Last 28th of June at Brussels in the premises of the prestigious Solvay Library at the European Parliament the Faith and Freedom Summit 2018 was successfully held.
Speakers and participants from several countries attended a packed one-day conference that covered the many aspects of the protection of freedom of religion and belief in Europe and its challenges in the modern society.
An Open Letter to President Trump to Save Demei Zou
Nine non-governmental organizations appeal to the President of the United States, Donald Trump, to intervene in the case of Demei Zou, an asylum seeker of a Chinese Christian new religious movement, The Church of Almighty God, who is detained in Detroit, Michigan and faces deportation to China.
Dear President Trump:
On March 1, 2018, during the 37th session of the Human Rights Council at the United Nations in Geneva, the FOB (Freedom of Belief) member NGO Coordination of the Associations and Individuals for Freedom of Conscience (CAP LC) organized a Side Event on the denial of religious freedom in China and the case of The Church of Almighty God.
Thousands of members of the Church of Almighty God (CAG) have been incarcerated in China, following a further crackdown on unauthorized religious organizations. According to the rough statistics, more than 300,000 members of CAG were incarcerated and detained in China from the beginning of the persecutions in the 1990s to 2017.
Last August 2017 representatives of CAG contacted FOB seeking help and advice about their ongoing situation being denied freedom of belief in their country and being neglected protection in some European and non-European countries, that were not acknowledging they were being persecuted on the basis of their faith. FOB started a research with the support of leading experts and scholars who carried out a in-depth study on this matter. After a meeting in Warsaw at the HDIM OSCE Meeting between representatives of FOB and of CAG, further contacts have been developed.
Professor Massimo Introvigne attended in the last few days a conference at the University of Hong Kong, where he spoke on the Chinese notion of xie jiao. The aim of the conference was a dialogue between the Chinese Anti-xie-jiao Association, which is connected with the Chinese Communist Party, Chinese authorities and scholars, and Western scholars, on xie jiao an on one particular movement China regards as xie jiao, the Church of Almighty God.
Let us make religious persecution cease in China. Let us stop the carnage of hundreds of thousands of Chinese people who are the victim of mass arrests, torture, killing, explantation of organs from those sentenced to death.
