Political measures are not enough to protect religious freedom around the world, Mgr Michael Nazir-Ali said yesterday.
Speaking to The Tablet at the International Ministerial Conference on Freedom of Religion, Mgr Nazir-Ali praised the initiative of the UK government but warned that “too much political emphasis” threatened to leave “a half-finished job”.
“There are deeper, cultural causes of religious persecution in parts of the world like India, which political interventions can’t resolve, ” he said.
He commended the work of Fiona Bruce MP, the UK’s special envoy on religious freedom, and the progress in making religious freedom a priority for the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.
However, he said that this remained vulnerable to changing political fortunes, and called for a permanent independent commission to review the work of the Foreign Office in this field.
This follows the government’s review of the Bishop of Truro’s 2019 recommendations on support for persecuted Christians, published on Monday. The review found “many positive developments and initiatives” but said that more effort was required to ensure the protection of religious freedom “becomes firmly embedded in the operational approach” of the Foreign Office.
Mgr Nazir-Ali also warned of a threat to Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which enshrines “the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion” and also to change religion and express religious belief in public.
“More Islamic countries are adding a codicil to the article, saying they will follow it insofar as it complies with Sharia law,” he told The Tablet.
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He said that undermined the rights of religious minorities and converts, particularly Christians.
“In Pakistan they are passing laws prohibiting criticism of Islam as ‘inciting hate’ – but what is inciting hate?
“You can pass laws protecting religious believers, but not protecting religion itself. Otherwise, it’s impossible to debate, or even talk about it.”
He said that many in the West did not understand the effect of such prohibitions.
Mgr Nazir-Ali has campaigned since the 1980s for freedom of religion and belief in Pakistan, where he was born and ordained as an Anglican priest. He was Bishop of Raiwind in western Pakistan, and subsequently Bishop of Rochester until 2009. He converted to Catholicism in September last year, and is now a priest in the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham.
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