EGN NEWS DESK
Another election, one other Prime Minister. And if you’re studying this within the UK, you could properly have a brand new MP. He or she can have one million and one issues on their thoughts proper now and loads of folks vying for his or her consideration.
It’s unlikely that they are going to have given a second’s thought to Freedom of Religion or Belief (or FoRB for brief) earlier than beginning their job.
FoRB is the proper to imagine and practise any faith or philosophical perception that you simply select. Freedom to decide on your religion is one thing that many within the West do not give a second thought to. After all, who would power you to belong to a faith you did not wish to?
Around the world, the reply is “lots of people”. Religious freedom is one thing that a whole lot of hundreds of thousands can not take with no consideration. Roughly 365 million Christians in line with Open Doors’ World Watch List, which ranks the degrees of persecution and discrimination that Christians expertise world wide. Here are just some examples:
- In North Korea you may face execution on the spot if you’re found with a Bible.
- In Nigeria, over 5,000 males, girls and youngsters had been murdered for his or her religion over the course of a single yr.
- In Afghanistan, 1000’s of Christians went into hiding, for worry of arrest, torture and execution by the Taliban – merely for being a Christian.
But why ought to a brand new MP be involved about whether or not somebody in Afghanistan can attend church and share their religion in security?
Firstly, as a result of any authorities that claims it’s involved with human rights ought to care about FoRB. It is typically known as the “canary within the coal mine” of human rights and freedoms. In different phrases, if a rustic is oppressing folks due to their non secular beliefs, you may make certain that they are going to quickly be oppressing many extra teams, if 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 converse out
Because I used to be not a Jew
Then they got here for me
And there was nobody left
To converse out for me.
Our present overseas coverage laws talks a few set of vulnerabilities that may make folks extra 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 religion to be one other of these elements. Once the religion issue is in place, Christians and different religion teams may be higher focused with assist and help.
The second cause that nations denying their residents non secular freedom ought to concern MPs is that the UK does enterprise with most of the worst offending nations. For occasion, Britain works carefully with Nigeria and has large commerce pursuits there. Likewise, India is a rustic with which our new authorities can be hoping to strike a commerce deal – it is a spot the place Christians are systematically marginalised and the place tens of 1000’s have been pushed from their houses by violent mobs.
When our legislators go to these nations, discussing cooperation or trying to strike commerce offers, will they point out these abuses and apply a bit of strain on the governments?
The remaining cause that your humble constituency MP ought to care about FoRB is that they actually could make a distinction to human lives midway throughout the globe. That’s very true after they work with different MPs, pushing for change to among the most susceptible folks on the planet.
At Open Doors we’ve got been working with MPs and friends from all political events, encouraging them to work collectively for change, on behalf of the world’s persecuted believers. Every January, we launch our annual World Watch List in Parliament. Last yr we had been joined by 101 MPs from throughout the political spectrum.
With our (and others’) encouragement the federal government commissioned an unbiased evaluate into the persecution of Christians globally. The final authorities even appointed a particular envoy for FoRB – proper now we’re pushing for that function to be made everlasting.
With this new tranche of MPs, we’ve got a problem and an thrilling alternative. The problem is that the majority new MPs have barely heard of FoRB. Most can have barely thought of how persons are persecuted for his or her non secular religion – far much less that Christians may ever be those discriminated towards.
Your MP is accountable to you, you might be their boss. If you vote to eliminate them, they not have a job, due to this fact you will have energy over them. If sufficient folks inform them that FoRB issues to them, they are going to sit up and take discover.
Christians in a lot of the world are unvoiced. They have little to no approach of sharing their story. The information media will not be all for publishing day by day figures on the variety of Christians slaughtered in Nigeria. The solely approach MPs will know what is actually taking place goes to be via you – their constituents. Write to your MP, galvanise native help in your church buildings, you will have energy to assist people who have little or no energy of their very own.
Encourage your MP to study extra 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.
