March 2011

IRLA Strengthens Ties with Colombian Religious Freedom Activists

Event will mark 20 years since the passage of key constitutional reform in Colombia

From left, Attorney Dwayne Leslie, IRLA Director of US Congressional Affairs; Dr. John Graz, IRLA Secretary-General; Dr. Ted Wilson, Seventh-day Adventist Church President; Senator Charles W. Schultz of Colombia.

A leading Colombian politician said last week there is still more work to be done in his country to protect the religious freedom rights all its citizens.

Senator Charles W. Schultz made his comments during a March 7 visit to the International Religious Liberty Association headquarters, in Silver Spring, Maryland. In his meeting with Dr. John Graz, IRLA Secretary-General, and attorney Dwayne Leslie, IRLA Director of US Congressional Affairs, Senator Schultz asked for additional support from the IRLA to help his country build on the religious freedom reforms it has already passed.

Until 1991, Roman Catholicism was the official religion of Colombia, and Senator Schultz was one of the prime movers behind that year’s historic constitutional reform, which required equal treatment for all religions under the law. 

This year, religious freedom advocates in Colombia will mark the 20-year anniversary of this reform with an event they hope will place the issue back on the public agenda. Senator Schultz and a group he helped establish called Confelirec (the Colombia federation for religious freedom), will host a major Law and Religious Freedom program in Bogotá in July to explore ways to strengthen legal protection for religious minorities in Colombia. The IRLA has accepted Senator Schultz’s invitation to send participants to the event.

“Senator Schultz is a man of principle and courage, who is doing much to advance the cause of freedom in his country,” said Dr. Graz, after the meeting. “The IRLA is committed to exploring ways we can more closely partner with our friends in Colombia. I am delighted to see that our both associations plan to work together to train religious freedom leaders in Colombia” [IRLA Staff]

In Ethiopia, Dozens of Christian Churches Burned in Interfaith Violence

Religious extremists blamed for attacks in region known for harmony

10 Mar 2011, Silver Spring, Maryland, United States [Article courtesy of Adventist News Network]

At least 30 Protestant churches in western Ethiopia, among them seven Seventh-day Adventist houses of worship, were burned down last week in a series of attacks by religious extremists from the region.

Unrest was first reported on March 2 and has since killed at least one Christian, wounded several others, left personal property destroyed and displaced thousands of Christians, reports indicate.

"The level of destruction is not fully and clearly confirmed," said Tamire Shaemalo, Communication director for the Adventist Church in Ethiopia, citing inconsistencies between reports.

Preliminary reports, however, indicate that dozens of Adventist homes were burned alongside the churches, members were robbed and food and farm animals were destroyed during the attacks, Shaemalo said. Church officials in Central Ethiopia estimate a total loss of more than 5 million birr (about US$300,000) in church property, including burned tithes and offerings, he added.

Some reports indicate the violence erupted in response to recent border skirmishes, in which Ethiopian soldiers sought to deter Muslim extremists. Others said the attacks were provoked when a Christian allegedly desecrated a copy of the Quran.

Police in Ethiopia yesterday arrested 130 religious extremists linked to the violence, Voice of America reported. The attacks have ignited tensions in a region known for longstanding harmony between Muslim and Christians, church religious liberty advocates said.

"We are deeply troubled by what has happened in Ethiopia, where relations among religions have been relatively peaceful," said John Graz, Secretary General of the International Religious Liberty Association.

"We hope that these incidents will not incite further violence in the region, and we encourage people of all faiths who stand for peace and religious freedom to work toward reconciliation," Graz added.

Ethiopia is about 60 percent Christian and 40 percent Muslim, census reports indicate. Approximately 170,000 Adventists worship in more than 800 churches across the country.

The Adventist Church in Ethiopia will send six church officials to join representatives from five other faith communities later this week at the Inter-Religious Council of Ethiopia, which is expected to survey the situation, Shaemalo said. [Adventist News Network]

Event Opens New Conversation with Islamic World

Meeting in Amman, Jordan, focuses on "freedom and respect"

Presenters at the "Teaching Respect for Religion" symposium [Photo: IRLA]It may have looked, in many ways, like just another religious freedom conference—a group of scholars, political representatives, and legal experts exploring ways to build respect for different religious traditions. But last week’s “Teaching Respect for Religions Symposium,” held in Amman, Jordan, represented a historic step forward in dialogue between the Islamic world and advocates for religious freedom.

