Persecuted Christians

– in the Scottish Parliament at on 6 August 2014.

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Photo of John Scott John Scott Conservative

The final item of business today is a members’ business debate on motion S4M-10093, in the name of Dave Thompson, on highlighting the plight of persecuted Christians. The debate will be concluded without any questions being put.

Motion debated,

That the Parliament condemns the escalating persecution of Christians in certain countries; further condemns any form of religious persecution against all faiths and none; recognises that there is very little such persecution in Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch; supports those people and organisations that work toward removing religious intolerance from society; notes calls for the matter to be highlighted across Scotland and for concerns to be raised about the discrimination of minorities across the world, and understands that the Scottish Government will raise these issues wherever it can and that, as a good global citizen, Scotland will support the right to religious freedom and assist where possible in ending any oppression of religious minorities.

Photo of Dave Thompson Dave Thompson Scottish National Party

As a Christian, it pleases me greatly that the motion has achieved cross-party support and that it can be debated today. It also reassures me as a person that, regardless of religious persuasion or party affiliation, the Parliament has a common bond that unites us all. That bond is a desire that Scotland be seen as the fair-minded country that we are—free from religious, racial and other intolerances. I want our country to be recognised as one that will stand up to prejudice wherever it rears its head, whether at home or abroad.

I recognise that, as a Parliament, we are all pulling together in the same direction, which fills me with an enormous sense of satisfaction. However, it is all too easy to indulge ourselves with words of fairness; it is harder to do something about prejudice in the world. The Scottish Churches Parliamentary Office made a telling point in its briefing ahead of the debate. It said:

“The churches in Scotland are aware that Christianity has been a source of persecution in times gone by and it is in acknowledgement of this that we are committed to acting and praying for peace around the world.”

The SCPO went on to say that

“Although many high profile examples in the news today speak of Christians facing discrimination in predominantly Muslim societies, we do not see Islam as a threat or a problem ... and last year’s Assembly of the Conference of European Churches expressed solidarity with Christians and Muslims facing violence in North Africa and the Middle East—calling them ‘sisters and brothers’.”

On 15 May in Sudan, Meriam Yehya Ibrahim, 26 years old and eight months pregnant, was sentenced to death by hanging for apostasy, and to 100 lashes for adultery. Her crime was that she was unwilling to renounce her Christian faith. It is great news that, after a period of intense pressure on the Sudan minister of justice by Amnesty International, and general denunciation of Ibrahim’s detention by countries around the world, she has been released. That was a very serious case in which persecution on religious grounds was all too clear, and it should never have happened.

It is not just in Sudan that there are examples of Christians being persecuted. North Korea has become one of the most difficult places on earth for Christians to live. Christians are classified as “hostile”, and face arrest, detention and torture, or even public execution. There is a system of labour camps, including the renowned prison number 15, which is thought to house at least 6,000 Christians. The oppression of Christians there is continuing to grow.

In Iraq, there are terrifying reports that Christians are being targeted in Mosul by Isis militants and that many Christians are fleeing the region. The fundamentalists are giving Christians the grim choice of converting to Islam, paying a non-Muslim tax or facing death. In parts of the middle east including Saudi Arabia and Iran, Christian churches are outlawed, with Christians being persecuted and even condemned to death.

However, that type of scenario is not reserved solely for the middle east. In China, the Government has been ordering the demolition of Christian churches and there are reports that Christians who resist demolitions have been beaten, which has resulted in many people being hospitalised. As if that were not bad enough, in May this year a campaign was started to outlaw Christian church gatherings in homes and private dwellings.

This year alone in Nigeria, according to the advocacy group Jubilee Campaign, Islamist extremists Boko Haram and others have killed thousands of Christians for their faith.

There are numerous examples of Christians around the globe being persecuted and killed for their beliefs. What can we do? Well, Christians live out what they believe about God. We see in Proverbs that a Christian should be active in standing up for what is right, in rescuing those who are perishing, and in defending those who are poor and in need. Proverbs, chapter 31, verses 8 to 9 says:

“Open your mouth for the mute, for the rights of all who are destitute. Open your mouth, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy”.

For the Christian, apathy and abdication are to be replaced by the active pursuit of justice.

According to recent census results, more than half of Scotland’s population identifies as Christian. A significant number of people in my constituencySkye, Lochaber and Badenoch—hold their religion dear. We are fortunate in being able to practise our faith without fear of retribution, and for that we should thank God.

