Introduction: Freedom of Religion or Belief Across the Commonwealth

Abstract

This special edition of The Review of Faith & International Affairs traces how freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) has been addressed across the globe, from Asia to Europe, and from Africa to the Americas, with particular focus on the Commonwealth of Nations, a unique voluntary grouping of 53 sovereign states, most of which are former British colonies or dependencies. The articles in this collection are the product of a major initiative, the Commonwealth Initiative for Religious Freedom or Belief (CIFoRB), supported with funding generously provided by the Templeton World Charity Foundation. This research project investigates how parliamentarians and legislators have and might advance religious freedom across the Commonwealth.

Keywords:

• Religion
• religious freedom
• human rights
• parliaments
• United States
• International Religious Freedom Act
• Commonwealth

2018 marks the twentieth anniversary of the passing of the International Religious Freedom Act in the United States. Hailed as an advance by both those on the left and the right as a way to protect the religious freedom of majorities and minorities, the past 20 years have revealed that the United States has not been alone in addressing religious freedom. This special edition of The Review of Faith & International Affairs traces how freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) has been addressed across the globe, from Asia to Europe, and from Africa to the Americas, with particular focus on the Commonwealth of Nations, a unique voluntary grouping of 53 sovereign states, most of which are former British colonies or dependencies, but none of whom exercise power over the others. They are scattered across the globe and range in population size from as small as 10,000 (Nauru and Tuvalu) to 1.2 billion (India), with a wide range of government forms, from monarchies and parliamentary systems to autocracies and democracies. As a set of countries to compare, they are as diverse as they come, yet they are united in the political union of the Commonwealth.

More specifically, the nine articles in this volume are the product of a major initiative, the Commonwealth Initiative for Religious Freedom or Belief (CIFoRB), begun three years ago with funding generously provided by the Templeton World Charity Foundation. The goal of this research project was to investigate how parliamentarians and legislators have and might advance religious freedom across the Commonwealth of Nations. What we discovered is that although the United States was not a member of the Commonwealth, efforts there inspired similar efforts in Canada, the United Kingdom, and elsewhere. Furthermore, although the US effort was largely driven by the executive branch, efforts to advance FoRB in the United Kingdom were largely driven by Parliamentarians, including the director of the project, Baroness Elizabeth Berridge of the House of Lords.

The two articles in this issue authored by me and M. Christian Green trace this history of FoRB advancement and interconnections and how they have played out over the past 20 years. What is clear is that although the US was the first mover, its efforts directly informed those others. Moreover, these efforts broadened to include such issues as the treatment of religious minorities, equality and non-discrimination, violent extremism, and economic development. While minorities, for example, are critical issues in Pakistan and India, the situation in Bangladesh hinges on rising Islamism and secularism. In Sri Lanka, the legacy of inter-ethnic conflict is central, while in Malaysia it is multiculturalism alongside religious protections and advocacy for tolerance and peace that are emerging at a time when interreligious tensions appear to be intensifying.

While the two articles by Green and me present the broad sweep of these efforts across the Commonwealth, the remaining seven articles in this special edition dig deeper into different aspects of FoRB in particular countries or regions, or in the ways in which FoRB is identified and conceptualized.

Staying within the Commonwealth, Amitra Basu, for example, takes a deeper look at India, which was once considered remarkable as a democratic state given its size and diversity. But as Basu shows, democracy has been weakened by the rise of a particularly pernicious form of xenophobic Hindu nationalism that threatens religious minorities. Although aspects of Hindu nationalism were evident in the past, it has dramatically increased and infiltrated the politics of the country in dangerous ways, especially for non-Hindus. Basu’s article reveals the extent to which the protection of democracy and religious freedoms are closely inter-twined and how the decline of democratic ideals and practices lead to the persecution and harassment of those who are seen as not belonging.