The one-day conference, held March 1 at the Amman College of Al- Balqa Applied University, marked just the second time in the 119-year history of the International Religious Liberty Association that it has convened an event on Middle Eastern soil.

“This conference has opened up an extraordinary opportunity for meaningful conversation with key Islamic leaders and thinkers about what it means to respect different religious traditions, and to live in harmony with one another,” said Dr. John Graz, Secretary-General of the IRLA. In his address to the group, Graz said that “two of the most powerful forces we can use to fight religious prejudice are knowledge about each other and building personal relationships.”

The symposium was co-sponsored by the Arab Bridge Center for Human Rights, a non-governmental organization founded by former Jordanian judge Dr. Amjad B. Shammout. It brought together IRLA experts, Islamic scholars and Imams, Jordanian law-enforcement leaders, youth leaders and members of the diplomatic community. Jordan’s Prime Minister, Dr. Marouf Suleiman al-Bakhit, lent his support to the event and he was represented there by Dr. Jiryis Samawy, Secretary General of the Ministry of Culture.

Dr. Delbert Baker, a vice president of the Seventh-day Adventist world church and vice president of the IRLA, spoke to the group about respect and freedom—principles which he said are held in common by both the Islamic and Judeo-Christian worlds. Yet, he said, too often a gap appears between theory and practice. He challenged his listeners to honestly analyze whether these principles flow into their everyday treatment of other people. When it comes to respect for religion, said Baker, “we must be prepared to both ‘talk the talk’ and ‘walk the walk.’”

Dr. William Johnsson, the IRLA’s coordinator for Interfaith Relations, was a key organizer of the event. He presented a paper, “Beyond Tolerance,” in which he pointed out the difference between “respect”—which actively affirms an individual’s right to religious freedom; and “tolerance—which can imply reluctance to grant someone their religious views.

According to Johnsson, the country of Jordan provided an ideal location for the symposium given its track record as “a moderate Islamic nation that models openness, tolerance and rejection of violence.” He helped facilitate an earlier, smaller gathering of religious freedom experts in Amman in September 2010, which he said helped pave the way for this month’s more public event.  [Bettina Krause/IRLA]

Human Rights Get a “New Look”

Photographic exhibition provides new way to understand the Declaration of Human Rights

IRLA Director of UN Relations Barry Bussey with artist Lukas M. Hüller at the February 28 launch.

How can you communicate basic human rights in a way that’s powerful, graphic, and which breathes life into words that sometimes sound like just dry legal jargon?

The “Human Rights Project,” a photographic exhibition unveiled last month at the United Nations in Geneva, transforms the world’s most famous human rights document into potent images, which capture the ongoing, global fight to promote and protect human dignity.

The ceremony, held on the opening day of the 16th Session of the Human Rights Council, introduced both the artwork and the artists. Standing to the side of the podium, listening to the speeches from Austrian and South African dignitaries, were the three individuals whose photographic art has captured the essence of each of the 18 Articles of the Declaration of Human Rights.

Towering above his two fellow artists, Julian R. Hauser and Laurent Van Wetter, was Lukas M. Hüller—the Austrian photographer whose career has shown he is not afraid to take on controversial projects. He is perhaps best known for The Seven Deadly Sins project prior to taking on the assignment of illustrating the Articles of the Declaration of Human Rights.

“It occurred to me,” he said, “that for years the Roman Catholic Church has used symbols to convey its teachings. And it was the same for all people groups, from the poor to the king; the image remained the same. So I thought, ‘Why don't the UN use images in conveying the meaning of the Articles of the Declaration of Human Rights.’”

For the 130 million people globally who can neither read nor write, this photographic series can open up new worlds of meaning, and provide a unique way to teach that every person has the right to a life of dignity and freedom.

For advocates of religious freedom, such as the International Religious Liberty Association, the photographic representation of Article 18 (“Freedom of Religion”) is especially significant. The Article 18 photo depicts eight South African boys with their painted backs facing the camera, as they look out of an ancient cave toward a green field with mountains on the distant horizon.

The cave, located in South Africa’s Draakensberger region, is not a usual stop-off point for tourists. Inside it contains a number of drawings made by ancestors of local people to explain their own faith. For many who live in the area, it’s a sacred place. The boys’ backs have been painted as well—with drawings that are perhaps more “modern” than those on the walls of the cave. The effect almost implies that the drawings from the caves are about to advance across the field to the outside world.

“We found this cave by accident,” explained Hüller. He was on an extended stay in the country and was using the creativity of children to illustrate each article of the Declaration. The artists used a formulaic creative process to decide how to communicate each article. They explained to the children the message of each article, and asked them to try to convey this central idea through their play.

