There Is a Hope and Hope Is What We Need
I would have been happy and pleased to report good and positive information about religious freedom, as the year 2014 is finishing. But in spite of my good will and my natural positive vision of the world, it is difficult. Of course there are some lights in the darkness and they bring hope. As I decided to write a few lines for our website, I read this title in the Washington Post: “Synagogue Attack Stirs ‘Religious War’ Fears”.i Trying to bring a note of hope the author added the following subtitle: “Leaders from various faiths attend Jerusalem prayer meeting.”
When religious extremists run the show, it is important that believers of goodwill and those who associate religion with peace meet together, pray together and speak together. Such meetings should be held everywhere in India, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and the Middle East where extremists are doing their best to eliminate those who don’t believe as they believe.
The IRLA’s answer to religious fanaticism and intolerance is to promote religious freedom every time and everywhere. This is what we are trying to do on the five continents. I would like to share with you a few examples:
1. The IRLA Meeting of Experts. It began in 1999 and we held our 16th meeting in Florence, Italy, this summer. It has become one of the major think tanks on religious liberty, and it has produced six important statements. The 2015 meeting will be held at Pepperdine University in California;
2. Congresses, symposiums, and forums. The IRLA has held seven world congresses. The last one in 2012 had 900 participants and became the largest religious liberty congress ever held. Since 1997, the IRLA has initiated and organized about 50 regional and national congresses, symposiums, and forums. I don’t know if any other religious freedom associations have held so many public events around the world. The 8th IRLA World Congress will be held in August 2017 in Florida;
3. Festivals of Religious Freedom. The IRLA has supported the Festivals of Religious Freedom from the Sao Paulo, Brazil in 2006 to Lima, Peru in 2009 to Luanda, Angola in 2008 and Birmingham, England in 2014. More than 260,000 people have met to celebrate that fundamental freedom.
From November 2014 to June 2015, the largest festivals will be held in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea; Medellin, Colombia; Kingston, Jamaica; Manaus, Brazil; Manila, Philippines; Lima, Peru; Fort de France, Martinique and other locations.
These large events will gather an additional 120-150,000 people—making a total attendance of 350,000. In some way we will be able to say that the organizers made history.
Of course it is only a drop of water in an ocean of discrimination and persecution but it is ours. If we add it to others it will make a difference. It is our little light but if we add it to yours we will change the world.
I began quoting the Washington Post of November 20. I want to conclude with another quotation but from November 22.ii I was attracted by the title on the first page: “Tunisia Struggles To Retain Democracy”.ii It was a report about the first round of the Presidential election. I was surprised to read the statement of the leader of the Islamic Party. He said: “We are celebrating freedom! We are celebrating Tunisia! We are celebrating democracy!” His party may lose the presidency but in spite of that he celebrated democracy. It did not happen in Egypt, in Lybia, in Syria but in Tunisia. There are some lights in the darkness and Tunisia is one of them. There is hope and hope is what we need.
John Graz, Secretary General - International Religous Liberty Association
November 27, Silver Spring, MD
i The Washington Post, Thursday, November 20, 2014, p.1
ii Idem., by Mary Beth Sheridan, Saturday November 22, 2014 p.1