Tokyo Resident Believed to be the Latest Kidnap Victim in Japan

A 30-year-old Japanese bank employee is believed to be the latest victim of kidnapping and forced confinement, according to reports from Japanese Unification Church officials. She is among five active Japanese church members believed to be held against their will by opponents of their faith since August of 2009.

Ms. Yoshiko Majima, a member of the Musashino Youth Branch of West Tokyo, went home to visit her parents in the Tochigi Prefecture on Feb. 7, 2010 and did not return to her job in Tokyo. She reportedly loved singing in the church choir and wanted to invite her parents to her church in order to show her performance. It is believed that she first reported her church membership to her parents in 2008.
Ms. Majima has been working in Tokyo for a major credit card company, called JCB.  In 2009, she reportedly fasted for seven days as a preparation for the marriage blessing ceremony of the Unification Church. Ms. Majima had joined the Unification Church in 2004 and participated in church programs as a trainee from 2004 to 2006 and has served as a faithful church member since then.

On February 7th she told friends she planned to visit her parents’ home and return on the same day. However, she called a trusted friend in the church about 7 p.m. and said, “Although I was planning to go back to the church today, I cannot go back today.  I think I cannot go back for a while.” She did not respond to questions from her friend during the call.

After that call, her cell phone service reportedly was stopped. Visitors to her parents’ residence report that it appears to be vacant. According to Japanese Unification Church officials, they do not release photos of persons believed to be confined against their will, since the kidnappers have been known to force their victims to renounce their church membership and to file lawsuits against the Unification Church for reporting the kidnapping and confinement, on the grounds of false statement and invasion of privacy.

Since 1969 more than 4,300 members of the Unification Church have been kidnapped and confined by misguided relatives and opponents of the church. Some of the victims have been beaten, sexually assaulted or tortured while in captivity.

On Feb. 19, 2010 the Forum for Religious Freedom, a religious-freedom nonprofit, posted an appeal to the international community on the newsletter of the Brussels-based Human Rights Without Frontiers [http://www.hrwf.net], with the following opening statement: “On behalf of The Japanese Victims' Association Against Religious Kidnapping and Forced Conversion we appeal to the international community to influence the government of Japan to take action urgently to halt the impunity related to the long-term and persistent use of kidnapping, forced confinement and even torture of its citizens. These cases involve denial of multiple rights, including and especially freedom of religion during which time members of religious communities are being coerced to change their beliefs while confined against their will.”

 On January 12, 2010 the Institute on Religion and Public Policy, a human rights monitoring group in Washington, D.C. issued a statement calling upon the government of Japan “to bring to a halt the long-term and persistent use of kidnapping and forced confinement of its citizens to deny and change their religious beliefs.”
Contributed by Douglas Burton

Link: http://www.familyfed.org/news/index.php?id=111&page=1&apage=1

Kidnapping, Confinement & Forced Conversion in Japan: UN-Human Rights Council

13th Session, United Nations Human Rights Council
Written Statement Item 3: Civil and Political Rights/ Freedom of Religion
JAPAN
Submitted in English by: Universal Peace Federation, ECOSOC special consultative status

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UN Representative, Heiner Handschin, ch des la Pierreire 1c,
1092 Belmont sur Lausanne,  079 250 3477,  europe2@upf.org

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Religious freedom is one of the fundamental freedoms and rights to which all people are entitled and we must be vigilant against all violations of religious freedom. The Universal Peace Federation affirms the essential value and significance of religion, and hence religious freedom, for the achievement of global peace. If we hinder freedom of religion, we endanger the prospects for peace. This applies not only to majority religions, but minority religions as well.

As such, we appeal to the United Nations Human Rights Council to influence the government of Japan to take action urgently to halt the impunity related to the long-term and persistent use of kidnapping, forced confinement and even torture of its citizens. These cases involve denial of multiple rights, including and especially freedom of religion during which time members of religious communities are being coerced to change their beliefs while confined against their will.

