Islam

Our partner CAP Liberté de Conscience, which has always been at the forefront in denouncing violations of freedom of belief that affect religious minorities, published an article, which we republish below, in which it stigmatises the connivance between the Pakistani police and the extremist zelot group Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) in the use of violence against Ahmadiyya Muslim communities, their places of worship and even the graves in their cemeteries. The role of social media in spreading hate speech against Ahmadiyya Muslims is also denounced.

The International Human Rights Desk (IHRD) of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in the UK reports that at around 1.30pm on 28 February members of the Tehreek-e-Labaik (TLP) extremist group stormed an Ahmadiyya place of worship in Daska, Sialkot District, chanting anti-Ahmadi slogans at a group of Ahmadis who had gathered for Friday prayers. Police were called to the mosque, however they proceeded to arrest 23 of the Ahmadis who were present, including three minors aged 11, 14 and 17.

In January 2023, Danish lawyer and politician Ramus Paludan, founder and leader of the far-right Stram Kurs party with strong anti-Islamic connotations, burned a copy of the Quran in front of the Turkish embassy in Stockholm, creating a diplomatic incident between Sweden and Turkey. Again, in 2023, Iraqi-born immigrant Salwan Momika publicly set Qurans on fire. Two years later, Momika was gunned down last Jan. 29 to “avenge” such burnings, increasingly inflaming the tempers of opposing factions. And what will tolerant Sweden do about it?

by CAP Liberté de Conscience — The International Human Rights Committee (IHRC) in association with CAP Liberté de Conscience has continued to draw the world’s attention to the severe persecution of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in Pakistan.

by Bitter Winter — Note: In publishing this appeal, “Bitter Winter” notes the historic importance of Moorish Science to African-American culture. It is one of the religions established by people of color during the Great Migration, and stands as a historic emblem of one stage in the long march to empowerment of Black people. Because it is a Black religion, Moorish Science has always provoked hostilities in the white-majority American population, but we all have a collective social duty to see that religious freedom is not circumscribed by racism.

Washington, DC — On August 7, 2024 the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) today released the following new report: Afghanistan Country Update - This country update describes current religious freedom conditions under de facto Taliban authorities, including the introduction and enforcement of strict religious edicts.

The incidents of intolerance against the Ahmadi Religion of Peace and Light (AROPL), a New Islamic Religious Movement opposed in Muslim-majority countries such as Azerbaijan and Turkey, but also in unsuspected human rights champions such as Sweden, continue. Human Rights Without Frontiers' director Willy Fautré reports in an article reproduced below that in Azerbaijan there have been arrests among AROPL worshippers for being guilty of peacefully expressing their faith in public.

How to prevent such an outcome? Human rights NGOs are calling on the Turkish authorities to follow their recommendations

In May 2023, the story of the 104 refugees of the Ahmadi Religion of Peace and Light (AROPL) who presented themselves at the Turkish side of the Kapikule border seeking access to asylum in Bulgaria, but were blocked and beaten by the Turkish police, became international news.

We had already stigmatised the persecution carried out in Sweden against the Ahmadi Religion of Peace and Light, a peaceful religious minority that follows the teachings of the Koran, but with beliefs that differ from those of traditional Islam and, therefore, harassed and persecuted.

Ban on visible symbols of belief in the official education system of the Flemish Community not incompatible with Article 9 of the Convention

Registrar of the European Court (16.05.2024) - In its decision in the case of Mikyas and Others v. Belgium (application no. 50681/20) the European Court of Human Rights has, by a majority, declared the application inadmissible. The decision is final.

While France, through the government agency MIVILUDES, is targeting the followers of MISA Yoga and its spiritual leader Gregorian Bivolaru, Sweden, which has always been seen as a vanguard of tolerance, inclusiveness and human rights, has unexpectedly engaged in persecution of a new Muslim religious movement, the Ahmadi Religion of Peace and Light. The director of Human Rights Without Frontiers, Willy Fautré gave a detailed account of this, which we publish below.

A public school’s decision to give its students (many of whom are Muslims) a day off for Eid al Fitr has generated unnecessary controversies.

By Alessandro Amicarelli — On March 17, 1861, with the proclamation made in Turin of the newly established Kingdom of Italy, the result of the annexation of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies to the Kingdom of Sardinia, the first phase of united Italy began. It was a new sovereign state with the House of Savoy at its head and the Roman Catholic religion as the state religion.

On March 9, 2024, in London, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama'at (AMJ) hosted the 18^th National Peace Symposium. Among the many guests were Alessandro Amicarelli, Chairman of FOB, and Marco Respinti, member of FOB's Advisory Council and editor-in-chief of the academic publication The Journal of CESNUR (Center for Studies on New Religions) and the CESNUR project  Bitter Winter: A Magazine on Religious Liberty and Human Rights.

On Wednesday, February 28, 2024, an important conference on interreligious dialogue was held in Milan, Italy, at the State University, on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the "Italian Islamic Religious Community" (COREIS), with the participation of scholars and representatives from the Jewish, Christian and Islamic worlds.

There’s no doubt that the freedom of dress is a characteristic trait, and actually the most obvious, of personal identity, which manifests as the “right to be oneself”.

Humanity is experiencing an "emergency" period. If on the one hand the WHO has declared the Covid-19 emergency over, on the other hand the emergency pitting Ukraine and NATO on one side and Russia on the other side with the bugbear of nuclear conflict as a backdrop continues.

by Francesco Alicino — In a constitutional democracy, the right to freedom of religion implies that everyone can freely profess, practise, and propagate their faith in various forms, alone or in community with others, in public or private, in worship, teaching, and observance.

Alessandro Amicarelli, lawyer and president of the European Federation for Freedom of Belief, asked Prof. Vasco Fronzoni, member of the Scientific Committee of FOB, if the ban on Halal slaughter could cause concern in the field of human rights. The result was an interview published in The European Times, reproduced below.

by Steno Sari — Religious freedom is so important that without it no freedom of conscience and no public liberty may exist. Following up the death of the 22-year-old woman Mahsa Arnin, deceased after being arrested by the religious police of Teheran ...

By Aftab Alexander Mughal — Civil-society organisations, including women rights groups, condemned the government minister’s proposal to ban ‘Aurat (women) March.’ Conservative politicians and a section of the media are also supporting the said proposal. Various women’s marches, rallies and events are scheduled to be held on 8 March on the International Women’s Day.