As convener of the Christians for independence group, I want a Scotland that condemns the persecution of people who express their religion, whether it happens at home or abroad. I want a Scotland that values people of faith and which unites, rather than divides, along religious lines; a Scotland that is welcoming to all; a Scotland that is international in outlook; and—this is important—a Scotland that enshrines in its constitution the right to have and express faith and the right to have no faith.

More than that, I want an outward-looking Scotland that will provide a safe haven for people who flee religious and other forms of persecution. I hope that that will be the mark of Scotland as a good global citizen.

I look forward to hearing the minister’s response.

Photo of John Mason John Mason Scottish National Party

I thank Dave Thompson for raising this important subject.

We cannot concentrate on all the problems of the world all the time. One day there is a natural disaster, but that gets pushed out of the media by fighting in Iraq, which in turn gets pushed out by the crisis in Israel and Palestine. The media, the public and members of the Parliament tend to get caught up in the latest new story.

This afternoon, we consider the plight of persecuted Christians—not in one specific place, or at one specific time, but in a range of places around the world. An organisation with which I have contact and which focuses on the subject is Open Doors. It produces annually a list of the 50 worst countries in the world, under the categories “Absolute persecution”, “Extreme persecution”, “Severe persecution” and “Moderate persecution”. Aid to the Church in Need does a similar exercise.

Although in several cases the persecution comes from Islamic extremists, the worst country for the past several years has been North Korea, as Dave Thompson said. It is number 1 on the Open Doors list and it is the only country in the category, “Absolute persecution”. Open Doors tells us that in North Korea some 50,000 to 70,000 Christians—close to a quarter of the Christian population in the country—live in concentration camps. Being caught with a Bible is grounds for execution or lifelong imprisonment, and parents normally cannot tell their children that they are believers, for fear that the children will innocently say something outside the family home.

The Barnabas Fund said in its briefing that Christians are the most persecuted religious group in the world, with the second-largest persecuted group being Muslims. It could be argued that Christians are the most persecuted group of any kind in the world.

Today is an appropriate day for us to be discussing all this because Aid to the Church in Need tells us in one of its press releases that 6 August is the feast of Transfiguration for the Eastern Orthodox Church, which has been linked to a call for prayer today for peace in Iraq. In 2003, there were some 60,000 Christians in Mosul, but that figure is now down to almost none. For the first time in 1,600 years, no mass or Christian service is being held in that city. In Iraq as a whole, the 1987 census showed that there were 1.4 million Christians in the country, equating to 8 per cent of the population, but the figure is now down to 300,000.

I want to make clear a couple of things that I am not asking for. First, I do not want to return to western imperialism, with the richer, white liberal countries telling the others what to do. We need to respect each country that we work with, and I fully support the tone of the motion, which uses words such as “supports”, “work toward”, “concerns to be raised” and “assist”. Apart from anything else, Christianity is not a western religion—it comes from the middle east and has probably suffered from being linked to the west.

Secondly, I am not asking for aid to be linked to improving the lot of Christians. Part of Jesus’s teaching was that we should love our enemies and do good to those who persecute us. However, we should raise the issue with governments that we work with and, as far as possible, we should ensure that our aid is targeted at those who are in the greatest need, which may well mean working with third sector organisations rather than with the governments themselves.

A lot of what I have said relates to long-standing Christian communities such as those in Iraq, where even people just from a Christian background are being persecuted. However, in many countries, the strongest attacks are often against those who have chosen to change their religion to the Christian faith, which can follow from the concept that one state has one faith. That used to be the thinking here in Europe as well, but a fundamental belief of Christians is that each individual has the ability and responsibility to follow the way of their choosing. Many people of a more liberal or secular persuasion would agree with that fundamental concept of individual choice. Therefore, if I have an absolute bottom line to ask for today it is that each individual in this country and in every other country have the right to follow the religion of their choosing—or none—and that that be set out in a written constitution, whether for Scotland or for the UK.

Photo of Patricia Ferguson Patricia Ferguson Labour

At the beginning of July, Pope Francis celebrated mass in Rome to commemorate the early martyrs of the church who were persecuted in the first century AD during Emperor Nero’s reign. During his homily, the holy father reflected on the fact that there are more Christian martyrs today than there were in the first centuries of Christianity. We, too, should reflect on that. In a way, that is what we doing in the debate tonight, so I congratulate Dave Thompson on securing the debate and allowing us to do exactly that.

If Pope Francis is right—and the evidence suggests that he is—the persecution of Christians must be one of the least remarked upon cases of human rights abuse in our world. It is one that is seldom discussed. On our televisions, we see thousands of Christians flee Syria, and in Egypt the plight of Coptic Christians is increasingly worrying. The irony is that the Ottoman empire, which covered most of the middle east in times gone by, was a multicultural area that saw Christians, Shias, Sunnis, Jews, Alawites and Druse people all living cheek by jowl, mostly peacefully.

