Tag: Europe

EU Envoy’s threat of trade sanctions played crucial role in Asia Bibi’s freedom

September 5, 2019 Pakistan Asia Bibi, Blasphemy, Canada, Europe, Human rights, Jan Figel, Pakistan, Religious freedom, Salmaan Taseer, Shahbaz Bhatti

EU Envoy on religious freedom, Jan Figel, meets with Asia Bibi's lawyer, Saif ul Malook in Lahore, December 2017. (Photo: Jan Figel)

Freed Pakistani Christian Aasiya Noreen, known to the world now as Asia Bibi, has pleaded for the many others like her accused of blasphemy who, she says, are still “lying in jail for years – their decisions should also be done on merit. The world should listen to them. “The . . . Read More

EU told to strengthen mandate of religious freedom envoy

September 21, 2018 Global News -- No Particular Country Denmark, Europe, Jan Figel, Religious freedom, UK

The European Union needs to develop an overarching religious freedom policy strategy, and strengthening the mandate of the Special Envoy is an important step towards this, writes CSW’s Amy Shepherd for Brussels-based news site The European Post. The position of the Special Envoy for Freedom of Religion or Belief (FoRB) . . . Read More

‘UN must recognise persecution of Christians in Middle East as genocide’

September 17, 2018 Global News -- No Particular Country Europe, Genocide, Iraq, Islamic State, Jan Figel, Middle East, Sam Brownback, Syria, UN, Yazidis

At the moment of the photo taken, ISIS had just been pushed out of the home towns of these Christians. People were hoping and anticipating to return to their towns some day.

The European Centre for Law and Justice (ECLJ) is appealing to the United Nations to recognise the persecution of Christians in Iraq and Syria as “genocide”, reports the US-based National Review. The ECLJ, an affiliate of the American Center for Law and Justice, said a “genocide” declaration is necessary to . . . Read More

EU should ‘put people of the world’ first in quest for religious freedom – report

September 6, 2018 Global News -- No Particular Country Anti-conversion law, Asia Bibi, Blasphemy, Europe, India, Jan Figel, Minorities, Pakistan, Religious freedom

Members of the European Parliament (EP) have called on the EU to “put the people of the world before our financial and political interests”, in a report about religious freedom. The Annual Report on Freedom of Religion or Belief 2017, presented by the EP Intergroup on Freedom of Religion or . . . Read More

Historic link shown between economic stress and violence to minorities

August 24, 2018 Global News -- No Particular Country Europe, Minorities

A Christian farming community in Kandhamal is vulnerable to not just economic shocks but also violence. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

There is a connection between economic stress and the violence directed at minority groups, says Mark Koyam, Assistant Professor in Economics at the US-based George Mason University. His research shows “that economic insecurity and weak political institutions give rise to persecution and violence against minority groups”, he explains in a . . . Read More

‘Only jihadists want to see Christians leave the Middle East’

August 6, 2018 Arab Spring, Arabs, Cairo, Canada, Churches, Egypt, Europe, Islamic extremism, Lebanon, Middle East, Migrants, Minorities, North Africa, Palestinian Territories, Refugees, Syria, USA

Around 300 Christians went to Bartella during the Easter weekend of 2017, to have the very first Easter celebration in three years in their home town. A convoy of about 15 buses travelled from Erbil, crossing several Kurdish and Iraqi army checkpoints to reach the church. The people still live in Erbil and cannot go back to Bartella to live or to rebuild. But for this day many take the chance to celebrate Easter in their own church again. (Open Doors International)

“The only people that want to see all Christians leave are some of the violent jihadists,” concludes a new book. “Everyone else, including some we might term as Islamists, desires their continued presence. They recognise that it is Christians who are the leaven that permeates the whole of society.” The . . . Read More

Religious and secular groups unite to declare freedom of belief is a right

June 28, 2018 Global News -- No Particular Country Europe, Human rights, Religious freedom

If they're not Lutheran, evangelical women in Eritrea have to pray together in secret. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

An alliance of religious and secular charities has launched an online campaign to raise awareness of the right to freedom of religion or belief (FoRB). “Believe it or not, it’s my right!” is the slogan of the movement launched on Tuesday 26 June by the European Platform against Intolerance and Discrimination . . . Read More

70,000 Syrian Armenians have fled during the war, and few will return

June 27, 2018 Syria Aleppo, Armenians, Bashar al-Assad, Children, Civil War, Deir Ezzor, Education, Europe, Lebanon, Middle East, Refugees, Syria

The fragrance of Middle Eastern cuisine wafts into your nostrils, even before you open the door of the café opposite the central railway station in Yerevan, Armenia’s capital. Nerses Kevo, the café’s owner, is one of thousands of Armenian Christians who fled the Syrian civil war and moved to . . . Read More

Assessment of religious conversions as genuine or asylum-motivated dismissed as naïve

June 8, 2018 Aideen Strandsson, Asylum seekers, Baptism, Converts, Denmark, Europe, Finland, Germany, Iran, Kurds, Middle East, Migrants, Netherlands, Refugees, Sweden

Revd Mark Miller of St Thomas' Church, Stockton, in north-east England, The Priest-in-Charge of St Thomas’s, Stockton-on-Tees, the Revd Mark Miller, has had up to 100 Persian asylum-seekers in his congregation

Attempts by Western politicians and media to judge whether Iranian migrants and asylum-seekers who ask to be baptised are either genuine or are doing so to boost their chances of being granted asylum are “naïve”, according to an academic who has carried out extensive research among Iranians who profess to . . . Read More

Maldives to EU: ‘Islam shall be the basis of all laws’

April 23, 2018 Maldives Constitution, Elections, Europe, Islamic extremism, Maldives, Mohamed Nasheed, Religious freedom

Only Muslims can be citizens of the Maldives is Muslim, and citizenship is revoked if one chooses another faith. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

The Maldives government has told the European Union it will not consider amending its constitution to allow for religious freedom in the country, reports Maldives-based news site Avas Online. A report by the EU’s Electoral Follow-up Mission (EFM), published last week, said the Maldives had implemented none of the 22 . . . Read More

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