ICC Note

Christians in Muslim-run countries are persecuted for their faith every day and while the world may notice the cartoon protests, there is rarely any coverage of the plight of persecuted Christians.

Gov’ts Urged to Remember Christians in Islamic States
By Patrick Goodenough
CNSNews.com (03/02/06)

To read the full story, click here: Governments Urged to Remember Christians in Islamic States

A Christian group has launched a campaign urging governments to protect Christian minorities in Islamic countries.
It says hardships faced by these Christians are not getting attention at a time when the Mohammed cartoon controversy has led to an increasing emphasis on the protection of Islam.
The Barnabas Fund, a U.K.-based charity that works among Christians living in Muslim societies, said its campaign, The Right to Justice, aims to inform Western governments about anti-Christian persecution, and ask them to put pressure on the countries where the problem exists.
A petition that will be presented to Western government leaders calls for Christian minorities to receive just and equal treatment with non-Christian majorities; and for an end to institutional and other religious discrimination denying Christians equal rights and freedoms.
The petition, which will be circulated through churches around the world and via the Internet for the next 12 months, also urges governments to raise these concerns with representatives of nations “where Christians suffer daily discrimination and injustice.”
The furor over the publication of cartoons satirizing Mohammed, mostly in European newspapers, has brought an unprecedented push by Islamic governments to have international organizations, including the United Nations and European Union, to act to protect Islamic beliefs.
The Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), a grouping of 57 Muslim states and territories, wants the U.N. to adopt a General Assembly resolution prohibiting the “defamation of all prophets and faiths.”
It has also called on the European Parliament to pass legislation “against Islamophobia,” and for European media to adopt a “code of ethics” to deal with issues such as freedom of speech in the context of religious symbols.
The efforts of the OIC have already seen the last-minute inclusion in a draft resolution setting up a new U.N. human rights council of a clause referring to the importance of governments, media and others “promoting tolerance, respect for and freedom of religion and belief.”
Some non-governmental organizations monitoring the U.N. worry that when Islamic states’ rights violations are questioned in the future, they may invoke the clause and accuse critics are failing to respect religion.
In the view of the Barnabas Fund, embattled Christians are being forgotten while all the attention is on Muslims.
“Whilst protection of Islam is increasingly high on the agenda of national and international bodies, protection of Christianity is not.”
“We very much hope to make a change, given that such campaigns highlight and bring
to the top of the public agenda the discriminatory nature of Islam and the sufferings of the Christian minority,” said the group’s international director, Patrick Sookhdeo.
“We believe that such a position is now intolerable and must be addressed.”
Christians targeted, churches torched
In several countries, Christians and Christian symbols have been directly targeted during Muslim rioting over the cartoons.
The worst case was Nigeria , where churches were torched and Christians killed in the predominantly Muslim north by Muslim mobs roused over the cartoons and rumors that a Christian teacher had desecrated a Koran.
The violence prompted reprisal attacks against Muslims elsewhere in the country, and more than 100 people of both religions were killed.
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