Roman Silantyev

Crusade against totalitarian sects announced on Sakhalin

More than 20 experts from six countries convene on the island ¹

Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, October 20, SakhalinMedia. A press conference was held today to inform journalists about the main themes of the upcoming international workshop conference on the struggle against totalitarian sects.

The meeting with journalists took place at the Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk and Kuril diocese outreach center on the eve of the international workshop conference titled “Totalitarian Sects and civil society: Current challenges of spiritual security.”

Alexander Dvorkin, president of the Russian Association of Centers for the Study of Religions and Sects and chairman of the Expert Council on Religion for the Russian Ministry of Justice, said that Sakhalin is the most problematic region in Russia in terms of totalitarian sects. In Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk alone, there are 6 Orthodox churches plus 17 places of worship occupied by sects.

“Sects deprive a person of the right to choose. Our task is to convey to the people all the hidden information about their activities so that the people of Sakhalin can make informed choices in matters of faith,” said Alexander Dvorkin.

According to Roman Silantyev, executive director of the Human Rights Center of the World Russian People’s Council, Slavic persons from Russia’s Far East have begun to appear among the ranks of Islamic terrorists.. As a specialist in the study of radical Islamic organizations, he says that intervention is needed to prevent this.

Gerald Armstrong (from Canada), former personal archivist to Hubbard, the founder of Scientology, said that this cult is an invention of the Americans. He is convinced that there is complicity between the government of the United States and Scientology. The Russian Orthodox Church, he said, is one of the few groups fighting against this phenomenon.

Lawyer Alexander Korelov said that the results of the upcoming conference are of great importance in the struggle against totalitarian sects.

Vladimir Rogatin, director of “Dialog,” the Nikolaevsk Center for the Protection of the Family and the Individual, spoke about the of sects in events in Ukraine.

“Totalitarian Sects and civil society: Current challenges of spiritual security” will be held in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk on October 21-22.