It has been reported that in the Unification Church alone more than 4,300 members have been victimized to date. During the past four decades, over 1,300 adherents have managed to escape their captors, sometimes at great personal risk, and return to their religious communities. They report human rights violations such as long-term confinement, mental and physical abuse, and psychological manipulation designed to force them to recant their faith.

Despite numerous complaints to police, not one indictment has been brought against the perpetrators of these crimes. Currently at least five Unification Church members remain missing in Japan, suspected to have been confined and held against their will because of their faith: Momoyo Yamada (30), Fusako Tomoda (22), Yuko Majima (60), Masako Kudo (35), and Takashi Nishikawa (26).


The Case of Toru Goto 

One recent shocking example of Japan’s religious intolerance is the case of Mr. Toru Goto, who was confined for over 12 years and 5 months against his will in an apartment in Tokyo. Already in his 30s at the beginning of this confinement (his second), Mr. Goto was imprisoned in one small room, guarded day and night, just blocks away from the municipal authorities. He was not allowed to leave the apartment even to exercise and was not permitted communication with the outside world during these 12 years. He was at times constrained by force and required to listen to his captors’ indoctrination and ridiculing day after day, in an attempt to make him convert from Unificationism to mainline Protestant Christianity. The ringleaders in this case were the Christian minister Toridechi Yasutomo Matsunaga and professional “deprogrammer” Shun Takashi Miyamura in collusion with members of Mr. Goto’s family.

When, after 12 years of imprisonment, the captors were forced to admit that Mr. Goto was not going to succumb to their brainwashing techniques, they cruelly threw him out into the street in February 2008, a tall man but weighing only 39 kilo and barely able to walk. He went directly to the police station to report the crime but was refused help. He finally reached the church headquarters in Tokyo and was then taken to the hospital for a prolonged rehabilitation. He filed charges against the perpetrators of this crime in 2008, and yet on December 9, 2009, Tokyo prosecutors refused to indict them. Their claim of “insufficient evidence” is a travesty of justice and the government’s action of turning a blind eye allows those responsible to continue their activities with impunity.

Here are just a few of many documented testimonies showing how severely human lives have been affected through these crimes: 

Religious symbols and reminders of religious freedom: My purchase of a menorah

I announced to my family a few weeks ago that I was going to purchase a menorah. They looked at me kind of funny, wondering why I, being a Christian, would do such a thing. But as I was reading about Hanukkah (or Chanukah), I was struck by the symbolism of the menorah and its relationship to religious freedom. Although it is not a part of my religion, it still bears some sacredness for me.

The story goes like this: In 175 BCE, Antiochus IV, the Syrian king of the Seleucid Empire, invaded Jerusalem and recaptured Jerusalem. His soldiers plundered and looted the temple, putting a stop to further temple worship. The practice of Judaism was outlawed, which prompted the successful Maccabean revolt in 165 BCE and the subsequent rededication of the temple.

According to wikipedia: "The festival of Hanukkah was instituted by Judah Maccabee and his brothers to celebrate this event. After recovering Jerusalem and the Temple, Judah ordered the Temple to be cleansed, a new altar to be built in place of the polluted one and new holy vessels to be made. According to the Talmud, olive oil was needed for the menorah in the Temple, which was required to burn throughout the night every night. But there was only enough oil to burn for one day, yet miraculously, it burned for eight days, the time needed to prepare a fresh supply of oil for the menorah. An eight day festival was declared by the Jewish sages to commemorate this miracle."

The martyrdom of Hannah and her seven sons is also linked to Hanukkah. Antiochus, in his demonstration of control over the Jews and their religious practices, had required her sons to eat pig or to be put to death. Each son, in turn, refused, and was, as promised, killed. Prior to the youngest son's death, Antiochus had appealed to Hannah to convince her youngest to eat pig rather than to die. But Hannah was not swayed and the son refused, and that son, as well, was put to death. Ultimately Hannah, too, suffered death in connection with these events. Her and her sons' courage and strength are commemorated to this day.

