India

Some 800 people, mostly Muslims, died and thousands more were made homeless in what were said to be the worst religiously-motivated riots in India in a decade. The riots began in late February in the western state of Gujurat and attracted international media attention at that time. The incidents were said to be started when Muslims torched a train carrying reportedly ill-behaved Hindu devotees, which then led to a series of reprisals by Hindus against the minority Muslim population. Following the attack on the train, Hindus allegedly proceeded to kill Muslims and destroy their homes and business establishments in many places in Gujarat. These incidents occurred over several weeks this spring.

Concurrently with these developments, the Indian Supreme Court ruled in mid-March against the demands of Hindu nationalists to hold a major religious ceremony in Ayodhya, a politically sensitive location where Hindu extremists destroyed a Muslim mosque in 1992. Despite a several hundred year existence of the mosque, Hindus believe Ayodhya to be the site of the birthplace of Ram, one of the principal Hindu deities. Hence, there has been a long-term religious dispute over this site between the Muslim and Hindu communities. Owing presumably to a massive security operation, violence was largely forestalled when India's Supreme Court decision was announced.

Despite the largely peaceful rally in Ayodhya by some 3,000 Hindu activists, the ruling Hindu nationalist party (BJP) has been widely criticised for failure to stem the violence that took place in Gujarat. Various human rights groups, such as Human Rights Watch and the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (both US-based), have alleged that state officials were complicit in the attacks against the Muslim community. Research and criticisms were ongoing into the spring over what role the Gujarat government played in the spread of violence. (Sources: BBC, Times of India, The Washington Post, The Independent, Associated Press, Reuters, and Time magazine.) Prior to these incidents, the International Association for Religious Freedom sponsored a successful interfaith youth project in Gujarat in late December, 2001, which focused on rebuilding a temple and a mosque in 2 villages.

Uganda

A report was released in late May by the Uganda Human Rights Commission about the Kanungu Massacre, an incident which led to the violent death by fire of some 500 people in a remote part of southern Uganda in March 2000. In the report, specific leaders of the 'Movement for the Restoration of Ten Commandments of God' were implicated in the tragedy. The dissident apocalyptic group focused its teachings on the end of the world and formed a movement for the restoration of the ten commandments to prepare its followers for admission into heaven. The Commission's report chronicled interviews with former members of the cult, as well as local civic and religious authorities. It documented a range of human rights violations and ways in which the cult's leaders manipulated its followers.

The report stated, "At first it was assumed that the Kanungu massacre was mass suicide by the members of the cult who were convinced about going to heaven through fire, but later it was established that it was planned and executed by the cult leadership. The victims of the inferno included children too young to make independent decisions." The report went on to note that "many more people belonging to the same cult had died and been secretly buried in other camps outside Kanungu." In her introduction to the report, Commission Chair Mrs. Margaret Sekaggya noted that freedom of religion in Uganda had always been an accepted fact with the government being supportive of these rights. She added, however, "The equally shocking developments that subsequently unfolded (in the Kanungu case) confirmed that the freedom of worship had been taken for granted and this was obviously detrimental."

Cases such as these in Uganda, apart from being criminal, relate directly to the International Association for Religious Freedom's work on a Voluntary Code of Conduct for Religious and Belief Communities, an initiative to develop voluntary guidelines for responsible religious practice.

China

China continues to attract attention in the press related to its alledged suppression of various religious groups. The following cases are of note: 1) The Falun Gong spiritual movement, which was officially banned by the government in July 1999. The movement claims primarily to focus on meditation and exercises and is influenced by Chinese folk religion. Early this year, China criticised a report released by Human Rights Watch which chronicled the detention of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners. Some followers have alledgedly been killed and/or put into labour camps. While demonstrations by practitioners in China have largely subsided, due potentially to the crackdown on their activities, stories of foreign Falun Gong practitioners being arrested in China occasionally surface in the press. 2) The allegations of persecution suffered by thousands of monks and nuns in Tibet at the hands of Chinese authorities are well documented. 3) Of particular interest to western Christians, is the growth of a variety of underground churches in China and the alledged repression of those churches. Such repression does, however, tend to vary greatly by region.

While government statistics from the late 1990's in China indicated that there were over 200 million religious adherents from a mix of faiths (but predominately Buddhism), government control over religious practice is still widespread. As a Communist country, China remains officially atheist; however, there are several officially-sanctioned churches which operate in China. According to CNS News, this includes "an authorised Catholic church which appoints its own bishops without consulting Rome. These official congregations have seen massive growth since the end of the Cultural Revolution in the late 1960s." In reporting on a national Christian conference that took place in Beijing in late May, China Daily noted that China had more than 10 million Christians. The article cited the concerns of the country's Christian community about the rise of 'cults.' Cao Shengjie, President of the 'official' China Christian Council noted that such 'cults' had "made use of the Bible, quoting it out of context and making up heresies." He added that "They control followers, barring them from rational reasoning."

