Council of Religious Experts threatens religious freedom

ICC Note: Fired from Moscow State University for his discriminatory views on religious minorities, “inquisitor” on non-Orthodox religious groups takes over leadership of the Justice Ministry’s Council of Religious Studies Experts.

05/07/09 Moscow, Russia (AsiaNews/Agencies) – “The Church of Seventh-Day Adventist Christians expresses concern with regards to the composition of the Council of Religious Studies Experts,” said Rev Viktor Vitko, a Seventh-day Adventist Church’s leader, in a letter sent to Russian Justice Minister Aleksandr Konovalov, whose department oversees the council.

The council was created under a federal law that grants the Justice Ministry the power to oversee religious organisations in Russia and determine whether they are truly religious or not on the basis of their statutes and activities.

A row has recently broken out between Russian authorities and non-Orthodox religious groups because of one man, Aleksandr Dvorkin (pictured), chairman of the Russian Association of Centres for Religious and Sectarian Studies.

Known for his intransigence towards non-Orthodox religious groups, Dvorkin was recently put in charge of the Justice Ministry’s Council of Religious Studies Experts.

Born in 1955 and a citizen of the United States, he graduated from the Saint Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary in Crestwood/New York in 1983 and has acquired a reputation as a first class expert “inquisitor” on sects and cults… [Go To Full Story]