I wanted to purchase the menorah so that I would have this symbol as a reminder of these important events and of the strength and courage of these Jews nearly 2200 years ago and so that I could teach my children about these things. The principles that the menorah represent are universal and bear meaning to this non-Jew. And so today I finally received my "traditional pewter menorah" in the mail, having ordered it from Judaica.com, and was pleased to bring this symbol into my home.

By the way, I decided not to purchase the "Multi-color Puzzle Menorah," the "Inflatable Festival Menorah Decoration," the "Clef Note Menorah," the "Woven Garden Wall Menorah," or the "Giant Lawn Decoration Inflatable Menorah." The "traditional pewter menorah" works just fine for me.

This article was posted by James Blood on the International Religious Freedom Blog.

RUSSIA: Setback for anti-missionary law

Ministry of Justice sacks people who conducted incompetent
anti-missionary policy against non-Orthodox

By Roman Lunkin

Portal-credo.ru (10.02.2010) / HRWF (17.02.2010) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - The uproar evoked by a series of initiatives of the Ministry of Justice of RF in the religious sphere roiled society and roused up against the ministry many believers and defenders of freedom of conscience in Russia and abroad. Since Alexander Konovalov's assumption of the post of minister in 2008, radical sect-fighters have been appointed the chief experts on religion in the Ministry of Justice, intimidating investigations of religious associations have begun, and in October 2009 the Ministry of Justice proposed a draft law harshly restricting missionary activity in Russia. All of this has sharply undermined the confidence of believers in the authorities in general, and they have begun talking about the onset of new persecution.

Meanwhile, when the situation had already flared up to the limit, at the beginning of 2010 it became known that key figures responsible for the incompetent policy with respect to believers had been dismissed from the Ministry of Justice. These were a deputy minister, Aleksei Velichko, and the head of the Department on Noncommercial Organizations, which includes work with religious associations, Sergei Milushkin. The press service of the Ministry of Justice confirmed that this is indeed so; the odious figures do not work in the Ministry of Justice any longer.

Instead of Velichko, on 14 January 2010 by order of Russian President D. Medvedev, Alexander Fedorov was named first deputy minister of justice; previously he had served as deputy head of the Federal Service for Drug Control of Russia.

From the moment of appointment (June 2008) Velichko was authorized from the very beginning to oversee noncommercial organizations, since they were moved out of the purview of the Federal Registration Service to be immediately under the Ministry of Justice. Previously he worked as deputy director of the administration of state registration of rights to immoveable property of the Federal Registration Service. And since 2006 he was the assistant of Alexander Konovalov, who then was the presidential envoy for the Volga federal district. Aleksei Velichko naturally complemented his director, Alexander Konovalov, since Velichko is the author of books about the symphony of authorities in Byzantium and Russia. Naturally, almost immediately after the "Byzantine party" arrived at the ministry, it began to construct the ideal of symphony of church and secular authorities in the way that it understands it.

Kazakhstan: International Protest against imprisonment of reknown human rights defender Zhovtis

Statement of the World Movement for Democracy Steering Committee regarding Developments in the Case against Yevgeniy Zhovtis

The Steering Committee of the World Movement for Democracy calls on the Supreme Court of Kazakhstan to honor the appeal submitted on 27 January 2010 by the defense team of human rights activist and fellow Steering Committee member, Yevegniy Zhovtis.  In the appeal, citing article 67 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Mr. Zhovtis' defense team calls on the Supreme Court to overturn the guilty verdict against Mr. Zhovtis and immediately release him from prison.

On 26 July 2009, Mr. Zhovtis was involved in a car accident, resulting in the tragic death of a pedestrian, Kanat Moldabayev. It is now clear that Kazakhstani authorities exploited this unfortunate accident to politicize the investigation and punish Mr. Zhovtis for his human rights work, evidenced by the fact that the investigation and the subsequent trial were rife with procedural violations.  Mr. Zhovtis was convicted and sentenced to serve a four-year prison term on 3 September 2009.

On 2 February 2010, the US Helsinki Commission will convene a hearing on Kazakhstan's current chairmanship of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).  The Steering Committee urges the Commission to consider Mr. Zhovtis' case, which demonstrates Kakazhstan's disregard of fair trial standards.