But Article 18, on the Freedom of Religion, was different—it found itself.

“We had another concept for Freedom of Religion,” Hüller told me as one of his collaborators on the project, Juliane R. Hauser, listened to our conversation. “But it involved a site in a tourist region and when we saw it, we did not feel it was what we were looking for. We heard about a cave with ancient paintings and asked to be taken to it. When we got there we were followed by a group of young boys who were curious as to what we were up to.”

An older boy was there and was able to explain to his younger friends what the visit of the Europeans with their cameras was all about. Looking outside of the cave to lush green field and the mountain in the distance, the artists were convinced this was what they were looking for. Armin Guerino, an Austrian painter who had been invited to join in thehumanrightsproject.org, was with them, and he suggested they could paint some spiritual symbols on the backs of the boys and have them look out of the cave towards the field. But there was a problem—no paint.

So they thanked the young lads for their willingness to assist, but said they’d be back another time with some paint. However, the boys had a solution to the conundrum. Not too far away was a creek and they led the foreigners to the waters’ edge and in about ten minutes they had the needed paint.

“They crushed a number of rocks together to create the coloured paste,” Juliane recounted. She still marvels at how it came together. “Armin painted the symbols using the work of the boys and we had the picture.”

Lukas added that the purpose of the symbols was not to convey representations of particular religions or religious groups. “In history, religions were a cause to wars and they still are,” he explained. “This work is to get beyond the prejudice. We are all equal no matter what our beliefs and conscience—an open field representing an open mind.”

You can find more on this special UN project at:  thehumanrightsproject.org  [Barry Bussey/IRLA]

IRLA Condemns Pakistan Assassination as an Attack on Freedom

Secretary-General calls killing a "wake-up call" for friends of freedom everywhere

March 2, 2011…. The brutal slaughter today of Pakistan’s only Christian cabinet member is a wake-up call the world cannot afford to ignore, says Dr. John Graz, Secretary-General of the International Religious Liberty Association.  Shabaz Bhatti, Pakistan’s Minister for Minority Affairs, was gunned down outside his mother’s home in Islamabad. The Pakistani Taliban and Al Qaeda have claimed responsibility for the killing, citing Bhatti’s long-running efforts to reform the country’s blasphemy laws. 

 “Throughout his life, Shabaz Bhatti stood courageously for tolerance and freedom, yet he has been brutally killed by those who respect neither of these values,” says Graz. “The time has come for friends of freedom everywhere, no matter what their faith tradition, to say clearly: ‘We cannot stand silently by while horror such as this is perpetuated in the name of religion.’”

Bhatti had spoken out forcefully against the blasphemy laws which, he said, allowed discrimination against Muslims and Christians alike, and created “disharmony and intolerance” in Pakistani society.

Attorney Barry Bussey, IRLA's editor of Fides et Libertas, met Mr. Bhatti when he was on a recent visit to Washington, DC, and remembers him as a man of courage and integrity. “When you are involved in the work of religious freedom, it comes at a cost,” says Bussey. “Today, it cost Shahbaz everything. His bravery and his tremendous contribution to the cause of human rights will not be forgotten.”

Forty-two-year-old Bhatti was a Roman Catholic in a country where some 95 percent of the population is Muslim. In January this year, another out-spoken critic of the blasphemy laws, Punjab province Governor Salman Taseer, was assassinated by one of his own bodyguards. [Bettina Krause/IRLA]

Middle East Meeting: "We Need More Religious Freedom Advocates"

IRLA leaders urged to be "people-helpers and community-builders"

"Keeping peace and building good relations with everyone in the community" are the two key job requirements for religious freedom advocates, said IRLA General-Secretary Dr. John Graz, speaking last week at a gathering of IRLA representatives in Beirut, Lebanon.

The meeting drew together more than twenty IRLA representatives from across Europe, the Middle East and Central Asia to discuss current issues and challenges. They met February 22 to 26 on the campus of Middle Eastern University, just east of the city of Beirut.

Dr. Delbert Baker, IRLA vice president, challenged participants to be "people-helpers and community builders," "learners of culture," and "outgoing, open-minded networkers."

The political changes sweeping many Middle Eastern countries in recent weeks lent a sense of urgency to the meetings, said Dr. Graz. "We've witnessed how quickly the political and social landscape can change. I believe now, more than ever, we need effective and outspoken advocates for religious freedom and tolerance."  [IRLA Staff]