Report: Jehovah's Witnesses Targets of Widespread Religious Persecution

Report: Jehovah's Witnesses Targets of Widespread Religious Persecution

400 Legal Cases Worldwide Signals Threatened Freedoms for All

PBS Documentary Tells Their Untold Story

'The entire world is threatened ... by religious intolerance.' - Condoleeza Rice

SAN FRANCISCO, May 16 /PRNewswire/ -- As issues of democracy, freedom, and religion increasingly make headlines and political rhetoric around the world, a new report shows for the first time just how much one group, Jehovah's Witnesses, is persecuted for its uncompromising faith -- and how its persecutions signal threatened freedoms for all. The report is released as a new documentary about the Witnesses, Knocking, will premiere nationally May 22 on the PBS series Independent Lens.

The report, "From the Doorstep to the Courtroom: 400 Religious Persecution Cases on the Jehovah's Witness Docket Worldwide," shows how Witnesses are among the most frequent targets of government-sanctioned suppression and persecution worldwide. The 7-million member group is currently litigating 400- plus cases to secure their rights to worship, speech, and assembly. The outcomes of these cases will either expand or contract freedom for all. The persecution perpetrators are not just totalitarian governments, but increasingly include emerging and mature democracies, from France to India. (Full report: www.knocking.org/ReligiousPersecutionReport.html.)

Earlier this month, the European Court of Human Rights ruled against the government of Georgia for its toleration of religious violence toward Jehovah's Witnesses. From 1999 to 2002, there were 138 violent attacks in Georgia alone.

"Jehovah's Witnesses are like a canary in the coal mine when it comes to civil liberties and human rights. What happens to them will determine what happens to the rest of us," says the report's author, award-winning journalist and Knocking filmmaker Joel P. Engardio. "A government that abuses the freedoms of a vulnerable religious minority often signals a weakening commitment to democratic values."

Knocking, Best Documentary winner at the 2006 USA Film Festival, reveals the historical struggles of Witnesses and their subsequent contributions to civil liberties in the U.S. and abroad -- including a record 50 U.S. Supreme Court wins. The film also puts a human face on Witnesses as it tells the stories behind the controversial actions (door-to-door proselytizing, refusal of blood transfusions) that often place the group at odds with the governments in the 236 lands where they worship. Anderson Cooper (CNN) called Knocking "riveting and illuminating."

Engardio authored "From the Doorstep to the Courtroom" using information compiled from the U.S. State Department's "2006 Annual Report on International Religious Freedom" as well as from the Jehovah's Witness organization's own legal docket.

Engardio, who was raised as a Jehovah's Witness but never joined the religion, is the writer, narrator, co-producer and director of Knocking. Award-winning filmmaker Tom Shepard is co-producer and director. It premieres on television on the Emmy Award-winning PBS series Independent Lens, hosted by Terrence Howard, on Tuesday, May 22 at 10 PM (check local listings).

MEDIA ADVISORY: The report's author, Joel P. Engardio; filmmaker Tom
Shepard; and Knocking participants are available for interviews.
Web sites: http://www.knocking.org/ReligiousPersecutionReport.html

http://www.knocking.org

http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/knocking

http://www.antidotecollective.org

Source: Joel P. Engardio

CONTACT: Scott Tillitt of Antidote Collective, +1-917-449-6356,
scott@antidotecollective.org

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