We express our solidarity with fellow Steering Committee member Yevgeniy Zhovtis.

On behalf of the Steering Committee of the World Movement for Democracy:

The Rt. Hon. Kim Campbell

Former Prime Minister of Canada

To read the full statement, go to: www.wmd.org/documents/SCStatementZhovtis020110.pdf

For the statement made on 3 September 2009, go to: www.wmd.org/documents/Zhovtis93.pdf and (in Russian) www.wmd.org/documents/ZhovtisRus93.pdf

For the statement made on 1 September 2009, go to: www.wmd.org/documents/Zhovtis.pdf and (in Russian) www.wmd.org/documents/ZhovtisRus.pdf

RUSSIA The Russian government confirms condemnation of Jehovah's Witnesses

The Ministry of Justice confirmed Supreme Court decisions. Trials pending in several Russian cities to outlaw faithful branded as "religious extremists". New Year, Molotov cocktails against a Kingdom Hall near Volgograd.

AsiaNews (11.01.2009) / HRWF (20.01.2010) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net -  Among small legal victories, the Kremlin's indifference and attacks on their places of worship, the struggle of the Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia to see the respect of their human rights and religious freedom continues. There is a campaign of persecution, of physical and judicial attacks on the community in different areas of the Russian Federation. The latest episode is  the Ministry of Justice response to a letter sent in November by VM Kalin, chairman of the Steering Committee of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia,  to President Dmitry Medvedev. Theletter denounced "arbitrary" trials masked by accusations of "religious extremism" going on in different courts and a climate of "xenophobic hysteria" against the community, the Russian government responded succinctly: decisions taken by the Supreme Court will be fully implemented . Complete silence and indifference to the issues raised by Kalin. What does this mean?

Attacks and some judicial success

In September the Supreme Court outlawed the community of Jehovah's Witnesses in the city of Taganrog, Neklinov and Matveeva -Kurgan. Judges ruled the ban on their activities and the dissolution of groups. The Supreme Court has confirmed the conviction handed down by the Provincial Court of Rostov. Other trials are also pending that could lead to the dismantling of communities in different parts of the country: in Salsk (province of Rostov), Gorno-Altaisk (Altai Republic), Krasnodar (Krasnodar province), Vladikavkaz (Republic of 'North Ossetia-Alania), Lomonosov (province Arkangelsk) and Yekaterinburg (Sverdlovsk province). To defend themselves against accusations and avert the dissolution of the organization's community leaders in Russia, intend to appeal to European Court for Human Rights, they believe, in fact, that the charges raised against them contradict the principles upon which Russia's cooperation with countries like the United States and Germany in fighting religious extremism is based.

But it is not only defeats. In December, the Jehovah's Witnesses won a trial that saw them charged with "extremist activities and literature" in Orks (province of Orenburg) and Samara. In both cases the judges found no violation of federal law in the work of the community, as advocated instead by the prosecutors.

More attacks

Attacks on Jehovah's Witnesses are not, however, confined to the courtrooms. New Year's Eve, a few minutes after midnight, two Molotov cocktails were thrown against the Kingdom Hall (the place of worship in the community) of Volzhsky in the province of Volgograd. The attackers took advantage of the uproar caused by the fireworks to launch their attack; the flames have caused some damage to the building, but rescuers were able to extinguish it before the fire spread.

Probably Russia finds "fault" with the Jehovah's Witnesses in their practices: conscientious objection to military service, refusing to take up arms, refusing blood transfusions and the demand of total dedication of members to the life of the community.

http://www.asianews.it/news-en/The-Russian-government-confirms-condemnation-of-Jehovah's-Witnesses-17312.html