It is estimated that some 3,000 evangelical and Pentecostal Ethiopians are imprisoned in their homeland because of their religion. As we have heard, in North Korea, the Government executes and tortures Christians, and in Burma Rohingya Muslims as well as Christians are abused on a regular basis. The blasphemy laws that have been introduced in Pakistan leave Christians open to charges that are unjustified, and we must not forget the bombing of the church in Peshawar that killed 80 people and injured many more.

The reasons why the persecution occurs will vary from country to country, from region to region and from situation to situation. It may happen because of religious intolerance or for any one of a number of other reasons, but whatever the reason it can never be right to persecute someone for their faith, no matter what that faith happens to be.

Whatever the rationale, that is never acceptable and it must be challenged wherever it occurs by people of faith and people of no faith. In doing so, we do not support one faith over another; rather, we stand up for all people and their right to freedom of conscience, thought and religion and their right to worship, to teach and to observe their religion in the way of their choosing. That principle is laid out for us in article 18 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Those of us in the chamber may not all be Christians or share the same faith, and we will come from different denominations. However, we all share respect for our fellow human beings and we try to uphold the human rights of our fellow citizens in the UK and those in other countries. Therefore, perhaps it behoves us, as politicians of all parties, to speak out more because where Christians are persecuted the right to religious freedom for everyone is in jeopardy.

Photo of Marco Biagi Marco Biagi Scottish National Party

It can be quite easy for the ordinary man or woman in the ordinary Scottish street to find the idea of the persecution of Christians surprising if they are not familiar with the arguments that we have heard because, sadly, those arguments are not high profile.

We live in a nation where Christianity has long been the pre-eminent faith. There are places where even today—I find this sad, too—a person’s denomination may lead to intimidation or bigotry. However, the idea that Christians could be driven from churches or forbidden from gathering or that the Bible could be banned seems alien to us.

We live in a society that takes its holidays at Christmas and easter, which are Christian festivals, and our streets, towns and other places bear names of religious origin and significance—as do many people. Even our blasphemies are religious: it is said that every atheist is a Christian when they stub their toe.

Scotland’s 15 centuries of Christian heritage are as much a part of our national story as our political history, our varied languages, our geography and our climate, which have all done so much to shape the modern Scot. All that occurs in other lands, too.

I am one of the people who have been mentioned who do not profess the Christian faith. However, I find much in the story of Jesus that is recounted in the Bible fascinating, compelling and inspiring: the description and significance of humble beginnings; the teachings on poverty, injustice and compassion; the willingness to accept and sit down with the outcasts and the excluded; and the inner turmoil of the choices faced in the wilderness and the garden of Gethsemane.

I find the stories and teachings of many other great figures from other faiths and histories inspirational, too. Therefore, it troubles me—this should trouble us all—that there have been societies, whether contemporary or historical, where holding any faith has been the subject of intimidation and ostracism and seen as heretical and criminal, leading all the way even to outright state persecution.

There is an elephant in the room, to which Patricia Ferguson referred. Some small “l” liberals find it genuinely difficult to rally to the cause of those around the world who are persecuted on the grounds of their religious beliefs as opposed their secular political views. That particularly applies to Christians.

Some Christians, such as the occupants of the white house, rank among the most powerful people in the world, but many do not. Meriam Yehya Ibrahim, the pregnant woman who has been referred to, was not powerful, nor was Sawan Masih, a Christian road sweeper from Lahore, and neither were the Coptic Christians who have been targeted in widespread attacks.

Each of those cases has been highlighted by Amnesty International and other organisations. I congratulate Amnesty on its willingness to highlight human rights abuses and the persecution of people on the grounds of religion, whatever that religion may be.

We all have a right to hold our beliefs, and we also have a right to express them. Those who feel the passion of their convictions will want to evangelise and spread their message—they always have—but they have an obligation to do so by persuasion and inspiration, not by coercion.

In too many countries around the world, those who disagree with Christianity have moved from the tools of preaching to the weapons of persecution. I have a great fear of what Governments can do when they are motivated by the dislike of those who hold other views, and of states that say that one must fear and hate that which is different and which use their powers and laws to turn neighbours against one another.

Mark chapter 12, verse 31 gives a very good message on that:

“we should love our neighbour, and desire for them all those good things both for the body and for the soul that we desire for ourselves.”

We do not have to be Christian to believe in that sentiment or to support it.

I whole-heartedly endorse the motion and look forward to a day when, all around the world, people have the right to believe as they wish and to observe the responsibility to respect the right of others to believe differently or not at all.

