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UK News

Welby to speak at religious freedom debate

by Antony Bushfield

Peers in the House of Lords will discuss the All-Party Report "Article 18 - an orphaned right", which criticises countries ignoring the declaration of human rights on the issue of religious freedom.

The debate's been called for by Lord Alton of Liverpool, a peer who often speaks out about the persecution of Christians.

Members of the chamber are expected to call on the government to insist on greater political and diplomatic priority being given to upholding Article 18.

Most Revd Justin Welby will join Crossbench Peer and former Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks, Lord Woolf and Baroness Berridge, the Conservative Peer who chairs the All Party Group on Freedom of Religion and Belief, in speaking.

Lord Alton is expected to say: "Today's debate is a moment to encourage Governments to reclaim their patrimony of Article 18; to argue that it be given greater political and diplomatic priority; to insist on the importance of religious literacy as a competency; to discuss the cross-over between freedom of religion and belief and a nation's prosperity and stability; and to reflect on the suffering of those denied this foundational freedom.

"Christians are persecuted in every country where there are violations of Article 18 - from Syria and Iraq, to Sudan, Pakistan, Eritrea, Nigeria, Egypt, Iran, North Korea and many other countries but Muslims, and others, suffer too - especially in the religious war raging between Sunnis and Shias, so reminiscent of seventeenth century Europe.

"In a village in Burma I saw first-hand the work of a different enemy: a mosque set on fire the night before.

"Muslim villagers had been driven from a village where for generations they had lived alongside their Buddhist neighbours.

"Burma now proposes to restrict interfaith marriage and religious conversions."

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