A Publication of the ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN LAITY
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| Volume 6 Number 19 - Tuesday, May 11th, 2004 |
A Publication of the ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN LAITY |
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Pagan sectarians appeal judicial liquidationOMSK OLD BELIEVERS LOSE FACE by Alexander Kornev (Portal-credo.ru, 6 May 2004) Kommersant-Omsk - Yesterday attorneys for the "Omsk Ancient Russian Orthodox Old Believers Church of Inglia" filed a brief appeal with the collegium of the provincial court. They protest the decision of that court, issued on 30 April 2004, liquidating the Omsk church of Old Believers as a juridical entity. We recall that the provincial court granted the request of the provincial directorate of the Ministry of Justice of RF, deciding that the Old Believers incite national strife and employ the swastika. In addition, Omsk Inglinists intend to file an appeal with the Supreme Court of RF and the European Court for Human Rights. Vladimir Fadiaev, the chief of the department of the provincial directorate of the Russian Ministry of Justice who represents the plaintiff, stated that a decision in favor of the Inglinists by the Russian Supreme Court "could become a precedent and provoke an undesirable public response in Russia." The Omsk Inglinist church was founded in 1992. In 1993 the "Temple of the Wisdom of Perun" was created in Omsk, and men's and women's Inglinist ecclesiastical seminaries were opened as well as a parish Sunday school, "Midgard." The activity of the community has been financed by parishioners' contribution and help from sponsors, specifically commercial structures. The number of Omsk Inglinists at the present time is approximately 3,000 persons. We recall that in 2003 the directorate of the Ministry of Justice for Omsk province submitted to the provincial court a suit for the liquidation of the local religious organizations, the community of the "Temple of the Wisdom of Perun," the Asgard Slavic Community and an Inglinist educational institution, the men's ecclesiastical seminary. Workers of the Ministry of Justice consider that the "Russian Vedas," the canonical literature of the Inglinist church, contain calls for its followers to violate existing Russian legislation and incite ethnic strife. In addition, in the opinion of the provincial directorate of the Ministry of Justice, the solar symbol, the "kolovrat," that the Inglinists use, is very similar to the Nazi swastika. In all of these things the workers of the ministry perceive a violation of the federal law "On combating extremist activity." Inglinists contested the suit and turned for an expert analysis to the Russian Commission on Heraldry. The provincial court summoned as expert witness the Omsk commission that was formed with teachers from Omsk State University under the chairmanship of the dean of the department of theology and world cultures, Dmitry Sinelnikov. The trial was briefly recessed until the results of the studies were received. The results of the two expert analyses that were received in April formed the basis for resuming the hearing of the case of the Inglinist church in provincial court. On 30 April 2003 Judge Boris Fominykh of the Omsk provincial court granted the suit of the directorate of justice for liquidating the juridical entities of the religious associations of Old Believers. The expenses for the trial, including the requirement of paying for the expert analysis of six scholars of Omsk university around 10,000 rubles, were imposed on the Old Believers by the court. The attorney for the Inglinists, Lidia Okhrimenko, expressed disagreement with the results of the Omsk expert study and filed a civil suit against its participants. She called the decision issued by the provincial court "a general tendency to dispose of undesirable movements, faiths, and parties not only in Omsk province but also in Russia." The attorney will defend the honor and dignity of her clients in the Soviet Court of the city of Omsk. Despite the fact that the written decision of the provincial court will be delivered to the defendants on 10 May, attorneys for the Omsk Inglinists have already sent an appeal of the decision for liquidation to the collegium of the provincial court. Inglinists do not consider the trial to have been legal. "We will submit an appeal to the Supreme Court of RF and to the European Court for Human Rights," the rector of the Omsk Inglinist church, Father Alexander Khinevich, told Kommersant. Plaintiff's attorney Vladimir Fediaev reported that his organization did not want to take the case to court. "The government does not dig into the underground of the Old Believers and other nontraditional religions, but they are obliged to observe the law," Mr. Fediaev said. However "conversations and warnings" did not have any effect on the Inglinists, whose activity the official called "a game of cat and mouse." "I do not think that this is possible," Vladimir Fediaev answered to the question about a possible decision by the Supreme Court in the Old Believers' favor. In his opinion, such a decision will have negative public response in Russia, since we are dealing here with prevention of extremist activity. (tr. by PDS)
[translator's
note: The sectarians described in this article use
the name "Orthodox Old Believers" [pravoslavnie
starovery] for themselves, but they should be
distinguished from the historic Orthodox Old
Believers who trace their origins to the
seventeenth-century schism in the Russian Orthodox
church. The "Inglinists"--a name I have coined
based on the Russian "Inglingi" that the media use
to name the sectarians--have created an eclectic
confession that includes a substantial amount of
ideas and symbols from eastern, primarily Indian,
religious sources, as well as symbols from
pre-Christian Russian paganism. The sectarians use
the word "Inglia" to designate "infinity."] |
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