritaires ?

 

Alexander Korelov a affirmé avoir des preuves que les Témoins de Jéhovah préparent un coup d’État contre le président Poutine, a déclaré Bitter Winter dans un article publié le 17 octobre. Il convient toutefois de rappeler que les Témoins de Jéhovah sont apolitiques, objecteurs de conscience au service militaire et opposés à la violence.

 

Pendant des décennies, la branche russe de la FECRIS a semé la haine envers un certain nombre de communautés non orthodoxes dans les esprits de la population russe.

 

Pendant des décennies, la branche russe de la FECRIS a également alimenté sa propagande inspirée par le Kremlin et l’Eglise orthodoxe russe avec des discours de haine anti-ukrainiens.

 

Pendant des décennies, la branche russe de la FECRIS a ouvert la voie à la guerre de la Russie contre l’Ukraine avec la bénédiction du Patriarche Kirill de l’Eglise orthodoxe russe alors que la FECRIS, basée dans un pays (la France) connu pour sa doctrine de la laïcité, prétend reconnaître le droit à la liberté de religion.

 

Depuis de nombreuses années, le vice-président de la FECRIS est le propagandiste orthodoxe russe controversé Alexandre Dvorkin, déclaré persona non grata en Ukraine depuis 2014 et qui, malgré cette interdiction, est toujours membre du conseil d’administration de la FECRIS.

 

Depuis des décennies, les contribuables français ont été utilisés à leur insu pour financer la FECRIS.

 

Il est temps pour le président Macron d’écouter Bitter Winter, la récente protestation de 82 experts ukrainiens sur les questions religieuses et d’autres lanceurs d’alerte qui ont à plusieurs reprises tiré la sonnette d’alarme et mis en garde contre l’infiltration en France et dans d’autres pays de l’UE de l’idéologie extrémiste de nationalistes radicaux russes.

 

Il est également temps que le Président Macron mette fin au financement des discours de haine de la FECRIS contre l’Ukraine, que le député belge André Frédéric se tienne à distance de la FECRIS et que le Parlement fédéral belge mette en place une commission d’enquête sur les activités de la FECRIS en Belgique.

 

Novopashin confirme :« Les anti-sectes russes font toujours partie de la FECRIS »

Bitter Winter (06.12.2022) – Une question importante se pose à propos de la fédération européenne anti-sectes FECRIS : sa relation avec ses organisations affiliées russes, qui calomnient l’Ukraine depuis au moins 2014 et sont maintenant des partisanes enthousiastes de l’invasion russe. Elles contribuent à la propagande russe en diffusant de fausses informations selon lesquelles le gouvernement ukrainien serait dominé par des «sectes.»

La FECRIS déclare qu’elle est en désaccord avec l’invasion russe, mais cela ne peut pas être un argument suffisant si elle continue à être représentée en Russie par certains des plus féroces agitateurs et propagandistes anti-ukrainiens.

Consciente qu’elle avait un problème russe, la FECRIS a décidé de maquiller son site Web. Les organisations russes faisant partie de la FECRIS, toujours répertoriées comme telles le 31 mars 2022, ont disparu de la liste de ses organisations membres sur son site Web au début du mois d’avril. Cependant, il n’a pas été possible de savoir si elles avaient été expulsées ou si la FECRIS avait simplement procédé à un ajustement cosmétique de son site Web.

Les noms des membres du conseil d’administration de la FECRIS sont déposés auprès des services administratifs de la France, où est immatriculée l’organisation et où se trouve son siège social. Nous avons régulièrement consulté cette liste et l’activiste anti-sectes russes le plus farouche, Alexander Dvorkin, est toujours indiqué comme membre du conseil d’administration. CESNUR, l’organisation mère de Bitter Winter, a écrit à la FECRIS pour demander si les affiliés russes faisaient toujours partie de la fédération et si Dvorkin était toujours membre du conseil d’administration, mais n’a jamais reçu de réponse.

Le 11 novembre dernier, 82 universitaires ukrainiens, dont tous les plus grands spécialistes des religions du pays, ont écrit au Président français Macron pour lui demander de mettre fin au soutien financier que la France continue d’offrir à la FECRIS, étant donné que la fédération anti-sectes entretient des relations avec des organisations russes qui apportent un soutien actif et important à l’invasion de l’Ukraine du fait de leur propagande.

