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Sorry for overlooking this Chris. The short answer is that I believe the discourse of "religious persecution" regarding Vietnam is BS, driven by the desire to catch the attention of right-wing US leaders who love that kind of stuff. Many Catholics have indeed been persecuted, as have Buddhists, atheists, communists (including CPV members), liberals etc - for political oppositionist activity. That does not prevent the Catholic Church doing all the things that churches do, nor does it prevent millions around the country massing into churches,monasteries, cathedrals etc. There have been some specific disputes between the government and the Catholic church,but not over religious freedom or "persecution of religious minorities" (minorities? Catholicism is second only to Buddhism in Vietnam, and Buddhist leaders, when persecuted for their political activism, are also likely to raise the "religious freedom" banner). Often land disputes. When I was there and following more closely, I judged there were instances where the government was in the wrong (eg, taking the property of a nunnery here the nuns were engaged in great social activity with the poor, for the "public interest", but in fact for private looting for the "cadres"), and some where the church was in the wrong (eg, mass demonstrations in Hanoi to get land returned that had been nationalised after 1954 like other feudal land - the actual church buildings were still in use for church purposes, they just wanted their feudal property restored; and in fact it had been Buddhist land before the French gave it to the Catholic church; the government wanted to use the land for a public park). The Catholic Church is also opposed to Vietnam's widely used legal abortion laws, and to its leading role east Asia on gay rights and same-sex marriage,but from what I could see, they tended not to push these ideas too forcefully or publicly, perhaps understanding they would be too out of step. There is no religious persecution, but a regime that continues to live so far in the past in terms of political repression is going to give ammunition to almost any conceivable charge, as the arbitrariness and opaqueness makes rational public discussion very difficult. On Mon, Sep 24, 2018 at 12:51 PM Chris Slee via Marxism < marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote: > > rac-vic.org/2018/09/07/2pm-sat-22-sept-public-meeting-dont-deport-huyen > > The Refugee Action Collective in Melbourne has been campaigning against > the planned deportation of a Vietnamese woman called Huyen.The > advertisement includes the following statement: > > "Catholic asylum seekers who were returned to Vietnam from Indonesia last > year were harassed, arrested, and threatened with imprisonment. Government > led and government sanctioned land confiscations, church burnings, violence > and threats of torture continue against Catholics and other religious > minorities in Vietnam." > > I was a bit surprised by this. I don't doubt that there is political > repression in Vietnam, but I am surprised to hear of a campaign against > "religious minorities". > > _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
