Lindisfarne Analysis July 2024

This week sees the last week of the UK general election campaign and the first of the TV debates for the US presidential election later this year, while only a few weeks ago countries across the EU voted in European parliamentary elections.

One of the issues which often gets lost in elections is freedom of religion. In the UK elections the only manifesto to even refer to freedom of religion was that of Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party – which to its credit specifically talked about persecuted Christians.

However, it’s not just what politicians positively promise to do which makes a difference to persecuted Christians. At least, if not more important, is what is happening to freedom of religion in the West – which in a globalised world is watched by a whole range of countries and people – many of whom are directly or indirectly responsible for persecution of Christians. That matters because:

When freedom of religion is eroded in the West, especially by governments – it actually empowers repressive regimes around the world who persecute Christians

Let’s look at some recent examples

Government closure of churches  

When it comes to church buildings – there are basically two types of countries in the Islamic world a) those who do not allow any churches b) those who tolerate the existence of a small number – but periodically find excuses to close them down excuse being ‘health and safety’.

For example, in November 2017 Algeria’s ministry of religious affairs set up a “safety commission” – which then closed down 18 church buildings. In the past, Western governments, such as the UK and USA sometimes take up these cases, but that has now been significantly undermined because during the Covid pandemic governments of western countries such as the UK passed laws making it illegal for church buildings to be open – claiming that the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) allowed them to restrict the human right to freedom of religion on health grounds – which was almost identical to the claims made two years earlier by the Algerian government.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, a number of Islamic countries used the pandemic as an excuse to close churches – not all of which have subsequently been allowed to re-open.

State registration of churches – and Sunday schools

In November 2015 UK Prime Minister David Cameron announced plans for compulsory state registration and inspection of both Islamic Qur’anic schools and Christian Sunday schools purportedly in order to combat “extremism” and terrorism. There was absolutely no evidence to suggest that Christan Sunday schools were in any way promoting “extremism” (then defined as vocal or active opposition to fundamental British values such as freedom of religion..) still less, terrorism – jihad is after all a specifically Islamic theological concept, but Sunday schools were included none the less. Although a major campaign by churches led to the idea being quietly dropped, in early 2018 it was revived by Amanda Spielman who had recently become Ofsted’s Chief Inspector issuing a fresh call for Christian Sunday schools to be legally required to obtain government registration and Ofsted inspection.

Why that matters is because the incredibly close links between the UK and Pakistan mean that much of what gets reported in UK newspapers also ends up in the Pakistani Press. Until recently, Pakistani churches had not been required to register with the government  - but since early 2018 there has been an increasing trend of the Pakistani government requiring churches to register with it, claiming that this is necessary on “security” grounds.

Islamophobia 

There’s a bit of a debate as to who came up with the term ‘Islamophobia’, it’s recent usage in the English speaking world emerged from a think tank report with this title published in 1997. However, the term has become incredibly problematic as it is frequently used to conflate both a legitimate meaning of tackling anti-Muslim hatred (i.e. protecting people) AND seeking to proscribe any criticism of Islam (i.e. protecting the religion) – which is in effect an Islamic blasphemy law. 

It hardly needs to be said that Islamic blasphemy laws are a major cause of the persecution of Christians in countries such as Pakistan. But the western use of the term ‘Islamophobia’ has now been weaponised by radical Muslims for precisely that purpose.

For example, in 2005 the Organisation of Islamic Co-operation (OIC) produced a 10 year strategy which included a whole section on “combatting islamophobia” . This did not contain a single reference to protecting Muslims from hatred, but solely related to protecting Islam from “defamation” i.e. an Islamic blasphemy law. It stated that it aimed to get both a UN resolution to counter Islamophobia and persuade western countries to adopt laws against – with “deterrent punishments” in other words, to make any criticism of Islam a criminal offence.  

The result was summed up by the highly regarded US Commission on International Religious Freedom in its 2016 annual report. This observed that both the UN General Assembly and UN Human Rights Council had become:

centers of a problematic effort by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and some of its members to seek an international legal norm restricting speech that defamed religions, particularly Islam,

In other words, an attempt to impose a global Islamic blasphemy law. That represents a serious threat to anyone speaking about the persecution of Christians in Islamic contexts.

What politicians in the West need to remember

Freedom of religion developed in the West, particularly countries of the English-speaking world such as Britian and the USA and spread from there to the rest of the world. Politicians need to remember the full extent of what freedom of religion has historically included here:

1.  Freedom of the church from state interference, including freedom to interpret scripture without government interference.

2.      Freedom to translate and own scripture in the vernacular and read it publicly.

3.      Freedom of worship.

4.      Freedom from being required to act against one’s beliefs.

5.      Freedom to establish places of worship.

6.   Freedom to preach and try to convince others of the truth of one’s beliefs.

7.      Freedom to choose or change one’s faith.

8.  Freedom from being required to affirm a particular worldview i.e. religious or philosophical beliefs, in order to hold public office, enter various professions or study at university (absence of ‘Test Acts’).

9.      Freedom of parents to educate children according to their own beliefs.

10. Freedom to criticise the religious or philosophical beliefs of others (absence of blasphemy law.

A fuller explanation of these is available on our website HERE.

It is vital that governments and politicians in our own countries maintains that heritage of freedom of religion if we are to speak out and improve the lot of Christians and others who suffer religious persecution in other countries.