Anti-terrorism legislation is being used to target those whose faith is only ‘extreme’ in terms of its commitment to non-violence. It should be a warning to us allThe small Siberian town of Birobidzhan is set in a mosquito-infested swampland on the far eastern end of the Trans-Siberian railway. It was to places such as this that the Soviets exiled various undesirables. In April 1951 more than 9000 Jehovah’s Witnesses were rounded up and sent to Siberia on Stalin’s instruction. They were allowed to acquire 150kg of their possessions with them. Everything else was confiscated by the state.
You may walk past embarrassed as Jehovah’s Witnesses try and hand you cringeworthy devout literature on the high street. But these were some of the most persecuted Christians of the 20th century. And their persecution continues.
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Source: theguardian.com