Articles

FOB - The following news could be considered negative for the Lutheran Church, but that would be a superficial judgment. Perhaps it could be negative from an economic point of view, as it would be for the Italian Catholic Church, if they gave up the advantages granted to them by the Lateran Treaty. However, the independence of any church from any government and vice versa is, as a matter of fact, a much more valuable asset for every church and for every state. The Norwegian Lutheran Church receives support from its followers in the right proportion, and that is fair.

Friday, 9th of December Soteria International hosted the Spiritual Human Rights conference in Copenhagen. The Spiritual Human Rights conference is an annual conference focusing on Human Rights from a spiritual perspective.

This year the conference was co-hosted by Youth for Human Rights, the European Network Against Racism (ENAR), and the European Muslim Initiative for Social Cohesion (EMISCO) with the theme “How Universal is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights?”.

After World War II, the word “Righteous Among the Nations” (Hebrew: חֲסִידִי אֻמּוֹת הָעוֹלָם‎, khasidi umót ha'olám "righteous (plural) of the world's nations") was a term used in rabbinic Judaism to refer to non-Jews who acted heroically, putting their own life at risk to save jews from nazi genocide of Shoah.

It is also an award bestowed from the Yad Vashem, the national institute for the Shoah memory, since 1962.

Yad Vashem has given these prestigious awards to 19 Jehovah Witnesses.

Interview with professor Massimo Introvigne

This interview stems from a meeting between professor Massimo Introvigne, Sociologist of Religions, and the FOB Secretary, professor Silvio Calzolari, happened during the recent scientific conference on Anatheism, held in Turin at the Lascaris Palace on 1 and 2 December, where they were both speakers.

An article from Massimo Introvigne

Interview by FOREF Europe with Dr. Ján Figeľ, EU Special Envoy for the promotion of FoRB

Amarandei and Others v. Romania (no. 1443/10)

HRWF (28.04.2016) – Human Rights Without Frontiers Int’l (HRWF Int’l) hails the decision of the European Court in a case filed against Romania by yoga practitioners of the “Movement for Spiritual Integration into the Absolute” (MISA).

Violations of the freedom of religion and belief for MISA yoga practitioners in Romania

For almost a decade Soteria International has been raising awareness among international and European politicians and Human Rights NGOs about violations of the freedom of religion and belief in Romania in the case of the spiritual movement MISA and its founder Gregorian Bivolaru.

HRWF (02.03.2016) - Two prominent figures of de-radicalisation in France have put down their arms: one having not had her accreditation renewed and the other renouncing her mission for political reasons. They have left the scene, but it is difficult to assess whether they have in fact succeeded in their mission.

Statements by representatives of all religions and of many Muslim leaders, on the respect for religious minorities in Muslim-majority countries and on how to tackle terrorism by factions who call themselves Muslim though elated criminals that Muslims themselves condemned as such.

In the Name of God, the All-Merciful, the All-Compassionate

Executive Summary of the Marrakesh Declaration on the Rights of Religious Minorities in Predominantly Muslim Majority Communities

25^th-27^th January 2016

The Board of Directors of F.O.B., European Federation for Freedom of Belief cannot exempt themselves from making the following known.

On 18 January, 2016, an article about our Organization was issued on an online newspaper by name of Linkiesta. The title is "Scientology and the others, here is how cults land in the Parliament".


I consider “Forbidden to pray” a key book. The investigation we carried out with Agenzia Radicale and Quaderni Radicali from 2012 to date, but also the action of the European Federation for Freedom of Belief are, in my view, directly inter-related to this text. It explains and confirms a number of data and analysis that we’ve had the opportunity to deepen with Giuseppe Rippa, Raffaella Di Marzio and others, and which are well summarized in the Parliamentary Question that Marco Perduca of the Radical Party introduced in 2012 to seek clarification on the Anti-Cult Team.

It is necessary to refute once and for all the refrain that some anti-cult groups are dangerously spreading against freedom of belief and conscience: "cults" would violate human rights and those who defend human rights should not "defend cults." First, we reiterate once again that "cult" is defined as a religious minority unsympathetic to the speaker, and is a term devoid of any scientific value.

Human Rights Without Frontiers Int'l (Brussels) has just released its annual Faith Prisoners' List. It documents over 1500 cases of prisoners of conscience from 15 religious or belief minorities in 20 countries.

New Delhi: On 10th December two people were injured when attackers threw crude bombs and fired gun shots at a Hindu religious gathering of over two thousand devotees at the temple of International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) in Kaharol region of Dinajpur. “Luckily, the bombs did not explode,” said ISKCON general secretary of Bangladesh Caru Candra Dasa who was present at the place of incident, “however, the attackers opened fire at the entrance, injuring two people."

Report for the OSCE Second Supplementary Human Dimension Meeting (SHDM) on FoRB, Fostering Mutual Respect and Understanding

AUSTRIA: Policies on Religion at Variance with OSCE Standards and the European Convention on Human Rights

By FOREF Europe

In 2013, two secret reports on Scientology from the State Security, the Belgian secret services, leaked into the media. One was on the alleged “infiltration” of Scientology into the Belgo-Congolese community, and the other about contacts Scientology had made with Belgian politicians.

The European Parliament Intergroup on Freedom of Religion or Belief and Religious Tolerance (EP Intergroup on FoRB & RT) presented its first Annual Report on the 'State of Freedom of Religion or Belief' at an event hosted by the Intergroup in collaboration with United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF). Speakers included the Chairs of the EP Intergroup on FoRB & RT and USCIRF as well as the Director of Human Rights at the European External Action Service (EEAS).

Representatives from civil society, governments and international organizations explored the challenges, including discrimination and hate crime, Christian communities face in the OSCE region at a conference held in Vienna on 18 May 2015.

The “Conference on Enhancing Efforts to Prevent and Combat Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians, Focusing on Hate Crimes, Exclusion, Marginalization and Denial of Rights” was organized by the OSCE Serbian Chairmanship and the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR).

If one found out that an NGO¹ (non-government organisation) was targeting new or traditional religious groups, and if this NGO (FECRIS) was a federation of groups with similar aims, one would have every right to be surprised. The information presented in this document goes far beyond what you might imagine—and that’s probably what has allowed it to remain relatively unnoticed until now.