Although both Western governments and religious adherents in the West are quick to condemn China for its repression of religious freedom, there are valid concerns about some groups whose practices border on the criminal. A very good paper by a Christian group called Compass Direct, for example, cites a number of situations in which certain groups and individuals in China claiming a 'religious' status have engaged in practices such as financial extortion and rape.

Armenia

In what was considered a victory for religious freedom, a 6-member panel of Armenia's highest court upheld not guilty verdicts in the trial of Lyova Margaryan, who was prosecuted under the criminal code for his activity as a Jehovah's Witness. His case had been through the court system in Armenia for approximately a year and a half. In an earlier appeal court ruling, a statement from the Jehovah's Witnesses Office of Public Affairs noted that "the Prosecutor's Office brought charges against Mr. Margaryan due to the presence of minors at religious meetings he conducted, and the refusal of young male Jehovah's Witnesses to serve in the military. The appeal court found that his religious teaching as one of Jehovah's Witnesses is not criminal and is protected by the guarantees of freedom of religion in the Constitution of Armenia."

Despite this ruling, Human Rights Without Frontiers (HRWF) reported in early May that 23 male Jehovah's Witnesses remain in prison for their conscientious refusal of military service on religious grounds, despite their willingness to engage in alternative community service. HRWF went on to state that, while some conscientious objectors have been released under a general amnesty in August 2001, new ones were sentenced to prison. On accession to the Council of Europe in January 2001, Armenia made a commitment to adopt a law on alternatives to military service within 3 years.

Council of Europe

A report released by the Council of Europe in April 2002 reviewed some of the changes affecting religious organisations in Central and Eastern Europe and offered a set of recommendations related to legal guarantees and educational exchange. The report noted some of the conflicts created by the interactions between traditional churches and new religious movements in this region as well as lack of understanding between Eastern and Western branches of Christianity. The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe also stated in its report that "socio-religious developments in the post-communist countries have been marked by the emergence of fundamentalist and extremist tendencies, active attempts to make religious slogans and religious organisations part of a process of military, political, and ethnic mobilisation in the service of militant nationalism and chauvinism, and the politicisation of religious life." The document also, however, referenced the social potential of religious organisations in contributing to the "spiritual education of the individual and the ethical improvement of society."

Among several recommendations offered, the Council of Europe advised conformity of national legislation with the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, that religious communities be guaranteed the status of legal entities if their activity did not violate human rights or international law, and that religious minorities be protected from discrimination. The report also called on governments in this region to provide a restitution of church assets that had previously been nationalised and not to interfere in dogma or internal church matters. A set of recommendations were also offered on potential cultural and educational activities that could be undertaken by governments and non-governmental organisations to foster better understanding of the religious heritage in Central and Eastern Europe. (For the complete report see http://stars.coe.fr)

Norway/Britain

In early March, the Associated Press reported that a religious panel had recommended that Norway end its 465-year-old state church system. The panel noted that the time had come to separate church and state in Norway and give all religions more equal footing. The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Norway has been the nation's official religion since 1537. The recommendation on church/state separation came after 4 years of study by the Norwegian Church Council; however, due to the need for a constitutional amendment, the current situation is unlikely to be changed until after national elections in 2005. Despite close church/state ties in Norway, other religious groups can freely practice their beliefs and can seek government funding based on the size of their membership.

Similar church/state separation issues have also surfaced in Britain where a poll published by The Guardian newspaper early in 2002 showed that "nearly half of all British voters believe it is time that the Church of England lost its privileged position as the only official national church." Some 48% of voters indicated it was time to break the historic link between church and state while only 1 in 3, or 36% believed that the Church of England should remain the only state recognised religion.

At present, the Prime Minister approves who is appointed to be the Archbishop of Canterbury, from a list of names given to him (initially 2) and the Queen is the Church's supreme governor. While some church leaders have favoured the disestablishment of church and state in Britain, the Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey noted in a speech given in April that such a move would undermine social cohesion, as reported by CNS News. Although not addressing the dominant role for the Church of England, the Archbishop commented on the role of the church in society generally and noted that a "sense of a higher, transcendent authority" formed the basis for key British values. "Without that sense," he added, "Our human arrogance and selfishness, our inability to distinguish adequately between what is temporarily expedient and what serves the long-term common good may all too easily get the better of us." Alternatively, a spokesperson for the National Secular Society stated that it was only "by secularising our society can we ensure that the interfaith hostilities that we can see growing before our eyes do not spill over into our political system."

Zarrín T. Caldwell

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