Ahmed Garba takes us to the Middle East, but from an African Muslim perspective, where he investigates the treatment of minorities and how this relates to the aim of the Marrakesh Declaration, which was to tackle discriminatory practices against religious minorities living in Muslim-majority states through the promotion of religious pluralism. Garba discusses the obstacles for the actualization of the Marrakesh Declaration and argues against the impulse of Islamic scholars to develop a new jurisprudence of inclusive citizenship based on the Medina Charter to eradicate the discrimination and persecution of minority religious groups in the Muslim-majority societies in the world. The problem quite simply is not with the Charter but a lack of tolerance among Muslims for a plural system. The paper claims that the application of human rights norms viewed through the framework of Islam in Muslim-majority societies is more fruitful than applying the Medina Charter to address the persecution of religious minorities in Muslim-majority states in the world today.

Muhammed Haron provides a detailed account of the Ahmadiyya community in various nations in Africa and the difficulties Ahmadis have encountered as they seek to freely express their beliefs and creeds in both Muslim-majority societies and Muslim minority communities. The Ahmadis are among those religious communities that have departed from traditional Muslim theological positions, which has resulted in their persecution and the curbing of their beliefs and practices around the world. The Ahmadis have tried to avoid harassment and persecution by seeking ways to circumvent these challenges to their faith. This article traces this harassment and the Ahmadis’ efforts, a dynamic which Haron points out is happening in a part of the world where religious communities have generally experienced relatively positive religious freedom.

Still within Africa and the Commonwealth, Loreen Maseno moves us to Kenya, where she argues that over the past years, and in the aftermath of terror attacks, religious organizations in Kenya have issued press statements which conflate discourses on war against terror, security, and freedoms of religion. Using the example of one umbrella religious organization, the Evangelical Alliance of Kenya (EAK), her paper demonstrates how freedom of belief is framed in contexts of terror violence. Drawing on frame analysis and more specifically, the equivalency approach, she illustrates how the EAK helped to present an alternative interpretive scheme on religious freedoms for judgments relating to terror attacks and related violence.

Moving beyond Africa to India and Indonesia and broadening to the discussion beyond religious minorities and discrimination, Christoph Grüll and Erin K. Wilson take up the question of how pluralism and diversity might be achieved when it comes to FoRB. As they point out, FoRB has become a focus of increasing concern in academia and policy, a core disagreement being whether a universally recognized right to FoRB actually exists. Grüll and Wilson explore this notion by looking at global, universalist narratives and local, context-specific applications of FoRB in India and Indonesia. They argue that although the language of FoRB may not be universal, similar concepts and practices exist that are consistent with FoRB. Given this, they maintain that rather than insist on a universal set of concepts, international actors should look to existing practices that unite peoples from across different cultures.

In a conceptual and theoretical similar vein, Mariam Rawan Abdulla takes up the relationship between culture and FoRB, which she contends is often seen in a negative light whereby freedom of religion is invoked to defend human rights violations. When this happens, human rights advocates typically draw a distinction between culture and religion, with culture rather than religion implicated as the problem. However, as Abdulla so aptly demonstrates, drawing clear lines between religious and culture is easier in theory than in practice. Recognizing this interplay and where the two are distinct or overlap would allow for more positive avenues for the promotion of human rights and the advancements of FoRB.

Nazila Ghanea closes this special issue with an overview of the concept of ‘religious persecution,’ something that has arisen with great regularity in recent years. She shows that the increasing usage politically has meant that the legal usage has become muddied. Her essay is an attempt to help clarify how and when we should accept an incident as a truly legal case of religious persecution or the instrumentalization of religion for political purposes.

As is apparent, the research in this special edition is far-ranging, from conceptual issues to countries and concerns beyond the Commonwealth of Nations. However, what unites them is the tracing of how FoRB has become a central focus and contested concept within and across societies. It is clear that debates over the nature and scope of FoRB are likely to continue and that FoRB as a political, legal, and conceptual issue is likely to remain a critical concern in the coming decades, as states grapple with how to advance and protect the rights of their religious communities.

Additional information

Funding

Project underlying these articles funded by the Templeton World Charity Foundation.

Notes on contributors

Monica Duffy Toft

Monica Duffy Toft is a Professor of International Politics and Director of the Center for Strategic Studies at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University. Before joining Fletcher, Toft taught at Oxford University’s Blavatnik School of Government and Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. While at Harvard, she directed the Initiative on Religion in International Affairs and was the assistant director of the John M. Olin Institute for Strategic Studies. She is also a Global Scholar of the Peace Institute, Oslo.