Individual rights & ecumenism

Dear Secretary-General, When Commonwealth countries announced at the 2011 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Australia that Sri Lanka could host CHOGM 2013, they agreed to actively promote and uphold the fundamental values and principles of the Commonwealth, including human rights and the rule of law.

We therefore urge you to press for adequate and satisfactory human rights progress in Sri Lanka by CHOGM 2013. Read more »

A rising tide of restrictions on religion spread across the world between mid-2009 and mid-2010, according to a new study by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life.

Restrictions on religion rose in each of the five major regions of the world – including in the Americas and sub-Saharan Africa, the two regions where overall restrictions previously had been declining. Read more »

“To think, believe, or doubt. To speak or pray; to gather or stand apart”: these are the verbs of faith listed in the U.S. Department of State’s International Religious Freedom Report for 2011, published yesterday. Today, more than ever, gestures and actions such as this can put those who practice them at risk.

“More than a billion people live in countries that systematically suppress freedom of religion,” said the U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, as she presented the Report for 2011. Read more »

As the winds of change blow in this most exciting times of political change in Malaysia, the only obstacle that is preventing the change from actually taking place are the Malaysian “Fence Sitters” who for the last 54 years have been afraid to make that choice for change.

Many amongst this also reside in our Churches and sit glued to benches and pews during Sunday service without fail, listening fervently to what Jesus may be saying to them. Read more »

Vote Wisely, Vote For A Better Malaysia

In the first two chapters of Genesis, the first book of the Old Testament, we read of two separate accounts of God giving to Adam rule and authority over the earth and all that live in it.

In the first book of the New Testament, the Gospel according to St. Matthew, chapter 5 and verses 13 to 15, Christians are told that they are the salt of the earth and the light of the world. Read more »

The Malaysian Bar welcomes the announcement by the Honourable Prime Minister that the government intends to abolish the Sedition Act 1948.  

The Malaysian Bar has long called for its abolition, arguing that this legislation is repressive, anachronistic and an affront to fundamental liberties.
 
The Malaysian Bar however is still of the view that replacement legislation, under whatever name, is unnecessary. Read more »

As Egyptians began voting to replace ousted President Hosni Mubarak, Christian minorities were anxious to see if the next government would end restrictions on religious freedom and attacks on religious minorities that had been on the rise the past couple of years.

Egypt was one of 16 countries that the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom singled out for particular concern in its 2012 annual report, released in March. Egypt made the list for the second year in a row. Read more »

The Permanent Council of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops has issued a Pastoral Letter on religious liberty.

The letter, dated April 2012, was released on May 14.

Lamenting threats to religious freedom abroad, the letter also noted that: Read more »

Discussing the situation of Christians in various Middle Eastern nations, Father Samir Khalil Samir describes the barrage of Muslim proselytism that Egyptian Christians regularly face.

“The whole day and during the whole year, you are bombarded with Islamic propaganda starting at five in the morning,” says the Jesuit historian and Islamic studies professor. “They start their preaching using megaphones and this is five times a day.” Read more »

A Canadian high school student serving a suspension for wearing a T-shirt that says 'Life is wasted without Jesus' says he'll wear it again when he returns.

Grade 12 student William Swinimer, 19, is due to return to class Monday after a five-day suspension last week by the Forest Heights Community School in Nova Scotia, west of Halifax. Read more »