Challenge on religion
THE GOVERNMENT should make clear it rejects all forms of religious bullying by providing proper protection for people fleeing from it, the Bishop of Ripon and Leeds has said.
Bishop John Packer warned that religious persecution often seemed to be treated less seriously than political persecution.
“I am aware time and again of those who have fled to this country from Iran, Pakistan and elsewhere having suffered abuse and being terrified of being returned to their countries of origin because of it,” he said in a House of Lords debate on religious conscience.
“My experience is that freedom of religion, conscience and non-religion is not taken as seriously as a human right in this country as is political persecution. Those who change their religion in par ticular are regarded with suspicion by tribunals and find that their faith is not taken seriously.
“I recently met a taxi driver accused of blasphe- my by Muslim leaders in Lahore, who fled here with his wife and children after hiding in the hills in their homeland. They faced deportation back to Pakistan.
“Among the reasons for the negativity of their tribunal seems to be that they found a home in a different Christian tradition here from that from which they came. Roman Catholics in Lahore, they attended an Anglican church in Leeds. This was taken to be evidence that they did not take their faith seriously.”
Introducing the debate, the Bishop of Guildford, Christopher Hill, said there had been a “considerable increase in the encroachments upon religious freedom all over the world”.
He said: “Many sources could be cited. Objectively, I draw particular attention to the United States State Department’s annual report of 2011 from its Office of International Religious Freedom.
“This records a rising tide of anti-Semitism in many parts of the world and pressures on many religious groups: the Baha’i and Sufi Muslims in Iran, Coptic Christians in Egypt, Ahmadis in Indonesia and Pakistan, and Muslims in a range of countries, including Europe. I emphasise that that is not an exhaustive list.”
He said it was essential for religious communities to speak out on behalf of others and “not be slow in condemning behaviour within their own communities which is discriminatory to others”.
He said the recent European Court of Human Rights decision in favour of the right of British Airways worker Nadia Eweida to wear a cross showed “religious belief is not simply a ‘residual’ or even marginalised human right only to be considered when no other rights come into play”.
He added: “It can, on the contrary, have precedence over another right, such as the corporate image of a company.”