RUSSIA: Supreme Court ban on Jehovah's Witnesses begins to bite

By Geraldine Fagan, Forum 18 News Service <http://www.forum18.org>

Although 34 Jehovah's Witness publications described as extremist have not yet been added to the Federal List of Extremist Materials, public prosecutors in several Russian regions have begun issuing extremism warnings to Jehovah's Witness communities, Forum 18 News Service has learnt. Also, in what is thought to be the first instance in post-Soviet Russia of extended detention in connection with sharing beliefs, two Jehovah's Witnesses informally accused of distributing extremist literature in Bryansk Region were detained for six days for "petty hooliganism".  Mikhail Odintsov of the office of Russia's Human Rights Ombudsman told Forum 18 – in what he stressed was his personal view – that there was a realistic chance Jehovah's Witnesses could appeal successfully to President Dmitry Medvedev to defend their rights, if complaints were formulated in purely legal terms. He characterised the overall situation as "threatening", maintaining that "reverse Sovietisation" was taking place. "We are returning to the ideological roots of state dislike of certain religious organisations," he remarked. "These people [Jehovah's Witnesses] have no defence. What defence do they have when a court is negatively predisposed towards them, pro-Orthodox, believes that one religion should be protected from another?"

France retreating on burqa ban

France retreating on burqa ban - Europe - World - The Times of India
PARIS: France is moving towards outlawing full Islamic veils in certain public buildings, stopping short of a broader ban that could violate the right to religious freedom, Le Figaro newspaper reported on Wednesday.

“Permanently masking one's face in public spaces is not an expression of individual liberty,” Jean-Francois Cope, the parliamentary party leader of Sarkozy's UMP party, said in an opinion piece in newspaper Le Figaro. “It's a negation of oneself, a negation of others, a negation of social life,” he said, but conceded that a complete ban faced certain legal obstacles.

Le Figaro quoted advisers as saying such a ban could be challenged before the European Court of Human Rights on the grounds that it hurt religious freedom.

Instead, the government will seek to banish the garments from public buildings such as town halls and police headquarters, where it can cite security concerns, it said. Universities, streets and public transport would not be touched by the ban.

Kazakhstan: Calls to probe Kyrgyzstan journalist's murder

Media watchdog groups have called for an immediate investigation into the murder of Kyrgyzstan journalist Gennady Pavlyuk.
(Left : Pres. Bakiyev, Kyrgystan)
Reporters Without Borders and the International Press Institute also warned of increasing dangers to journalists in the region.

Last week, Mr Pavlyuk was apparently thrown from the sixth floor of an apartment building in Kazakhstan. 
He died on Tuesday after several days in a coma.
Police in Kazakhstan said Mr Pavlyuk's death was being treated as murder.
He was visiting the Kazakh city of Almaty where he was found at the foot of the apartment building, with his hands and feet bound with duct tape.
Pressure pattern
Human rights groups say attacks on Kyrgyz journalists have become increasingly frequent.
"There must be an immediate, thorough and transparent investigation," said David Dadge, director of the International Press Institute.
"This was a particularly brutal and callous murder, and I would encourage the international community... to vocally condemn Pavlyuk's murder and to pressure the authorities in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan to make sure that this case does not join the appalling list of unsolved attacks on Kyrgyz journalists," he added.
Mr Pavlyuk, a leading critic of Kyrgyzstan's President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, had been planning to set up a newspaper for the Kyrgyz opposition.
He was hospitalised on 16 December in Kazakhstan's capital Almaty, according to Kazakh media reports, with multiple injuries, including broken ribs.
"There is a version that it is an attempted murder," a Kyrgyz interior ministry spokesman told AFP.
"Ten days ahead of taking over the presidency of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the Kazakh authorities cannot allow a murder like this to go unpunished and the Kyrgyz side must cooperate in resolving this case", Reporters Without Borders said.
The advocacy group noted that the attack on Mr Pavlyuk was the third in a week launched against Kyrgyzstan journalists of Russian origin.
Political analyst Alexander Knyazev was attacked in the capital Bishkek on 9 December and the correspondent for Russian news agency BaltInfo, Alexander Evgrafov, was struck and threatened by uniformed police on 15 December, it reported.
The IPI also pointed out that the 2007 murder of an Uzbek journalist in Kyrgyzstan had yet to be solved.

