PARADOXES OF RELIGIOUS FREEDOM AND REPRESSION IN (POST-)SOVIET CONTEXTS. Issue 3 (23rd September 2014)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Pelkmans, Mathijs
• Is Part Of: Journal of law and religion. Volume 29:Issue 3(2014)
• Page Start: 436
• Page End: 446
• Publication Date: 2014-09-23
• Subjects: religious freedom, -- religious repression, -- law, -- former Soviet Union, -- conversion; Religion and law -- Periodicals; 344.096
• DOI: 10.1017/jlr.2014.23
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0748-0814

Abstract

Abstract: The religious revival that followed the collapse of the USSR provides an excellent opportunity to compare the dynamics of projects of religious freedom with those of religious repression. Based on extensive ethnographic fieldwork in Georgia and Kyrgyzstan, this article documents the contradictory effects that both repressive and liberal policies and laws have on religious expression. Thus, while Soviet anti-religious policies undeniably caused much suffering and hardship, religious repression also contributed to an intensification of religious experience among certain Muslim and evangelical groups. And while religious freedom laws expanded the scope for public religious organization and expression, they also produced new inequalities between religious groups, as the cases of Georgia and Kyrgyzstan demonstrate. Ultimately, the article shows that the effects of liberal and repressive laws are far from straightforward and need to be analyzed in relation to the social context in which they are applied.