Poland Set to Monitor New Religious Movements

Measures against new religious movements are being considered by Poland's Interior Ministry

Warsaw, Poland | ANN Staff

Measures against new religious movements are being considered by Poland’s Interior Ministry, reports Keston News Service.  Plans were announced to establish a special department to monitor new religious movements amid growing public concern over the activities of such groups in the country.

Speaking at a news conference on June 28, Krzysztof Wiktor, the head of Poland’s existing Inter-Ministerial Team for New Religious Movements, said that “the problem of sects is smaller here than in other European countries-at least for now.  But if a religious or para-religious group violates fundamental human rights and causes destruction consciously and intentionally, the state must intervene.”

Mr. Wiktor said that the new Interior Ministry department is to be formally established in September, will have no “executive or operational instruments,” and that its tasks will include “preparing assistance and prevention programs and legislative changes,” as well as “co-ordinating actions by state organs and co-operation with non-governmental organizations.”

Reacting to the announcement, Wladyslaw Polok, president of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Poland said that his church is “decidedly opposed to any curtailing of religious freedom of individuals or organizations in our society.”

“The government’s business is to guarantee religious freedom for any religion or belief, above any other consideration. If a law is broken there are ways to deal with that,” he said.  “We hope that religious liberty in Poland will not be threatened by this move of the Interior Ministry.”

Jan Krysta, president of the Adventist Church in Southern Poland, said that “the young democracy in Poland should not follow in the footsteps of the past communist system which scrutinized who did what in society.  We hope that the Interior Ministry will not follow the infamous practices from the past.”

Krysta cited several instances where religious freedom in Poland is restricted by local government officials. “Even the long-established and legally recognized religious minorities are having real problems in exercising their religion in public in today’s Poland. So, you wonder what it all will mean for the not-so-known religious groups.”

Keston News reported that in Mr. Wiktor’s estimation there are perhaps between ten and twenty dangerous sects in Poland and several dozen others, which he called “destructive groups which do not threaten society directly.”

“Religious or cultic activities undertaken in good faith do not come under our assessment. But acts of a harmful character or destructive intentions must interest us, since the state is the guardian of order and public security.”

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