Les universitaires ukrainiens se doutaient bien que la FECRIS répondrait comme elle l’a fait, qu’elle compte aussi deux organisations ukrainiennes affiliées. Ils ont expliqué que l’une est notoirement pro-russe et que l’autre est inactive depuis des années, et qu’en tout état de cause, ni l’une ni l’autre n’a condamné officiellement la propagande anti-ukrainienne des branches russes de la FECRIS.

La lettre a été à l’origine d’un développement inattendu, qui a en quelque sorte résolu le problème de savoir si la FECRIS s’est contentée de cesser ses relations avec ses affiliés russes ou si elle les a expulsés.

Les affiliés russes de la FECRIS sont eux-mêmes membres d’une organisation nationale anti-sectes appelée «Association russe des centres d’études religieuses et cultuelles» (РАЦИРС / RATsIRS). Son président est Alexander Dvorkin et son vice-président est l’archiprêtre Alexander Novopashin, un activiste anti-sectes anti-ukrainien fanatique de Novosibirsk. Ils sont également les représentants du «Centre d’études religieuses au nom de Hieromartyr Irenaeus of Lyon» de Moscou, lui-même une organisation affiliée à la FECRIS. L’organisation anti-sectes locale de Novosibirsk «Centre d’information et de consultation sur le sectarisme après de la cathédrale au nom du Saint Prince Alexander Nevsky», dirigée par Novopashin, est une autre organisation russe affiliée à la FECRIS.

Novopashin a décidé de répondre à la lettre des universitaires ukrainiens adressée au Président Macron. Il a fait publier sa réponse par 4s-info et l’a ensuite reproduite sur son propre site Web. Sans vraisemblablement connaître la plupart des signataires, il les a gratuitement insultés en écrivant qu’ils sont «82 apologistes des sectes ukrainiens qui se disent scientifiques.» Certains de ceux qui ont signé n’ont jamais écrit sur les «sectes», mais ce n’est pas la partie la plus intéressante de la réponse de Novopashin.

Novopashin a écrit que les «pseudo-chercheurs» ukrainiens ont attaqué «la Fédération européenne des centres de recherche et d’information sur les sectes FECRIS, enregistrée en France. Notre centre d’information auprès de la cathédrale au nom du Saint Prince Alexandre Nevsky est un membre correspondant de cette organisation. Mais la plainte mentionne principalement un théologien orthodoxe bien connu, mon ami, le professeur Alexandre Leonidovitch Dvorkin, et, enfin, moi, votre humble serviteur.

Le professeur Dvorkin est le président du Centre d’études religieuses au nom de Hieromartyr Irénée de Lyon, le représentant la FECRIS en Russie. Et je suis le vice-président du Centre. La cible principale des apologistes des sectes, en tant que grand spécialiste russe des sectes, est le professeur Alexandre Leonidovitch Dvorkin. Cette lettre a été envoyée dans l’espoir que le Président de la France influence la FECRIS pour qu’elle expulse le professeur Alexandre Dvorkin et moi-même de l’organisation.»

Comme les catholiques le disent à propos de Rome, «Novosibirsk locuta, quaestio soluta» : lorsque Novosibirsk a parlé, la question a été résolue. Si ceux que Novopashin considère comme les méchants de l’histoire «espèrent» que lui et Dvorkin seront expulsés de la FECRIS, il est clair qu’ils ne l’ont pas encore été. En fait, Novopashin avoue que son centre de Novosibirsk est toujours «un membre correspondant de l’organisation», comme il l’était avant l’invasion de l’Ukraine en 2022. Le centre d’études religieuses de Dvorkin, au nom de Hieromartyr Irenaeus of Lyon, est toujours «le représentant de la FECRIS en Russie.» Personne ne les a expulsés. Pourquoi leurs noms ont-ils disparu du site Internet de la FECRIS est une question à laquelle la FECRIS pourra peut-être répondre.

En attendant, Novopashin clarifie, au bénéfice des universitaires ukrainiens et de la FECRIS, que lui et ses amis continuent à «soutenir activement l’opération spéciale en Ukraine.»

Photo : L’archiprêtre Alexander Novopashin. De Telegram.

