Three teenage Coptic students have been sentenced to five years in jail, while a fourth was sentenced to an indefinite detention period in a juvenile detention facility after being convicted on charges of blasphemy, insulting Islam, and fomenting sectarian strife on 25 February, reports Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) . The five-year sentences handed down to…
World Watch Monitor reports that in response to the violence in Nigeria, where Boko Haram and other forces killed more than 4,000 Christians in 2015, Nigeria’s largest confederation of Christian churches is, for the first time, jointly endorsing a commitment to revive the Church in the country’s north, before it collapses from a decade of violence…
The All Party Parliamentary Group for International Freedom of Religion or Belief today launched its inquiry report on Freedom of Religion or Belief in Pakistan & UK Government Policy. The report challenges the Home Office’s Country Information and Guidance on Pakistani Christians and Christian converts while also finding that Ahmadis, Christians and Hindus in Pakistan…
On January 27 the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (Strasbourg) adopted, almost unanimously, a resolution recognising that “individuals who act in the name of the terrorist entity which calls itself Da’ish” “have perpetrated acts of genocide and other serious crimes punishable under international law.” In this resolution, the Assembly continues “States should act…
Watch the debate in full Siobhain McDonagh (Mitcham and Morden) (Lab): I beg to move, That this House has considered the persecution of Ahmadiyya Muslims and other religious minorities in Pakistan. The cornerstone of the Ahmadiyya Muslim faith is its belief in peace and religious tolerance for everyone. Its motto is: “Love for all, hatred…
On Tuesday 9th February 2016, the APPG for International Freedom of Religion or Belief hosted members of the Steering Group of the International Panel of Parliamentarians for Freedom of Religion or Belief (IPPFoRB). The group were in London to reflect on the New York Summit that took place in September 2015 and to create…
Asked by Lord Alton of Liverpool To ask Her Majesty’s Government how they intend to respond to the resolutions of the European Parliament and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe condemning the actions of Daesh/ISIS in the Middle East as genocide. The Earl of Courtown (Con): My Lords, the European Parliament and the…
3 Feb 2016 Amendment 234A Moved by Lord Alton of Liverpool After Clause 38, insert the following new Clause— “Conditions for grant of asylum: cases of genocide (1) A person seeking asylum in the United Kingdom who belongs to a national, ethnical, racial or religious group which is, in the place from which that person originates,…
The rise of ISIS and other Muslim extremist groups in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia has brought horrific persecution of non-Muslims — Christians, Jews and other religious minorities. Now, a group of Islamic scholars, Muslim leaders and government ministers from Muslim-majority countries has promised to work together to protect those minorities, saying Islam…
THE SECURITY AND HUMAN RIGHTS CHALLENGES ON THE KOREAN PENINSULA FOLLOWING NORTH KOREA’S RECENT NUCLEAR TEST (21 January) Here are extracts from the debate: Lord Alton of Liverpool (CB): My Lords, 2015 marked the 70th anniversary of the division of the Korean peninsula. That division was the prelude to the 1950-53 war, which led to…