Norway’s Jehovas Witnesses have lost their legal effort to regain the state financial support that’s offered to all religious organizations. Their’s was cut after the state determined that the Jehovas Witnesses don’t comply with rules that members must freely be allowed to join them or leave.
The Jehovas Witnesses sued in an attempt to regain the millions of kroner they’d received from Norwegian taxpayers based on membership numbers. The state had determined that those leaving the Jehovas Witnesses suffered from strict bans on contact with other members, including their own families. The alleged exclusion policies violated state criteria for funding, and Jehovas Witnesses also eventually lost their recognition as a registered religious organization in Norway.
Newspaper Dagen reported on Monday that the Oslo County Court ruled in favour of the state, claiming it was within the state’s rights to withhold funding and retract the Jehovas Witnesses’ rights, for example, to legally marry people in Norway. Religious movements that threaten or engage in negative social control of their members are not in line with relatively new state rules regarding eligibility for funding.
NewsinEnglish.no staff
