Analysis of Religious Liberty and Persecution

[Dad Ernie]

Greetings all,

I thought the following would best fit in this forum. I received it today and it looks like things are going to get worse and not better:

Analysis of Religious Liberty and Persecution Trends 2003

A rather sobering view of the current world view. . .

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Analysis of Religious Liberty and Persecution Trends 2003

The trend seems to be for trends to escalate. Religious liberty and security for Christians has seriously and rapidly deteriorated in nations such as Eritrea, Iraq and Sri Lanka. The religious liberty situation for Christians in Afghanistan, Bhutan, China, India, North Africa, Northern Nigeria, Somalia and the Gulf is very difficult; whilst in Bangladesh, Belarus, Indonesia, Pakistan and Turkmenistan it is going from bad to worse. The situation for Christians in Iran, Laos, Maldives, North Korea, Saudi Arabia and Vietnam remains intolerable.

Christians in Ivory Coast, Central Sulawesi and Papua (Eastern Indonesia) live with daily anxiety of impending conflict. This is especially serious in Central Sulawesi and Papua where Christians are extremely vulnerable, at the mercy of jihad militias and compromised security forces and government. A new paper by Yale Law School researchers confirms crimes against humanity by Indonesia in Papua, where the genocide of a Christian people is a very real possibility.

In China, Egypt and Sudan Christians watch and wait, wondering what 2004 will hold. Will China's President Hu bring reform? Will Egypt's recently released Islamist militants create terror? Will Sudan see peace and reconstruction after 20 years of jihad?

Christians, Jews and Muslims in France wonder how far fundamentalist secularism will go and how much trouble it will it create. Christians, Jews and Muslims in Canada wonder if the recognition of Sharia will radicalize Canadian Muslims or cause legal mayhem. Christians, Jews and Muslims in other Western nations wonder if the legal changes in France and Canada will set a precedent that will spread.

All across the Muslim world, from Mauritania to Mindanao, Christian minorities dread any further rise in Islamism. Islamist zeal is increasing not only in Muslim nations, but also in Muslim minority, immigrant communities in the West.

A look at the state of the world situation can give rise to despair. However, I truly believe that the pattern God demonstrates in the gospel gives us hope for the world situation. It is only in that place of humble repentance and helplessness that we can receive the salvation Jesus has purchased for us and now freely offers. Likewise regarding justice, peace and salvation for the nations. It will be in that place of humble repentance and helplessness that we stop looking to ourselves, and look to God for his power to be displayed beyond all that we could ever dare ask or even hope - for us and through us. It is not uncommon for people to find salvation whilst on their knees in tears. I believe justice, peace and salvation for the nations will be found there also.

"My gracious favour is all you need. My power works best in your weakness." (2 Cor 12:9 NLT).

ANALYSIS OF RELIGIOUS LIBERTY & PERSECUTION TRENDS 2003

Sir Isaac Newton's third law of motion states that: to every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. This principle seems to apply not only in physics, but in politics and religion as well.

TREND 1 - ESCALATING OCCULT VIOLENCE

The modern frenzied search for spiritual realities is a reaction against atheistic Communism and the Western Enlightenment ideology that has pervaded the Western worldview, poisoned Western theology, and weakened Western mission. Without clear, uncompromised Bible teaching on true spirituality, a frenzied search for anything spiritual, without discernment, can lead to spiritual deception - to pseudo-Christian cults and the occult. Also, the current trend towards religious nationalism and tribalism is resulting in a resurgence of "traditional" religions.

In South Africa, African Traditional Religions are being actively promoted in schools through the Department of Education's new Religion in Education policy. In the United States, African Traditional Religions, including Voodoo, are drawing increasing numbers of followers primarily among immigrants and black Americans interested in their ancestral roots.

While spiritism is nothing new, headlines indicate that it is certainly on the increase. As is generally the case, that which is not of the Holy Spirit is against Christ and against the Church. Occult-inspired violence ravages the Church in many regions across Africa and Asia. This is more than just a tragedy. The one who persecutes the Church is persecuting the Church. This trend will surely increase and spread.

TREND 2 - ESCALATING AUTHORITARIANISM

The erosion of the Christian foundations of Western culture is resulting in increased chaos. As good and honourable as freedom is, the fact remains that fallen mankind is not good enough to be free. Freedom, in the absence of the Holy Spirit and Christian ideological and moral foundations, can only lead to anarchy and chaos. The alternative to Christianity (which works from within) is authoritarian control, with restrictions on freedoms, including freedom of expression, imposed from the outside. However, legislation of this kind produces a legal minefield and creates more social problems than it solves.

The Victorian Racial and Religious Tolerance Law in Australia is aperfect example. As was predicted, this has simply become a weapon the intolerant can wield against those they refuse to tolerate or would like to silence. The Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT), is presently hearing its first vilification case. The Islamic Council of Victoria (ICV) has accused two Christian pastors, who ran a seminar on Islam, of vilifying Islam. One of the pastors is a Pakistani and a renowned expert on Islam. One of the ICV complaints is that the pastors said that Christians are persecuted in Muslim countries!

Soon the VCAT will hear a case brought by the Pagan Awareness Network and a professing and practising trans-gender witch who aspires to local government office. They have accused the local mayor (a Christian) of religious vilification of witches because he asked the local pastors network to pray against the "forces of evil".

Unable to deal effectively with increasing anti-Semitic violence and social tensions, the French government has decided that conspicuous religious symbols, specifically Islamic headscarves, Jewish skullcaps, Christian crosses, will be banned from public schools and hospitals, and regulated in the workplace.

