And each assault reveals why church-state separation is a great idea and essential for genuine freedom:

Rights Group Says Russian Religious Freedom In Danger (Nataliya Vasilyeva/The Associated Press; Jan 25)

MOSCOW: Religious freedoms are being rapidly curtailed throughout Russia as the Orthodox Church seeks to boost its dominance, human rights activists warned Monday.

In its annual report on religions freedoms, the independent Moscow-based Liberty of Conscience Institute expressed concern that growing state support for the Russian Orthodox Church is coming at the expense of minority denominations.

President Dmitry Medvedev’s inititiative to permanently assign Orthodox priests to army units and introduce religious education classes at state schools could prove detrimental to the idea of Russia as a secular state, the report said.

Those moves breach the constitution and are aimed at “fostering loyalty to the regime,” Sergei Mozgovoi, co-chair of the institute’s board, told reporters.

Attaching chaiplans to army units in particular could incite abuse toward non-Christian conscripts, he said.

The Russian Orthodox Church withered under eight decades of Soviet rule, but has enjoyed a resurgence over the past two decades. The church has more than 100 million followers in Russia and millions more elsewhere. Polls show only about 5 percent of Russians are strict followers, however.

Government and religion are officially separated under Russia’s post-Soviet constitution, but the Liberty of Conscience Institute says ties between state and church have become “symbiotic.”

In a move criticized by the report’s authors, the government is giving vigorous backing to a law that could see the church reclaim valuable property confiscated by Soviet authorities.

Sergei Buryanov, who jointly chairs the institute, accused Russian authorities of using legislation designed to fight extremism to stifle dissent.

Russia is witnessing “a large-scale and systematic persecution” of religious minorities that mainly targets Muslims, he said.

Recent moves against the Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia has also alarmed religious freedoms activists.

Russia’s highest court last month upheld a ruling halting the activities of a regional branch of Jehovah’s Witnesses and banning dozens of its publications. That followed a 2004 ruling by the Moscow City Court prohibiting a branch in the Russian capital from engaging in religious activity.

The institute said the crackdown on religious freedoms has become so fierce that there may soon be no religious minorities in Russia.

“Government Complicity” Lets Religious Conflict Go On (The Jakarta Post; Jan 28)

JAKARTA, Indonesia: A damning report on freedom of worship in Indonesia has blasted state agencies and government officials for complicity in violating this fundamental right.

The Setara Institute for Democracy and Peace released Wednesday its Report on the Condition of Religious and Faith Freedom in Indonesia, revealing 200 violations against freedom of worship throughout 2009.

The institute claimed state agencies had been involved in 139 of the cases — 101 of the cases saw “active” involvement by state officials, while the 38 others were by omission.

“Over the last three years, we have found that violations against freedom of religion remain rampant,” Setara Institute chairman Hendardi said at a press conference.

“This is mostly because the government is half-hearted in its upholding of the right to worship.”

State institutions outed by the report include the police, which Setara claimed were involved in 48 cases, the Religious Affairs Ministry (14 cases), mayors (eight cases), regents (six cases) and courts (six cases).

“State agencies often prohibit certain groups from praying or building a place of worship,” Hendardi said.

“We also found government officials discriminated against other groups, prohibiting them from using public facilities.”

He added that in many cases of attacks by Muslim mobs on congregations of other faiths, the authorities turned a blind eye and sided with the offending majority.

An attack against supporters of the Ahmadiyah sect in Jakarta, for instance, led to arrests of Ahmadiyah members, and not their attackers.

The police claimed they did this to protect the Ahmadis.

Setara also categorized 86 cases in their findings as crimes that should have been dealt with by law enforcement officials.

The violators in 29 of these cases were the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI), the hard-line Islam Defenders Front or FPI (nine cases), and the Forum of Islamic Community or FUI (six cases).

“The Ahmadis remained the most persecuted community, falling victim in 33 separate cases during 2009,” Hendardi said.

“Christians were next with 12 cases, then followers of the Satria Piningit Weteng Buwono sect with 10 cases.”

The number of cases last year was lower than in 2008, when Setara highlighted 265 violations.

The most prominent case in 2008 was the attack on Ahmadiyah supporters by the FPI and other hard-line Islamic groups at a pro-tolerance rally at the National Monument in Jakarta.

In 2007, Setara recorded only 135 violations of freedom of worship.

The institute monitors freedom of worship in 12 provinces: North, West and South Sumatra; Banten, Jakarta, West Java, Central Kalimantan, North Sulawesi, Gorontalo, Bali, West and East Nusa Tenggara, and Maluku.

West Java had the highest number of violations, with 57 cases, followed by Jakarta with 38 cases and Banten with 10 cases.

With violations on the rise from three years ago, the Setara Institute urged the government to pass legislation on religious tolerance as soon as possible.

“We also ask the government to integrate lessons on tolerance and pluralism into the national education curriculum,” said deputy chairman Bonar Tigor Naipospos.

He also called on President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to make good on a campaign promise to revoke all bylaws violating freedom of worship.

“Philosophy” Poster Containing Ten Commandments Gets Judge Back In Spotlight (Mary Beth Lane/The Columbus Dispatch; Jan 27)

A second constitutional challenge to an Ohio judge’s display of the Ten Commandments in his courtroom is making its way through the court system.

At issue is whether a new, self-designed and framed poster put up by Richland County Common Pleas Judge James DeWeese in his Mansfield courtroom is constitutional. He says it is. Advocates for church-state separation say it isn’t.

The judge hung the poster in 2006. That was after the U.S. Supreme Court in 2005 let stand previous lower-court rulings that his first poster, which he hung in 2000, violated the constitutional separation between church and state.

On Tuesday, Americans United for Separation of Church and State joined Hindu, Jewish and other groups in filing a friend-of-the-court brief arguing that the judge’s display is an unconstitutional governmental endorsement of religion. The brief was filed in the 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.

DeWeese is appealing an October ruling by a federal district court that found his new display unconstitutionally endorsed particular religious views over others. The court ruled in a complaint filed in 2008 by the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio.

Attorneys for DeWeese argue in a brief filed to the appeals court last month that the new poster is “markedly different” from the 2000 display in which he hung separate posters of the Ten Commandments and the Bill of Rights.

The new poster is titled “Philosophies of Law in Conflict,” and shows two columns. On the left are the Ten Commandments, labeled “moral absolutes.” On the right are seven of what the judge called “humanist precepts,” which he labeled “moral relatives.”

Humanism rejects religious beliefs and holds that humans control their own actions.

The poster includes a commentary by the judge. DeWeese wrote that he sees a conflict of legal philosophies in the United States. It is moral absolutism versus moral relativism or, as examples, the Ten Commandments and the humanist precepts, he wrote. He added that he believes legal philosophy must be grounded on fixed moral standards and not on moral relativism.

No matter, replied the advocates for church-state separation in their court filing. They argue that DeWeese’s new poster is an attempt to “dress a religious display in secular clothing.”

It is unknown when the appeals court will rule. DeWeese did not return a message seeking comment.