The Czech Ministry of Culture is considering the possible cancellation of the religious registration of the Jehovah’s Witnesses Religious Society, and has sent the organisation an appeal to desist from its illegal activities, ministry spokeswoman Jana Zechmeisterova told CTK today.
The ministry has received thousands of complaints from the Jehovah’s Witnesses about the proposal, which must be dealt with first. Administrative proceedings have not yet been initiated, Zechmeisterova said.
She said the ministry had begun to deal with the proposals it had received about the cancellation of the registration of the Religious Society of Jehovah’s Witnesses (NSSJ). They were mainly about damaging the social ties of society members and their families and preventing minors from receiving medical care appropriate to their health needs, according to reports from novinky.cz and iROZHLAS.cz.
The Culture Ministry, led by Martin Baxa (ODS), accuses the NSSJ of five offences, which they were supposed to address within three months. Both parties involved confirmed to iROZHLAS.cz that they had not been corrected.
“The ministry is looking into the issue, but no administrative proceedings are currently underway,” Zechmeisterova told CTK. “The ministry will decide on whether to initiate administrative proceedings after it studies the content of several thousand complaints from NSSJ members that we have received in recent weeks.”
The complaints against Jehovah’s Witnesses relate to alleged damage to people’s social ties and families. When members leave the religious society, other Witnesses have to severely limit, and often completely cease, social contact with them. The Ministry also stated that it respects the right to religious freedom and values the contribution of fellow believers to society.
“There is no legal or doctrinal reason for the cancellation of the registration of Jehovah’s Witnesses,” iROZHLAS.cz quoted David Kula, director of the NSSJ’s public relations department, as saying. “Such a move would be discriminatory, illegal and for thousands of peaceful citizens of the Czech Republic would mean a gross interference in their religious life.”
There are 13,298 NSSJ members in the Czech Republic, according to the latest census data, but the society itself claims 30,000 witnesses and sympathisers.
Jehovah’s Witnesses began operating in the territory of the present-day Czech Republic in 1912, and were registered in 1934. Two associations, the International Association of Bible Scholars and the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, were active in Czechoslovakia at the time. They were persecuted during World War Two before resuming their activities after the war, but were forced underground again after the 1948 Communist coup.
They reapplied for registration after the collapse of the regime in January 1990, and registered as the 20th official church in the country in September 1993.
