I have to admit I had never heard of Lady Berridge before today, so far as I recall.
Nor, indeed, do I pay much attention to the utterances of Douglas Alexander, though I was vaguely aware he’s a Labour Party Shadow Minister back in the Old Country.
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warteg -big meal today, two bucks exactly!
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- But after a bite to eat at the warteg down the road, my only outing this Saturday (Saturdays cease to be a special ‘must gallivant’ day once you retire from regular working hours and days – much better to enjoy an unexpected visit from somebody most pleasant, as occurred this morning) I opened up my nice new laptop and saw that Conservative Home had a most impressive article from Lady B.
Lady B – a good woman, she calls for a “capacious freedom to express views, proselytize (both for religions and atheistic views), and most importantly, a robust protection of the freedom to convert, both at home and abroad.”
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And she raises an interesting, and somewhat disturbing question, about Labour’s Mr. Alexander
…last year, Douglas Alexander acknowledged the reluctance of politicians to speak about religious persecution out of a “misplaced sense of political correctness.”
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- He ended by quoting part of Article 18 of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, saying: “”Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom…to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.”
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Douglas Alexander
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…in quoting Article 18 he missed out the crucial middle section of the article which iterates the “freedom to change his religion or belief.”
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He made the same omission in a recent article for the Daily Telegraph, leaving me to wonder if this was due to time and space constraints or because of a wish to downplay this crucial aspect of freedom of religion or belief. http://www.conservativehome.com/platform/2015/02/lady-berridge-we-must-champion-the-freedom-to-change-ones-beliefs-about-religion.html
Alexander undoubtedly knows the complete wording of that UN Declaration, and one omission of a key part might be an oversight.
But twice?
Any religion, or religious acolyte/cleric/priest/parson, that seeks to punish people who convert (other of course than by denying them access to the places of worship or ceremonies of the creed they quit) is either ignorant or evil.
It is an affront to the very concept of God Almighty if some sectarian slug arrogates to him or herself the ‘right’ to harm or kill somebody who converts to another creed.
Any government worthy of the name has a duty to protect freedom of religion, and to hammer any morons who seek to take reprisals against persons who convert into or out of any religion.
In the West, primitive savagery of this sort died out long ago. Burning people at the stake because they repudiated the ‘true faith’ is rightly regarded today as an archaic abomination. Unfortunately this is not the case elsewhere.
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ISIS
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In the Middle East, the rape-gang ISIS puts ‘apostasy’ high on its list of capital offences. ISIS Crucifies 8 Christians in Syria for Apostasy From Islam
Even here in Indonesia, there are bigots who openly applaud the murder of innocent ‘apostates.’ There was a case a couple of years ago – the so-called ‘execution’ of Omega Suparno in Jepara – which was especially sickening – http://almaliknews.blogspot.com/2013/07/allahu-akbar-trio-mujahid-jepara.html (written by fanatics with a poor grasp of English, but shocking in the hatred and intolerance in just about every line!)
The Christian convert actually met with what the bigot media here call the ‘Trio Mujadin’ to debate. The Trio couldn’t handle their dogmas being seriously challenged.
Omega ended up dead.
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Omega Suparno – innocent convert killed by three Islamist bigots
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Oddly, I have never been able to find any reports in the English-language media here.
But here’s another link on the same case, quite brazen in its joy at a cowardly murder. http://www.voa-islam.com/read/indonesiana/2013/10/18/27225/vonis-trio-mujahid-pekik-takbir-bergemuruh-di-pn-jepara/ – but you’ll need to use Google to translate it.
Such people loathe liberty of conscience as much as freedom of expression.
So all the more important, surely, that people like Douglas Alexander not only INCLUDE the key right to convert but NAIL IT TO THE MAST-HEAD in any discussion on religious liberty.
I look forward to whatever response may be forthcoming from the Labour Front Bench to Lady Berridge’s concerns.
I honestly hope Alexander was only guilty of an oversight. It is SO important that everyone in every country is free to think – and act – for themselves on how they choose to worship, or not worship.
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