Photo of Murdo Fraser Murdo Fraser Conservative

I commend Dave Thompson for his motion, which I was happy to sign, and I congratulate him on securing this debate on a very important subject. I could not help smiling at the reference in his motion to the fact that

“there is very little ... persecution in Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch”, which probably says more about the nonsensical parliamentary rules on submitting motions than it does about the reality of the situation.

It is true to say that, as a religion, Christianity is growing faster today than at any time in its 2,000-year history. It is also true to say, as Patricia Ferguson pointed out, that Christianity has never been more persecuted at any time in its 2,000-year history. I think that those two facts are probably linked as cause and effect, because Christianity is never stronger than when it is persecuted. The Christian faith never grows faster than when it is subject to persecution.

Just last month, the Vatican suggested that, in the current year, across the world 100,000 Christians will die for their faith. That is a staggering statistic and one that we hear too little about in this country. I am particularly grateful that Dave Thompson has given the Parliament the opportunity to highlight that important issue.

About 31 per cent of the world’s population are Christians, and 80 per cent of all acts of religious discrimination are directed against Christians. Statistically, that makes Christianity the most persecuted religion in the world. Given that the Commonwealth games closed earlier this week, I highlight the fact that 10 of the top 50 countries in which Christians are most persecuted are Commonwealth countries: the Maldives, Pakistan, Nigeria, Brunei, India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Kenya, Bangladesh and Tanzania.

John Mason and others mentioned the horrendous situation that exists in Iraq and Syria with the formation of the new Islamic State. Human Rights Watch has said that the IS

“seems intent on wiping out all traces of minority groups from areas it now controls in Iraq. No matter how hard its leaders and fighters try to justify these heinous acts as religious devotion, they amount to nothing less than a reign of terror.”

If anyone wants an indication of what that reign of terror feels like on the ground, I commend to them the regular dispatches from the chaplain of St George’s, Baghdad, Canon Andrew White. In the Church Times the other day, he was reported as saying:

“things are desperate; our people are disappearing ... Are we seeing the end of Christianity? We are committed, come what may. We will keep going to the end, but it looks as though the end could be very near.”

He added that Iraqi Christians were

“in grave danger. There are literally Christians living in the desert and on the street. They have nowhere to go.”

Even more chillingly, just the other day he reported that a family of eight had been found in their home. Lying in a pool of blood with an open Bible beside them, they had been shot through their faces because they would not renounce their Christian faith. Those are horrific pictures, which are almost reminiscent of what happened in Roman times.

What can be done? We have an opportunity to use the avenues that are open to us to actively promote human rights. We have the opportunity to use the moneys that the Scottish Government has for foreign aid. The UK has a substantial foreign aid budget—we are the second-largest donor of foreign aid—and we can use that to promote our message about spreading freedom and human rights around the world. The UK has already given £5 million in humanitarian aid to Iraq and more can be done.

It is also a case of simply showing solidarity. Christians in other countries need our prayers, and they need to know that we are thinking of them and praying for them. I think that the most important thing that we can do is highlight their plight, which is why I am particularly grateful that Dave Thompson’s motion allows us to do that.

Photo of Kenneth Gibson Kenneth Gibson Scottish National Party

I, too, congratulate my colleague Dave Thompson on securing valuable time to debate this important issue.

Some years ago, I lodged a motion that criticised the western-backed Karzai regime in Afghanistan for imprisoning and allegedly torturing and threatening to hang disabled Red Cross aid worker and physiotherapist Said Musa for converting from Islam to Christianity, the increasing intolerance toward and ill treatment of Christians in Afghanistan and the regime’s lethal approach to apostasy. That would be shameful at any time, but it is even more so given that the Afghan regime has for years now relied on troops from western nations to preserve its security.

More recently, we had in Sudan the case of Dr Meriam Yehya Ibrahim Ishag, which Dave Thompson has already outlined for the chamber and which made headlines across the world. It highlights the individual plight of many Christians in many countries. According to Open Doors International, the world’s largest organisation reaching out to persecuted Christians in the most high-risk places,

“Christian Persecution is any hostility, experienced from the world, as a result of one’s identification with Christ. From verbal harassment to hostile ... attitudes and actions,”

Christians in some countries can

“pay a heavy price for their faith.”

Brutal

“physical torture, confinement, isolation, rape, ... slavery, discrimination in education and in employment, and even death.”