Moultrie Observer - Pew study can give us perspective on religious freedom

Moultrie Observer - Pew study can give us perspective on religious freedom

On the other hand, in most cities and towns it’s difficult to look in any direction without seeing a church steeple or reading about a program sponsored by faith organizations with many people involved. Churches run the gamut from architectural masterpieces to store front chapels. Some are conservative and some are liberal and some are in between. And seemingly, none are without some differences of opinion that become or bridge on national controversy when it comes to doctrine, interspersed with politics.

Our First Amendment provides us with religious freedom and freedom from the state establishing a religion.

Now consider this, a recent study by the famous Pew Research Center shows that people living in a third of all countries are restricted from practicing religion freely, either because of government policies and laws or hostile acts by individuals or groups,

In Indonesia, Muslim groups burned down a mosque belonging to the minority Ahmadiyya. In Singapore, the government refuses to recognize Jehovah’s Witnesses. In Belgium, 68 religion-based hate crimes are reported in 2007 alone.

The United States, Brazil, Japan, Italy, South Africa and the United Kingdom have the least amount of restrictions on religious practices when measured by both government infringement and religion-based violence or harassment, according to the study.

Keep in mind that the study said “religion,” it did not say Christianity. Perhaps Americans make the mistake of equating the two terms which leads to some of the confusion especially when it comes to defining “oppression” in this context. And a lot depends on how a survey question is asked. In other words, is it a documented fact that you feel your religion is oppressed or is it just your opinion.

There are those who would wrongly suggest that the First Amendment really means for us to choose between a number of Protestant faiths.

Here in the U.S. , if we are honest with ourselves, and with respect to the concept of not imposing our religion on others, we would be very hard pressed in the United States to declare that we are denied freedom of religion or that our faith suffers from government oppression.

Sometimes we just need to look around us ... and particularly at other countries ... to draw a better perspective or our rights and perhaps a better appreciation for our Constitution.

It could be that we spend too much time blaming the courts for our own individual shortcomings in the venue of faith and religion.

Religious Freedom: Too many chains

Two centuries after the French and American revolutions, and 20 years after Soviet communism’s fall, liberty of conscience may be receding again

The Economist

THE Universal Declaration of Human Rights, one of the great moral statements of the 20th century, could not be clearer. It says that “everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion,” including the right to change religion and to “manifest his religion in teaching, practice, worship and observance”.

America’s Founding Fathers, albeit living in a world where most people were assumed to be theists and Christians, used finer prose to affirm their belief in liberty. Given that God had endowed the human mind with freedom, said Thomas Jefferson, “all attempts to influence it by temporal punishments, or burthens, or by civil incapacitations, tend only to beget habits of hypocrisy and meanness.”

So it is sad to find that according to most people who study the subject, the cause of religious liberty is treading water at best, retreating at worst. Two decades have passed since the downfall of most of the regimes where atheism was state policy and religion existed only on sufferance; and over that time, liberal democracy has advanced. But political freedom and the religious sort do not always go together.

A report by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, published this week, found that nearly 70% of the world’s 6.8 billion people live in countries with “high restrictions” on religion. This refers both to official curbs on faith and to the hostility that believers endure at the hands of fellow citizens.

France's War Against Religious Liberty; Targeting of Muslims Just Another Element of Ongoing Government Discrimination of Religious Minorities

In yet another statement targeting religious minorities, the French government has demonstrated its lack of commitment to religious liberty and its targeting of religious minorities.

On December 16, Eric Besson, France's immigration minister, announced that he wants the wearing of Muslim veils that cover the face and body to be grounds for denying citizenship and long-term residence. Minister Besson insisted that he intends to take "concrete measures" regarding such veils, which are worn by a small minority of women in France but have become the object of a parliamentary inquiry into whether a ban should be imposed.

"France has a tragic modern history of religious discrimination," stated Joseph K. Grieboski, Founder and President of THE INSTITUTE on Religion and Public Policy.  "From the recent raiding of Catholic Churches by French government agents to the establishment of secret anti-sect lists to the ongoing functioning of an anti-religion agency housed in the office of the Prime Minister, France continues to violate fundamental rights, fails to uphold its political commitments to institutions such as the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the Council of Europe, and serves as a negative model to other countries around the globe."