Nicky Jones, a PhD student at Queensland University (Australia), has been researching the issue. She explained to Australia's Radio National Religion Report that the original term which had been brought into the court's decision was "ostentatoire", which translates as "ostentatious". The French word that is now being used is "ostensible", which translates as "conspicuous", or simply visible.

President Chirac said in a 17 December address to the nation, "I feel that wearing any kind of symbol that ostensibly shows faith should not be allowed in schools and colleges." Chirac said he objected to items, "when if they are worn people can immediately see what religious faith they belong to, that should not be accepted". So Pandora's box is opened! Will religious speech be next? Will this establish a precedent for other nations to follow?

TREND 3 - INCREASING FRAGMENTATION

Fragmentation, nationalism or tribalism, are all reactions to imperialism, colonialism and globalisation. The issue of rising religious nationalism was dealt with in some detail in last year's WEA RLC end-of-year report. During 2003 this trend has continued and escalated, particularly in Sri Lanka (Buddhist nationalism) where attacks on churches are now almost continuous, and Eritrea (Orthodox) where 334 evangelicals are imprisoned in the most appalling conditions. The trend is for fragmentation along ethnic, tribal and religious lines in multicultural, multi-ethnic, multi-faith nations and societies. The frontlines or dividing lines (social borders) are getting smaller and there are increasingly more of them. Once upon a time conflicts were primarily between states. Now they are primarily within states, and increasingly, within communities.

TREND 4 - RISING ISLAMIC FUNDAMENTALISM

The contemporary trend of rising Islamic fundamentalism and militancy is the Islamist reaction to the present world order which, since the rise of the West, is running contrary to the Qur'anic teaching of Islamic superiority and supremacy. For a millennium, Islam held and ruled every land it conquered. By the power of the sword, the "harb" (pagans) were converted or annihilated, and the People of the Book (Jews and Christians - dhimmis) were "protected" - that is they were permitted to pay for their right to life and live in subjugation and humiliation. In the Muslim world sharia reigned supreme and the Islamic order was maintained.

The rise of Europe through the Renaissance, the Reformation and the Industrial Revolution forced reform upon the Muslim world (reform imposed from the outside). The colonial/mandate period after the World Wars forced secularisation (including equality) on Muslim nations under Western protectorates. With independence however came a determination to reclaim, or revert to, the Islamic order. In recent decades there has been a concerted effort at global Islamic expansion, driven and funded primarily by Saudi Arabia, which exports Wahhabism (strict Islam) worldwide. There has also been a sharp escalation in Islamic militancy, primarily since the creation of the state of Israel, but especially since the jihad in Afghanistan against the Russians, which created the contemporary global jihad industry.

In last year's end-of-year report it was acknowledged that the War on Terror has poured fuel on the flames of Islamic renewal across the Muslim world. This trend escalated further during 2003 as the War in Iraq, with the Allied occupation, the collapse of Baghdad and the capture of Saddam, humiliated the Arab and Muslim world. The Muslim response to this humiliation is anger and defiance, even though Saddam was widely despised, and the allied forces see themselves as liberators and the bearers of good gifts - democracy, equality freedom, and Western human rights. This humiliation, anger and defiance can only be understood in the light of Islamic history and the Qur'anic doctrine of Islamic superiority.

One of the primary aims of contemporary Islamist movements is to reclaim the lands Islam has lost, such as the Balkans regions that Islam captured in the 15th and 16th Centuries and lost in World War I. This is why East Timor remains vulnerable. Other aims include the restoration of sharia in secularised, Westernised Muslim nations, and the installation of sharia in Muslim majority regions. However, a split is occurring in Islamist terrorist ranks. In Indonesia, the fact that mainly Muslims died in the 5 August Marriott Hotel bombing in Jakarta has split the ranks of South East Asian Islamist terror groups. Several senior Jemaah Islamiah (JI) commanders "want their jihad to focus on fighting Christians in certain regions of Indonesia rather than bombing Western targets where Muslims also die. Others believe all of Indonesia is fair game 'because Indonesia is not yet an Islamic state'."

Terror attacks against "soft targets" (Western targets in Muslim regions) became more prevalent in 2003. The debate occurring within SE Asian terror networks is doubtless occurring in other Islamist groups. Some groups will probably make a commitment to confine their efforts to non-Muslim, especially Jewish and Christian targets. This will see an increase in careful, strategic targeting of Jewish and Christian sites and peoples.

Another contemporary phenomenon is the movement aimed at de-Westernising and re-Islamising the Muslim diaspora in the West, where Islamist activists are busy converting, reverting and re-Islamising by means of pressure and persuasion. Tensions are rising in Muslim immigrant communities. Anti-Semitism has escalated, particularly in Europe. These Islamist activists have a ready audience because the Muslim feeling of humiliation (which is interpreted as victimisation) arouses strong feelings of Muslim solidarity and Islamic identification and zeal. This happens even amongst Muslims who have previously had little time for Islam and have abandoned or even fled Islamic regimes and sharia oppression. The ethnic Muslim who rejects Islam but is trapped by apostasy laws is in an extremely difficult place.

Sharia Arbitration tribunals are now recognised in Canada. Sharia is also being practised illegally in Europe. Muslims who have immigrated or fled to the West to escape sharia oppression are finding that it is following close behind. Islamist figures claim that the principle of religious liberty gives them the right to enforce sharia, i.e. that their freedom gives them the freedom to remove other people's freedom! Governments must reject appeasement on principle and stand up for religious liberty for all people if they are really committed to the human rights principle: "Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance". The profile of sharia rose dramatically in 2003. Sharia, through the Qur'an, provides Muslims with a religious mandate for religious intolerance, and sharia is likely to be a central global issue in 2004.

Provided by:

Elizabeth Kendal

World Evangelical Alliance