Azerbaijan: Religious Freedom Survey, 2018

Azerbaijan restricts freedom of religion and belief with interlinked freedoms of expression, association, and assembly. Forum 18’s survey analyzes violations including prisoners of conscience who were jailed and tortured for exercising freedom of religion and belief, strict state literature censorship, and regime claims of its “tolerance.” Forum 18\u27s survey analysis documents Azerbaijan\u27s violations of freedom of religion and belief, with interlinked freedoms of expression, association, and assembly. Serious violations include but are not limited to: - a complex labyrinth of “legal” restrictions to prevent the exercise of freedom of religion, belief, and other fundamental freedoms; -total state control of the Islamic community; - a ban on all exercise of freedom of religion and belief by groups of people without state permission; - raids on people exercising freedom of religion and belief without state permission; - forcible closure of places of worship, especially Sunni mosques; - a ban on praying outside mosques; - jailing prisoners of conscience for exercising human rights, including freedom of religion and belief; - torture of people who exercise freedom of religion and belief; - prosecutions and punishments of conscientious objectors to the compulsory military service; - a highly restrictive censorship regime, including pre-publication, bookshop, photocopy shop and postal censorship; - and severe denials of human rights in the Nakhichevan exclave

Established music prepared and arranged for young bands.

Thesis (M.M.E.)--Boston Universit

Luhansk (Donbas): Religious Freedom Survey, February 2022

Freedom of religion and belief is severely restricted in the rebel Luhansk People\u27s Republic occupying currently (February 2022) about a third of Ukraine\u27s Luhansk Region. Forum 18\u27s survey analysis documents violations including: rendering illegal all Protestant and non-Moscow Patriarchate Orthodox communities; a climate of fear about discussing human rights violations; repeated denials of permission to a Roman Catholic priest to live in the region; and increasing numbers of banned allegedly extremist books, including an edition of the Gospel of John published in 1820. All human rights including the freedom of religion and belief are severely restricted in the rebel self-declared Luhansk People\u27s Republic (LPR), which currently (February 2022) controls about a third of Ukraine\u27s Luhansk Region. Among the rebels\u27 violations documented by Forum 18 are: - a restrictive 2018 LPR Religion Law which imposed re-registration of religious communities which were already registered under Ukrainian law, as well as making illegal any religious community which did not gain rebel permission to exist. This resulted in all Protestant and non-Moscow Patriarchate Orthodox communities being denied rebel permission to exist; - punishments for meeting for worship without rebel permission; - the banning by the State Security Ministry (SSM) secret police of all Ukrainian Baptist Union communities, despite this being illegal under LPR law as no court order was apparently made; - repeated raids on places of worship and unregistered religious communities being denied access to any buildings they own; - social welfare activities carried out by unregistered religious communities being stopped; - surveillance of local religious communities, and the encouragement by LPR rebels of a climate of fear about discussing human rights violations; - cutting off gas, water, and electricity supplies to all places of worship owned by unregistered communities; - contacts with fellow believers of any faith elsewhere in Ukraine being made difficult or impossible, including repeated denials of permission to a Catholic priest resident in Luhansk since 1993 to continue to live in the region, as well as to nuns to return to a parish. This has resulted in the repeated inability of Catholics to receive Communion at Mass, a central part of the Catholic faith; - and an increasing list of banned allegedly extremist books, including an edition of the Gospel of John originally published in 1820

The Influence of General Sustainability Attitudes and Value Congruence on Consumer Behavior

Sustainability has become a strategic focus within many modern organizations. This is largely attributed to increased public awareness and changes in consumer behavior. One recent trend, ‘ethical consumerism (EC),’ occurs when consumers purchase the goods and services from businesses that share their values. In response, many businesses are adopting ‘cause-related marketing (CRM)’ campaigns to attract and retain customers who regularly engage in EC. Sustainability reporting has been identified as method of CRM capable of attracting and retaining consumers who value sustainability. To investigate this phenomenon we conducted a lab experiment designed to measure consumer behavior (loyalty and purchase intentions) based on the alignment of individual consumer values and organizational values (value congruence). The results of our study suggest (a) general attitudes toward sustainability positively and significantly influence value congruence (VC), and (b) VC positively and significantly influences consumer behavior (loyalty and purchase intention)

IT User Satisfaction in Academia: A Comparison Across Three Student Types

This study utilized critical incidents and open-ended surveys to develop a focused information technology (IT) user satisfaction survey for use in academia. The resulting Likert-type scale survey was administered to 122 individuals enrolled in three different MBA programs – traditional, distance-learning, and executive – at a large university. Hypothesis testing employed ANOVA and SEM. The results suggest that IT user satisfaction differs among these student groups, and IT user satisfaction positively influences satisfaction with the academic program. Contributions of the study include an examination of IT user satisfaction in an academic setting and an investigation of the ways in which IT impacts the education process across different program types