Guest editorial
by David Kilgour
What can be done to reduce the persecution of spiritual communities internationally?
First, all must stand together.
Pastor Martin Niemoller made this point best about the Nazis: “...Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew; Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak out for me.”
One estimate of the number of people who died prematurely for their faith between 1900 and 2000 is a dismaying 169 million, including: 70 million Muslims; 35 million Christians; 11 million Hindus; 9 million Jews; 4 million Buddhists; 2 million Sikhs and 1 million Baha’is.
In Canada, our Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees freedom of conscience and religion.
This freedom to worship, or not to worship, is part of Canada’s appeal.
It is a universal value; most nations have signed agreements committing them to respect individual freedom of thought, conscience and belief.
But in too many, their nationals continue to suffer for practicing their faiths.
Most of the persecution during the 1900s and early years of the present century was committed by regimes which detested all religions.
From China to the Sudan to India, cases of spiritual intolerance, and violations of spiritual freedoms occur daily.
So what can we do?
If spiritual communities stand shoulder-to-shoulder when anyone in our own congregation or another is being persecuted anywhere, lives can be saved.
Daniel Goldhagen`s new book, Worse than War, has a full chapter of suggestions on what all of us can do, including:
1- Develop an anti-eliminationist discourse. ‘’Mass murder and eliminationist politics are humanity`s human scourge,... more murderous than wars...Yet on the nightly local (U.S.) news mass annihilation receives far less attention-in absolute terms-than house fires.
2-Referring to mass murderers by their real names, for example, ‘’Serbian mass murderer Milosevic’’ instead of “former president Milosevic’’ or ‘’Sudanese mass murderer al-Bashir’’ instead of ‘’President al-Bashir of Sudan’’. Some tyrants might be deterred from acts of mass murder if they knew they would forever be known by such titles.
3-”The countries perpetuating mass murder... or tempted to do so, are overwhelmingly poor and weak... Many could easily be stopped with a little military power and probably with other available, easily employable means...(This)... would radically change potential perpetrators’ cost-benefit calculus, heavily tilting the scales toward noneliminationist political options.” In my own view, external force should only be used as a last resort as, for example, in Bosnia.
Canada`s concept of Responsibility to Protect (R2P) was intended to apply in situations where governments are killing their own people. The UN Security Council has diluted the notion by giving a veto on the use of peacemakers to its members having permanent vetoes.
Spiritual communities are vital to the well-being of nations everywhere.
If faith communities cooperate, peace will be feasible.
It is only through this mutual respect that we can build a better world which all peoples, religions and cultures can genuinely call their own.
During his almost 27 years of service in the House of Commons, David Kilgour held a wide variety of portfolios, including Parliamentary Secretary to the Government House Leader, the Minister of External Relations, the Minister of Indian Affairs and the Minister of Transport.
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