Austria recognizes WT

diamondiiz

http://www.etaiwannews.com/etn/news_content.php?id=942508&lang=eng_news

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Austria recognizes Jehovah's Witnesses

Associated Press
2009-05-07 10:16 PM

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Austria on Thursday officially recognized the Jehovah's Witnesses as the country's 14th official religion, ending a decades-long struggle over its status.

The decision gives the Jehovah's Witnesses the right to offer religion classes at schools, although the head of the Austrian branch of the sect said it no immediate plans to do so.

More than 20,000 Austrians are part of the global movement, which has been pushing for recognition in the Alpine republic since 1978. Its followers are known for distributing religious literature door-to-door.

Austria's Jehovah's Witnesses said the move sent a positive signal about religious freedom and the rights of minorities in the country. "We are very happy about this decision after our decades-long effort," said spokesman Johann Zimmermann.

Nikolaus Pelinka, a spokesman for the Ministry of Education, Art and Culture, said legal issues had caused delays and the group had taken years to meet requirements for recognition.

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Does anyone know what those legal issues may be???

tsar_robles

dont know... but most likely they must have signed something similar to what they signed in bulgaria where they gave up their right to disfellowship people because of the blood ban, etc.

truthsetsonefree

Amazing that Austria would not have done this long ago! Aren't they a democratic country?

wobble

Democratic Countries don't have to recognise Cults as official religions,so the WT must have done some big cover-ups to hide what they really are.

Love

Wobble

AnnOMaly

They have been fighting to to become recognized and now they can be counted as the country's 14th official "Snare and Racket"! How nice!

Mrs. Fiorini

I would be very curious to find out what this actually entails. With only 14 religions on the "official" list, what does that mean (other than the right to teach in schools, which they don't seem to be pursuing at this time)? With the many thousands of religions in the world, I can't imagine that all of Austria's citizens fall into just 14 religions. I had not heard the JWs were banned in Austria, so what does the official change represent? And why did the WT want it so badly that they were willing to work for decades to get it? What did they have to do to get it?

I also can't help but wonder what relationship this creates between the WT and the Austrian government.

If anyone has answers about this or knows where to find them, I would love to hear about it.

Thanks,

Mrs. F

PS - I wonder if this was done on advice from their PR company in order to improve relationships with governments. The WT roundly condemns all governments. All they need to be able to accomplish in this "time of the end" is to meet together and preach, which I'm under the impression they were already allowed to do. So what do they want to get from Austria with this "official recognition" and why? And how does it affect their teaching that "false" religion's collusion with governments is condemned by Jehovah? Does that just apply to the UN, or to all governments?

Austria recognizes WT

diamondiiz

tsar_robles

truthsetsonefree

wobble

AnnOMaly

Mrs. Fiorini

undercover

poppers

Mrs. Fiorini

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