Antonio dos Anjos Monteiro is currently in a Togo prison on what Adventist legal and human rights experts say are unsupported charges. Sep. 27, 2012 Silver Spring, Maryland, United States Elizabeth Lechleitner/ANN [dc]S[/dc]eventh-day Adventist lawyers and human rights advocates are calling for the immediate release of an Adventist pastor imprisoned in Togo on what…
Category: International
Vatican Walks A Fine Line On Trying To Combat Blasphemy In UN (RNS Excerpt)
EXCERPT: In recent years, the Vatican has gone to court to fight images that it considered “offensive” toward Pope Benedict XVI, such as an ad-campaign that portrayed the pontiff kissing a Muslim leader or, more recently, when a German satirical magazine published a photo-shopped image of the pope’s vestments stained with urine. Read the full article…
Inside Interfaith Iran (Liberty Magazine)
Martin Surridge describes the status of religious liberty in Iran. EXCERPT: [dc]F[/dc]or the past few months the eyes of the believers around the world have been fixed on an Iranian death row “apostate” who has refused to recant his faith in Jesus Christ. Yousef Nadarkhani was first arrested in his hometown of Rasht, Iran, in…
Putin’s God Squad (The Daily Beast)
Excerpt: The church’s “Third Rome” legacy-reinforced by Soviet personality cults and a pervasive prison culture that celebrates strong leadership-underpins the concept of the ideal Russian leader as a divinely chosen autocrat. Thus Putin simply couldn’t afford a second-round runoff in the presidential elections. From a democratic point of view,a runoff-even if staged-would have helped confer…
BREAKING NEWS: Iran Pastor Nadarkhani Released from Prison
The American Center for Law and Justice announced this morning that Iranian Pastor Youcef Nardarkhani has been released after spending 1,062 days in prison for his Christian faith. Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani has reportedly been acquitted of apostacy (death penalty), and sentenced for time served for evangelizing Muslims. Pastor Nadarkhani is released from prison in Iran (ACLJ…
U.S. State Department releases International Religious Freedom Report for 2011
The U.S. State Department has released the 2011 report on international religious freedom. While significant areas of concern are present, there are also some signs of hope. The website with the report is quite helpful and easy to navigate. Visit: http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/irf/religiousfreedom/index.htm
BOOK REVIEW: First Person Account Challenges Attitudes Leading to Rwanda Genocide
By Brent Buttler – BOOK: I’m Not Leaving (2011) AUTHOR: Carl Wilkens [dc]I[/dc]n his first person account of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, Carl Wilkens challenges the reader to not only end genocide, but also the selfish attitude that leads to it.Genocide, to those familiar with the term it brings to mind stories and pictures we…
Senate to Take Up Condemned Iranian Pastor Youcef Resolution Next Week (American Center for Law and Justice)
The U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations has scheduled to take up the resolution supporting Christian Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani next week. The committee is scheduled to consider the resolution,a companion to the resolution that unanimously passed the House earlier this year,next Tuesday,June 19,2012. It is the next step toward bringing S. Res. 385 before the…
June is National Torture Awareness Month
Join the National Religious Campaign Against Torture (NRCAT) and congregations across the country in marking Torture Awareness Month this June. Under the theme “2012 – Confronting the Culture of Torture,” NRCAT has provided a variety of resources and suggested activities that congregations can use throughout the month. Worship resources; DVDs with discussion guides; banners, posters and bumper…
Taking Alarm: The Importance of the International Religious Liberty Association
“It is proper to take alarm at the first experiment on our liberties. We hold this prudent jealousy to be the first duty of citizens and the noblest characteristic of the American Revolution. The freemen of America did not wait till usurped power had strengthened itself by exercise and entangled the question in precedents. They saw all the consequences in the principle, and avoided the consequences by denying the principles.”