Another election, one other Prime Minister. And for those who are reading this within the UK, you could well have a latest MP. He or she is going to have one million and one things on their mind without delay and many people vying for his or her attention.
It’s unlikely that they are going to have given a moment’s thought to Freedom of Religion or Belief (or FoRB for brief) before starting their job.
FoRB is the proper to consider and practise any religion or philosophical belief that you simply select. Freedom to decide on your faith is something that many within the West don’t give a second thought to. After all, who would force you to belong to a faith you didn’t need to?
Around the world, the reply is “a variety of people”. Religious freedom is something that lots of of thousands and thousands cannot take as a right. Roughly 365 million Christians in keeping with Open Doors’ World Watch List, which ranks the degrees of persecution and discrimination that Christians experience world wide. Here are only a number of examples:
- In North Korea you possibly can face execution on the spot for those who are discovered with a Bible.
- In Nigeria, over 5,000 men, women and kids were murdered for his or her faith over the course of a single yr.
- In Afghanistan, hundreds of Christians went into hiding, for fear of arrest, torture and execution by the Taliban – simply for being a Christian.
But why should a latest MP be concerned about whether someone in Afghanistan can attend church and share their faith in safety?
Firstly, because any government that claims it is anxious with human rights should care about FoRB. It is typically known as the “canary within the coal mine” of human rights and freedoms. In other words, if a rustic is oppressing people due to their religious beliefs, you possibly can make sure that they are going to soon be oppressing many more groups, in the event that they aren’t already doing so. To quote the top of the poem First They Came by Pastor Martin Niemöller:
Then they got here for the Jews
And I didn’t speak out
Because I used to be not a Jew
Then they got here for me
And there was nobody left
To speak out for me.
Our current foreign policy laws talks a few set of vulnerabilities that could make people more prone to face persecution, discrimination, even violence. An individual’s gender, their sexuality and their race are all acknowledged. We are calling for an individual’s faith to be one other of those aspects. Once the religion factor is in place, Christians and other faith groups will be higher targeted with aid and support.
The second reason that countries denying their residents religious freedom should concern MPs is that the UK does business with lots of the worst offending nations. For instance, Britain works closely with Nigeria and has massive trade interests there. Likewise, India is a rustic with which our latest government shall be hoping to strike a trade deal – it’s a spot where Christians are systematically marginalised and where tens of hundreds have been driven from their homes by violent mobs.
When our legislators visit these nations, discussing cooperation or attempting to strike trade deals, will they mention these abuses and apply a bit pressure on the governments?
The final reason that your humble constituency MP should care about FoRB is that they really could make a difference to human lives halfway across the globe. That’s very true after they work with other MPs, pushing for change to a few of the most vulnerable people on the planet.
At Open Doors we have now been working with MPs and peers from all political parties, encouraging them to work together for change, on behalf of the world’s persecuted believers. Every January, we launch our annual World Watch List in Parliament. Last yr we were joined by 101 MPs from across the political spectrum.
With our (and others’) encouragement the federal government commissioned an independent review into the persecution of Christians globally. The last government even appointed a special envoy for FoRB – without delay we’re pushing for that role to be made everlasting.
With this latest tranche of MPs, we have now a challenge and an exciting opportunity. The challenge is that the majority latest MPs have barely heard of FoRB. Most can have barely considered how individuals are persecuted for his or her religious faith – far less that Christians could ever be those discriminated against.
Your MP is accountable to you, you’re their boss. If you vote to do away with them, they now not have a job, subsequently you may have power over them. If enough people tell them that FoRB matters to them, they are going to sit up and take notice.
Christians in much of the world are voiceless. They have little to no way of sharing their story. The news media aren’t enthusiastic about publishing each day figures on the variety of Christians slaughtered in Nigeria. The only way MPs will know what is actually happening goes to be through you – their constituents. Write to your MP, galvanise local support in your churches, you may have power to assist those who have little or no power of their very own.
Encourage your MP to learn more in regards to the persecution of Christians worldwide.
Ben Cohen is the Head of Media and PR for the charity Open Doors UK and Ireland.
