APPG Christians in Parliament and APPG International Freedom of Religion or Belief are hosting witness sessions for this inquiry in the Houses of Parliament: 2 December, 4pm-5.30pm, Committee Room 9 16 December, 4pm-5.30pm, Committee Room 19
House of Commons 2nd December 2014, written questions: David Simpson MP (Upper Bann) (DUP): To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps his Government is taking to promote religious respect and safety of Christians in the Central African Republic. Foreign Office Minister James Duddridge MP (Rochford and Southend East) (Con):…
Hundreds of Christians displaced by the Islamist insurgency in Nigeria’s North have been staging protests to express their anger over their government’s failure to protect them, reports World Watch Monitor. On 25 November at least 78 people were killed when two suicide bombers attacked a market in northern Nigeria’s Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State,…
David Burrowes MP (Enfield, Southgate) (Con) has had his question, regarding the extent to which Iran fulfils its obligations under Article 18 of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, answered by Foreign Office Minister Tobias Ellwood MP (Bournemouth East) (Con). Mr Ellwood stated that in 2013, President Rouhani of Iran had made a number…
About 200 people, described as extremist Islamists, attacked a Christian school in Bangladesh which welcomes children of all faiths, in response to local outrage prompted by rumours stating the school was forcing Muslim children to convert to Christianity. World Watch Monitor reports that the attack was on the morning of 5 November 5 at the…
Pope Francis met the Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi on Monday this week, commencing the start of the Arab leader’s first European tour. The visit was the first between an Egyptian leader and a Pope in eight years, since before the Arab Spring which ultimately propelled the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohammed Morsi to power and the subsequent…
Jeremy Lefroy (Stafford) (Con): Christians and others are being murdered for their faith in Nigeria, Syria, Iraq, Pakistan and many other countries. Elsewhere, it is a crime to believe anything other than what the state sanctions. Does my right hon. Friend agree that our United Kingdom stands, above all, for freedom of speech, thought and…
The seven official reports to the UN Human Rights Council of the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religions and Belief, Heiner Bielefeldt, have been published by the International Institute of Religious Freedom of the World Evangelical Alliance. Each report has its own specific topic like religious minorities, apostasy and blasphemy, conversion, women’s rights, or…
As Pope Francis recently called for international action on religious freedom and condemned violence against Christians, a group of 21 parliamentarians from around the world have written to His Holiness encouraging him to assemble a gathering of religious leaders in support of freedom of religion or belief. The International Panel of Parliamentarians for Freedom of…
Chris Evans MP (Islwyn) (Lab): To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment he has made of the extent of persecution of Christians in (a) the Middle East and (b) North Africa. Foreign Office Minister Tobias Ellwood MP (Bournemouth East) (Con): Conflict and instability in the Middle East and North…