1964 Awake! - Theocratic Collector.com

Imprisoning innocent Portuguese citizens
and holding them in confinement for over
four months without charge is also illegal,
and is a flagrant miscarriage of justice.
In evidence of the shady nature of these
dealings, no official bulletin concerning the
arrest, imprisonment or deportation has
been issued. Everything has been verbal.
When Mr. Vieira asked the director of the
International Police in Luanda, Anibal Sao
Jose Lopes, why no written notice of these
things had been given, instead of answering
the question he changed the subject.
A formal protest to the governor of Angola
by those ordered to leave has not even been
acknowledged. It is evident that Angolan
officials want to keep the matter quiet.
Do You Approve?
How can this treatment of Portuguese
citizens be harmonized with the guarantee
of "freedom of worship and organization
for all other religious faiths [besides Catholics]
practised on Portuguese territory"'?
It cannot! The facts are evident that this
freedom promised in Portugal's Constitution
is now being suppressed! Non­
Catholics are not allowed to study the
Bible, nor are they free to worship God
according to the dictates of their conscience.
Rather, they are being hounded
by the police, threatened, misrepresented,.
brutally mistreated, and women and children
are deprived of livelihood when their
husbands and fathers are locked up in
prisons and held without charge.
This treatment cannot be excused by asserting
that non-Catholic Christians such
as Jehovah's witnesses are not entitled to
the freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution
because they have not obtained the
legal approval of the government. For
many years Jehovah's witnesses have
sought to gain legal recognition, but Portuguese
officials have refused to reply to
their requests. Why'? No reason has been
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given. Do you admire a government that
promises "freedom of worship and organization
to all other religious faiths," and
then refuses to recognize non-Catholic religions
to be religious faiths '?
Certainly for a government to promise
religious freedom to its peoples and then
to carryon such a program of ruthless persecution
of law-abiding Christians is unjust.
But what can you do on behalf of
the victims of this persecution '?
Rulers of all lands have long been sensitive
to what people of other nations think
of them and their country. At times they
may not even be aware of the extreme injustice
and brutality of their subordinates
who have taken the law into their own
hands. You can inform Prime Minister
Salazar that you feel outraged at the religious
persecution that has reached inquisitional
proportions in his country. Give him
the opportunity to act in defense of religious
liberty in Portugal.
Address your protest to: Your Excellency
Professor Ant6nio de Oliveira Salazar,
President of the Council, National Assembly,
Lisbon, Portugal; also to: Your Excellency
Almirante Americo Tomas, President
of the Republic, Pra!;8 Afonso
Albuquerque, Lisbon, Portugal; and to the
Portuguese ambassador in your country, or
if there is no ambassador, to the principal
diplomatic representative from Portugal.
•
Late News: Information just received from
Portugal tells of continued 8uppres8ion of reli·
gwus freedom. On March 12, when forty·five
members of the Amadora, Lisbon, Oongrega·
tion of JehOVah's Witne8se8 were gathered to·
gether, their assembly for worship was dis·
rupted by twelve policemen. The meeting was
stopped, all the women present were ordered
to go home, and the male members of the can·
gregation were arrested and taken to jail. The
three ministers who were on the platform when
the police arri'!;ed have been detained in prison
indefinitely, while the other men were ques·
tioned, searohed and then released. Everything
in the congregation's place of meeting was
confiscated.
AWA.KE!