children of "dangers" of new religious groups and encourages them to spy, BosNewsLife monitored Tuesday, June 10.
In the publication "Security: Dangerous Situations and Civil Defense", issued by the Education Ministry, 15 and 16 year olds are asked to "collect information" about the organizations which it describes as "internationally compromised religious sects."
Students are requested to use their assembled material "to discuss it in…class and discuss their possible danger at school and at home," said the Forum 18 News Service (F18News), quoting from the controversial textbook.
The task seems to revive a practice under the former Soviet-era secret service, the KGB, which used school children and students to spy on non Communist elements deemed "dangerous" for society.
CHRISTIANS PROTEST
Baptists and Lutheran Christians have already protested against the textbook, which some linked to heavy lobbying by the dominant Orthodox Church, amid alleged fears it will lose some of its influence, more than a decade after Communism.
"I think the textbook encourages religious violence," said Malkhaz Songulashvili, bishop of the Baptist Union in an interview with F18News, which monitors religious persecution. "If the state is serious about religious freedom it has to withdraw the book immediately and apologize for issuing it," he said.
The book, by Otia Mdivnishvili, Otar Tavelishvili, Gela Ramishvili and Dimitri Makharadze and edited by Teimuraz Melkadze, was published by the Meridiani publishing house in Tbilisi, the capital of the former Soviet republic. It is prescribed for use in all state-owned Georgian-language schools, F18News reported.
"RELIGIOUS SECTS"
The five-page chapter "The Dangers from Religious Sects", which comes at the end of the 64-page book, does not mention any specific religious communities by name but recommends how children can "protect" themselves from minority religious groups.
However "the fact that the textbook does not mention any particular religious group as harmful does not make it less dangerous for our religious minorities," said Emil Adelkhanov of the Tbilisi-based Caucasian Institute for Peace, Democracy and Development.
Adelkhanov told F18News that among other phrases the Christian and other groups are described as "religious sects … forbidden in other countries, with their anti-State, antihuman, amoral sermons," which "brainwash young people and then ask them for money."
He said the book accuses new churches of forcing young people to rob relatives, compel them to sell their houses while "some sects have no scruples about using any means (bribing, deceiving, winning over traitors, including officials etc.) in their business."
While church leaders recognize some sects are dangerous, they fear the controversial publication sets the stage for a further crack down against Bible believing Christians, who are already under pressure in the former Soviet Union.
Education Ministry officials were not immediately available for comment, but promised to answer reporters questions within ten days, F18News said.