Last week, French President Nicolas Sarkozy sent mixed messages on the place of Islam in France, calling on native French citizens to be tolerant while warning Muslim immigrants "that in our country, where Christian civilization has left such a deep trace, where republican values are an integral part of our national identity, everything that could be taken as a challenge to this heritage and its values would condemn to failure the necessary inauguration of a French Islam."

"French Evangelicals remove the word 'evangelical' from the titles of their churches for fear of being raided or targeted as 'sectarian', while violent acts or threats against French Jews in the first half of this year outnumbered all similar incidents in 2008," commented Mr. Grieboski.  "The Government of France has created an atmosphere of discrimination against religious minorities and has used its resources to restrict religious rights across the religious spectrum."
www.religionandpolicy.org

Switzerland: The Minaret Ban and it's Implicatiohs

“Religious Freedom as the Prerequisite for Interfaith Dialogue”

The Minaret Ban and its Implications

This speech has been given by Peter Zoehrer, FOREF Europe

(Thursday, December 03, 2009, at 5:30 PM, Vienna International University)

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Ladies and gentlemen: in 1948, exactly 61 years ago, the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which operates as an authoritative guide in the field of human rights. FOREF Europe seeks to promote the vision of religious freedom found in Article 18 of the Declaration:

Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, alone or in community with others, and, in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights has largely been drafted by experts of religion.

Yet, in spite of the existence of those clear standards during the recent decades humanity has suffered numerous conflicts that have been marked by religious intolerance.

The possibility of religious wars always looms ominously above our heads like the sword of Damocles.

Therefore continuous inter-religious dialogue is of paramount importance to overcoming misunderstandings amongst peoples of differing religious backgrounds.

One popular Austrian saying contains a simple, yet profound truth: “Talking to each other brings the people together!”

The following issues have recently caused great controversies and even ignited religious hatred on our European continent:

• Mohammed Cartoon Controversy (Denmark
• Crucifix ban (Italy) – European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.
• Last Sunday: Minaret ban Switzerland (57%) – over 1 Million Suisse citizens have cast their vote in the peoples referendum.

From the viewpoint of human rights standards there is no doubt, that such a ban on building minarets is violating religious freedom. The point however is that during the recent years the fear of Islamist extremism has swept throughout the European continent. These concerns are very real. They don’t just go away by governments, religious leaders liberal media or rights defenders preaching to people or accusing them of intolerance or xenophobia.

Swiss Sharply Criticized After Vote to Ban New Minarets - NYTimes.com

Swiss Sharply Criticized After Vote to Ban New Minarets

By NICK CUMMING-BRUCE
GENEVA — Switzerland’s political leaders faced a chorus of criticism at home and abroad on Monday over a ban on the construction of minarets that passed overwhelmingly by referendum on Sunday.

The ban has propelled the country to the forefront of a European debate on how far countries should go to assimilate Muslim immigrants and Islamic culture.
Government ministers trying to contain the fallout voiced shock and disappointment with the result, which the Swiss establishment newspaper Le Temps called a “brutal sign of hostility” to Muslims that was “inspired by fear, fantasy and ignorance.”
The country’s justice minister, Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf, said that the vote was not a rejection of the Muslim community, religion or culture, but that it reflected fears among the population.
With support for the ban from 57.5 percent of voters, however, ministers were forced to admit they had failed to quell popular anxieties about the impact of what right-wing parties have portrayed as “creeping Islamization.”
Ms. Widmer-Schlumpf acknowledged it was “undeniably a reflection of the fears and uncertainties that exist among the population — concerns that Islamic fundamentalist ideas could lead to the establishment of parallel societies.”
Outside Switzerland, criticism was harsh.
“I am a bit shocked by this decision,” France’s foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, said in an interview with RTL radio, calling it “an expression of intolerance.” He added: “I hope the Swiss come back on this decision.”