Further reading about FORB in Belgium and Russia on HRWF website





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RUSSIA: Concerns about the infiltration of FECRIS’ Russian branch in Belgium

Deep concerns about the infiltration of FECRIS’ Russian branch in Belgium

HRWF (07.12.2022) – Human Rights Without Frontiers is deeply concerned by the infiltration for years of pro-Putin and anti-Ukrainian propagandists in Belgian politics, including in the federal parliament of Belgium.

Bitter Winter recently published several investigation papers about FECRIS’ Russian branch: on 23 November, on 4 November and on 17 October. A new one was published on 5 December. It is titled “Novopashin confirms: ‘Russian anti-cultists are still part of FECRIS’ “, by Massimo Introvigne.

HRWF (07.12.2022) – On 19 May 2017, Alexander Korelov, the lawyer of several well-known radical Russian Orthodox propagandists hostile to Jehovah’s Witnesses and other religious minorities in Russia, such as Alexander Dvorkin, was invited by FECRIS (European Federation of Research and Information Centres on Cults and Sects) at the Belgian Parliament to a controversial conference chaired by Belgian MP André Frédéric.

 

The Belgian politician is the president of AVISO, identified as an anti-cult association in Belgium affiliated to FECRIS. In 2021, he was appointed president of FECRIS after being a member of their board for several years, along with Alexander Dvorkin, former vice-president of FECRIS for several years and known as an extremist Orthodox propagandist. This Belgian personality is very useful for FECRIS as he can give them access to the premises of the Belgian Federal Parliament for their conferences and hereby enjoy a certain aura and apparent but false legitimacy.

 

On 14 June 2022, André Frédéric hosted another FECRIS conference, as its president, in the premises of the Belgian Federal Parliament. And he published an article in a leading francophone newspaper, Le Soir, referring to their fight for assistance to victims of cults. Victims of any sort of perpetrators always deserve to be helped but in the case of FECRIS, the so-called assistance hides an ideological anti-cult agenda. In reality, FECRIS, its affiliates and other anti-cult groups repeatedly stigmatize and libel a number of belief or religious groups they do not like or they were formerly members of but they have lost quite a number of cases in various courts, an area that HRWF has specifically investigated.

 

So, how long will the Belgian Federal Parliament go on tolerating conferences stigmatizing minority belief communities?

 

Alexander Korelov claimed to have evidence that Jehovah’s Witnesses prepare a coup against President Putin, said Bitter Winter in a breaking news published on 17 October. Though, it is worth reminding that Jehovah’s Witnesses are apolitical, conscientious objectors to military service and opposed to violence.

 

For decades, the Russian branch of FECRIS has sowed hatred towards a number of non-Orthodox communities in the minds of the Russian population.

For decades, the Russian branch of FECRIS has also fed their propaganda inspired by the Kremlin and the Russian Orthodox Church with anti-Ukrainian hate speech.

For decades, FECRIS’ Russian branch has paved the way to Russia’s war on Ukraine with the blessing of Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church whilst FECRIS, based in a secular country (France) known for its laïcité doctrine, claims to recognize the right to freedom of religion.

For many years, FECRIS’ vice-president has been the controversial Russian Orthodox propagandist Alexander Dvorkin, declared persona non grata in Ukraine since 2014 and despite this ban, he is still a member of the board of directors of FECRIS.

For decades, taxpayers in France have, without their knowledge, been misused to finance FECRIS.

It is time for President Macron to listen to Bitter Winter, to the recent protest of 82 Ukrainian scholars on religious issues and other whistleblowers who have repeatedly rung the alarm bell and warned against the infiltration in France and other EU countries of the extremist ideology of Russian radical nationalists.

It is also time for President Macron to put an end to the financing of FECRIS’ hate speech against Ukraine, for Belgian MP André Frédéric to keep at distance from FECRIS and for the Federal Parliament of Belgium to put up an inquiry commission about the activities of FECRIS in Belgium.

Novopashin confirms: ‘Russian anti-cultists are still part of FECRIS’

 

Bitter Winter (05.12.2022) – There is an important question about the European anti-cult federation FECRIS: its relationship with its Russian affiliate organizations, which have slandered Ukraine since at least 2014 and are now enthusiastic supporters of the Russian invasion. They contribute to Russian propaganda by spreading the fake news that the Ukrainian government is allegedly dominated by “cults.”

FECRIS states that it is against the Russian invasion, but this cannot be good enough if it continues to be represented in Russia by some of the most ferocious anti-Ukrainian agitprop peddlers.

