From: pnevmati@milhouse.cs.wisc.edu (Dionisios N. Pnevmatikatos)
Subject: Re: Proselytism
Keywords: religion, Greece
Organization: U of Wisconsin CS Dept
Date: Mon, 28 Sep 1992 14:06:15 GMT

cla02@keele (R. Wallace) writes:


>There is a report this morning in the Independent newspaper of an
>individual (a Jehovah's Witness) being prosecuted in Greece under a law
>dating back to 1938 prohibiting proselytisation by any religious group
>in Greece except the Greek Orthodox Church.

>Is this true? Does the law exist? How is it applied?

Yes and no. It does exist but it refers to "proselytisation" by door
knocking. I.e. Jehovah's Witness can and do distribute their documents but
they cannot act as pushy salesman in doing so. That's why you can see
many of them standing on the side of the streets displaying some
magazines of theirs. The same law applies to all religions including
Orthodox.

If you are interested in their religion you go yourself and talk to them.

BTW when I lived in Iraklio Crete I had people knocking on my door
trying to sell a "medical" encyclopedia that as it turned out was kind
of (but not exactly) Jehovah's Witness literature. So there are people
that push the limits of this law, and depending of the sensitivity of the
people they try it on, they could be prosecuted. (personally I couldn't
care less).

>Jehovah's Witnesses are, of course, a special case becase of their
>opposition to military service, but the article claimed that this
>prohibtion extends to all religious groups, including Roman Catholics
>and Protestants.

True, include Orthodox too.

>There are, are there not, places in Greece where there are substantial
>numbers of Roman Catholics. How does this legislation affect them?

No idea about numbers, but I know of at least two (really nice) catholic
churches in Athens.

>Please note (to anticipate irate respnses) that I am not a Jehovah's
>Witness or a Roman Catholic (or indeed a member of any religious
>organisation which goes in for agressive proselytisation). I just want
>to know.

>Does the ban affect non-Christian religions? No, this is not a hidden
>question on the treatment of Muslims in Greece! It has just occurred to
>me that I have never ever in a Greek city seen little lines of bald
>people wearing sheets and chanting 'Hare Krishna'. Could they if they
>wanted to?

As I said before it affect the way proselytism is carried out in
general, independent of religion.  Hare Krishna do walk around (dance
around is more accurate) the streets of Athens. Interesting spectacle.
But really, the Hare Krishna way of life is way different than anybody
else's way of life in Greece. What's why you don't see too many of
them. I think they prefer the center of Athens but I've heard that they
go to the airport too.

About Muslims in Greece I'm really not very informed because I haven't
met any, but from what I know, they can at least avoid the "Orthodox
religion" classes in primary/high-school (you can even avoid them by
declaring atheist).  Maybe they can have classes on their religion too.
Anybody know any facts here? And the law applies to everybody, so
Orthodox priest cannot knock on their door to proselytise them.

>Does the ban extend to propagating Atheism?

Yes, any sort of religion preaching.

>Richard Wallace.

Dionisis.