Lord Alton of Liverpool, a Vice Chair of this APPG, opened the debate on the ‘orphaned’ human right of Article 18 – the freedom of religion or belief — in the House of Lords last week. Read the full story of this important debate here. Lord Alton regular updates his blog www.davidalton.net with articles about human…
Sacred Islamic shrines in Iraq’s second largest city Mosul have been blown up by Islamic State (IS) militants with half a dozen revered places targeted and destroyed this past week, end of July 2014, reports The Guardian. The latest building to be bombed by the radical jihadists was the Prophet Jirjis mosque built over the…
A baby girl, her seven-year-old sister and their grandmother suffocated to death after a Pakistani mob set fire to the homes of Ahmadi Muslims in protest at a Facebook post by a young man. An expectant mother also miscarried her baby after the attack. It happened after an argument between some men in Gujranwala town,…
More than 100,000 minority Rohingya Muslims held in camps due to violence by Buddhist extremists face ‘systematic discriminisation’, according to the new United Nations Human Rights Envoy for Myanmar, Yanghee Lee. On July 26, Lee spoke after a 10-day fact-finding mission to the region where she applauded the country’s development in human rights but warned…
Iraqi Christians forced out of their city after a serious death threat from Islamic militant fanatics have been offered asylum by the Government of France. The Christian community of Mosul, considered one of the oldest in the world, fled the country’s second largest city on 19 July after the Islamic State Group (IS) formerly known…
The former Religious Affairs Minister in Myanmar was charged in court on July 22 with undermining national security after he allegedly objected to a raid by Government officials from his own department against the Mahasantisukha monastery in Yangon’s Tamwe township which then led to protests by monks. Hsan Sint is being held in Yamethin prison…
Historian and author William Dalrymple says the death of Arab secularism is on the horizon as Christians are persecuted and pushed out of the Middle East with the past decade deemed especially ‘catastrophic’ for believers. Some 12 million Christians in the region face persecution through Islamic fundamentalism, according to the well-known writer in a newspaper…
On Thursday 24 July, the House of Lords debated the issue of International Freedom of Religion or Belief, Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Lord Alton, a Vice Chair of this All Party Parliamentary Group, began his opening remarks by saying that not only was Article 18 a universal human right, it was…
A mother of two young children who escaped court verdicts of flogging and death by hanging for her Christian beliefs has flown from the US embassy in Khartoum to Italy. Meriam Yahia Ibrahim Ishag, her toddler son Martin, baby daughter Maya and wheelchair-bound husband Daniel were accompanied by Italian Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs Lapo Pistelli…
Violence against Jewish people in Paris has been condemned by the Prime Minister of France. A synagogue and shops were looted by a masked mob on the rampage protesting against Israel’s military action in Gaza. A funeral parlour and a pharmacy were amongst the premises damaged during the illegal protest which turned violent on Sunday…