WHAT DO SCIENTOLOGISTS AND THE GOVERNMENT OF KAZAKHSTAN HAVE IN COMMON? They’re really, really lame; and they try to suppress people who disagree with them. Diana Hsieh is getting sued; as for Kazakhstan, here’s an excerpt from today’s Keston Institute bulletin:

KAZAKHSTAN: HOME BIBLE STUDY ENDS IN POLICE RAID. (11 Nov). On 8 September police and officers of the National Security Committee (KNB, former KGB) raided the apartment of a Baptist church leader Kormangazy Abdumuratov, where Baptists were studying the Bible. After taking details, searching and videoing the flat and those present, the Baptists were taken to police headquarters, where all were interrogated. After between one and two hours of interrogation, everyone was released except Abdumuratov. The police told him to write a statement declaring that he would stop holding religious meetings in his home. He refused and was

threatened with imprisonment because he had been caught three times taking part in unregistered religious meetings. One policeman even hit him, but after six hours he was released. Subsequently, hostile TV footage was shown on the Baptists and Abdumuratov was expelled from the Institute where he was a student, as he was said to be a traitor to the Kazakhs and to have been bought off by foreigners.