Knowing that it had a Russian problem, FECRIS decided to camouflage its website. The Russian organizations that are part of FECRIS, still listed as such on March 31, 2022, disappeared from the list of its member organizations on its Web site in early April. However, it was unclear whether they had been expelled or FECRIS had just made a cosmetic adjustment of its website.

The names of FECRIS board members are filed with the authorities of France, where the organization is registered and headquartered. We checked periodically and the worst Russian anti-cultist, Alexander Dvorkin, continued to be indicated as a board member. CESNUR, the parent organization of Bitter Winter, wrote to FECRIS asking whether the Russian affiliates were still part of the federation and Dvorkin was still a board member, but never got any answer.

Last month, on November 11, 82 Ukrainian academics, including all the leading scholars of religion in the country, wrote to French President Macron asking him to discontinue the financial support France continues to offer to FECRIS, given the fact that the anti-cult federation maintains its relationship with Russian organizations that give an active and important propaganda support to the invasion of Ukraine.

The Ukrainian academics knew that FECRIS would have answered, as it did, that it also has two Ukrainian affiliate organizations. They explained that one is notoriously pro-Russian and the other has been inactive for years, and at any rate neither went on record condemning the anti-Ukrainian propaganda by the Russian branches of FECRIS.

The letter generated an unexpected development, which in a way solved the problem of whether FECRIS just went through the motions of discontinuing its relationships with its Russian affiliates or expelled them.

The Russian FECRIS affiliates are in turn part of a national anti-cult organization called Russian Association of Centers for Religious and Cultic Studies (РАЦИРС / RATsIRS). Its president is Alexander Dvorkin and its deputy president is Archpriest Alexander Novopashin, a fanatical anti-Ukrainian anti-cultist from Novosibirsk. They are also the representatives of the Moscow “Center for Religious Studies in the Name of Hieromartyr Irenaeus of Lyon,” in itself an affiliate organization of FECRIS. The local Novosibirsk anti-cult organization Information and Consultation Center on Cultism at the Cathedral in the name of the Holy Prince Alexander Nevsky, led by Novopashin, is another Russian affiliate of FECRIS.

Novopashin decided to answer the letter of the Ukrainian scholars to Macron. He had his answer published by 4s-info and then reproduced on his own website. Presumably without knowing most of those who had signed, he gratuitously insulted them by writing that they are “82 Ukrainian cult apologists who call themselves scientists.” Some of those who signed have never written about “cults,” but this is not the most interesting part of Novopashin’s answer.

Novopashin wrote that the Ukrainian “pseudo-scientists” attacked “the European Federation of Centres for Research and Information on Sects and Cults FECRIS, registered in France. Our Information Center at the Cathedral in the name of the Holy Prince Alexander Nevsky is a corresponding member of this organization. But the complaint primarily mentions a well-known Orthodox theologian, my friend, Professor Alexander Leonidovich Dvorkin, and, well, me, your humble servant.

Professor Dvorkin is the President of the Center for Religious Studies in the Name of Hieromartyr Irenaeus of Lyon, representing FECRIS in Russia. And I am the vice president of the Center. The main target of cult apologists and cults, as a leading Russian expert on cults, is Professor Alexander Leonidovich Dvorkin. The letter was sent in the hope that the President of France would influence FECRIS to expel Professor Alexander Dvorkin and myself from the organization.”

As Catholics say of Rome, “Novosibirsk locuta, quaestio soluta”: when Novosibirsk has spoken, the question has been solved. If those Novopashin sees as the villains in the story “hope” that he and Dvorkin would be expelled from FECRIS, it is clear that they have not been expelled yet. In fact, Novopashin confesses that his center in Novosibirsk is still “a corresponding member of the organization,” as it was before the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Dvorkin’s Center for Religious Studies in the Name of Hieromartyr Irenaeus of Lyon is still “representing FECRIS in Russia.” Nobody has expelled them. Why their names have disappeared from the FECRIS’s website is a question that FECRIS may perhaps answer.

In the meantime, Novopashin clarifies, for the benefit of both the Ukrainian academics and FECRIS, that he and his friends continue to actively “support the special operation in Ukraine.”

Photo: Archpriest Alexander Novopashin. From Telegram.

Further reading about FORB in Russia and Belgium on HRWF website


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