Vienna WIllman

Unit II Project
Freedom of Religion

Journal Entry 1May 1st 2014

Today was another horrible day. The government still continues to not let us have
religious freedom. Most of the minority groups are being abused and harassed in
some way. Today I was talking to my friend Lenny who is very religious. But his
religion is also one of the minority religions. And because of this he was denied the
right to have a visa. And I find that horrible and ridicule. The fact that he is not
allowed to get a credit card because of his faith. I personally havent been attacked
yet. But I am scared I to will soon be harassed in some way. I am Muslim, and that
isnt a very popular looked at religion right now. Many of my friends from mosque
has had people in their family harassed. There is even rumors going around saying
that we arent allowed to meet up as a group in public soon. So basically we cant
worship together. Which I think is ridicules. It is so wrong that our government is
able to tell us we cant have the right to our own religion. Or they try to put
restrictions on it. I know sooner or later they will be harassing me. I feel like their
only doing this because they want everyone in Russia to be a part of the Russian
Orthodox Church. Like how it used to be. When Stalin was ruling we were not really
allowed to have any faith. Technically our faith was to believe in communism and
him. After the collapse of the USSR everyone was able to have the freedom of
religion again. But I do no find that we actually have the freedom of religion. Not if
people that belong in minority groups are being harassed and no one is doing
anything about it. The only religion they really care about in Russia, is the Russian
Orthodox church.

Journal Entry 2July 7th 2014

Religion in Russia hasnt gotten any better. Basically if your faith isnt with the
Russia Orthodox they brush you off like its nothing. I remember summer of 2014
the Jehovah witnesses gathered in a auditorium and were kicked out by armed
forces that showed no for no reason. They raided the auditorium and then took 12
males down to the police station. Then when an attorney showed up to represent all
12 of them, he was thrown to the ground and the police threated him. They put a
knife up to him and threatened to not make any complaints or his family would
receive unpleasant consequences. Also this is not the first time the Jehovah
Witnesses have been attacked or had the police or government violate their right to
religion. It has happened to a few other times before. It has happened in 2007,
2010, and 2013.

Journal Entry 3October 19th, 2014

I feel like religion around here is getting better for most people. No one is helping
us. Every person in Russia for the most part that is part of a minority religion is
being harassed. And their places of worship is being raided. I am Islamic. And yes I
have it hard for being harassed. But compared to the other minorities not nearly as
bad. Muslims is the second most popular religion in Russia. So as we definitely still
dont have the same rights as the Russian Orthodox, we have it better than most of
the other minority groups. I feel like recently in the news and online that the
Jehovah Witnesses have been under attacked and harassed the most recently. And
it is not right, we need to come together and try to stop the harassment to the
minorities groups.