In the middle east, 3 million Armenians, Assyrians and Pontic Greeks were murdered in a series of massacres from the 1890s to the mid-1920s in the Ottoman Empire and its successor states. Indeed, up to half of the world’s Armenian and Assyrian populations were exterminated in genocides that have still not been recognised by some of those successor states. The Assyrians had converted to Christianity in the first century AD and, like many nations, survived the vicissitudes of history in an area that was frequently fought over by differing empires and faiths. They usually lived in harmony with neighbouring nations, faiths and cultures, but now they face an existential threat.

Since the 2003 invasion of Iraq by what were perceived as Christian powers, the peaceful Assyrian population has suffered such persecution that more than 90 per cent have fled their homeland. John Mason has already pointed out that, in Iraq, a community of 1.5 million Christians has withered to perhaps a third of a million or fewer.

Only last month, the leadership of the self-proclaimed Islamic State of Iraq in Mosul issued a decree that all Christians in the area of its control must leave, pay a special tax of $470 per family, convert to Islam or die. Many took refuge in nearby Kurdish-controlled regions of Iraq, and Christian homes have been painted with the Arabic letter N for “Nassarah”—an Arabic word for Nazarene or Christian—and a declaration that they are the property of the Islamic State. On 18 July, the jihadists seemed to change their minds and announced that all Christians would need to leave or be killed, and most of those who left had their valuable possessions stolen. According to Patriarch Louis Sako, there are no Christians in Mosul for the first time in two millennia. Moreover, in Syria, where the civil war continues to rage, the ancient Aramaic community of Maaloula has seen its Christian community attacked.

As other members have pointed out, the rate of Christian persecution is continuing to rise, and Christians in almost every country in the middle east and in north-west Africa and 23 countries in north-east Africa and south-east Asia are suffering from everything from discrimination to severe persecution. In some countries, Government policy or practice even prevents Christians from obtaining Bibles or other Christian literature. This sort of thing is happening from Belarus to Burma, Algeria to Azerbaijan and from Syria to Saudi Arabia and Sudan, and the fact that some nations that persecute Christians—Commonwealth countries such as Pakistan and Bangladesh or countries such as Saudi Arabia that are called “friends of the west”—are ostensibly allies makes things worse and adds to the sense of helplessness for Christians in those countries.

In an address to the United Nations Human Rights Council, Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the permanent observer of the Holy See to the United Nations in Geneva, stated:

“Credible research has reached the shocking conclusion that ... more than 100,000 Christians are violently killed ... every year.”

That figure has already been mentioned this afternoon, but I want to repeat it.

It was only 20 years ago that Muslims in Europe and Bosnia were being persecuted, and we also know about interdenominational strife in Christian nations, but in terms of scale the persecution of Christianity is the biggest problem faced by any religious group in the world. I agree with colleagues that we need to raise the issue of human rights and freedom, have dialogue and ensure that there is tolerance in our own communities. We must fight against everything from church burnings to discrimination and, as has been said, we need to show solidarity with Christians around the world who are suffering from persecution.

Photo of Joan McAlpine Joan McAlpine Scottish National Party

I, too, extend my congratulations to Dave Thompson on securing the debate.

The European convention on human rights says:

“Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief, in worship, teaching, practice and observance.”

We are used to people having a pop at the European convention on human rights, particularly in the media, but in this instance, it is a great pity that that article does not apply beyond Europe to other societies in the world.

Other members have highlighted the plight of Meriam Ibrahim, the Sudanese mother who was jailed while she was pregnant and had to live with the expectation of being hanged once her baby was born. The focus on her eight-month ordeal personalised a global issue that affects millions of people. As we know, her crime was that she had married a Christian and she was accused by the authorities in Sudan of apostasy or renouncing her faith even though she had never been Muslim in the first place. Although we can rejoice that Meriam and her children are now safe, that is not the case for people in millions of less well-known cases around the world. Members have highlighted a number of cases, including the 3,000 Christians who fled Mosul after the fatwa, and other societies such as North Korea.

It has been asked on a number of occasions why more attention is not paid to those atrocities, and it has been suggested that those of us from a Christian background might want to reflect on the fact that, despite non-violence being at the heart of true Christianity, for much of the past two millennia Christianity has been the dominant religion of some of the world’s most powerful empires, and the leaders of those empires have misused it in order to persecute other people. We have only to think about the crusades, the Spanish inquisition or, indeed, the inter-Christian sectarian violence and wars that have resulted in many deaths over the centuries in Europe and which we are, sadly, familiar with in these islands. Perhaps that is the reason why we have not paid more attention to what is happening to Christians now. However, in a sense, because we have come on that journey, that should make us more sensitive to the persecution of people for their religious beliefs.

According to the International Society for Human Rights, which is a secular group with members in 38 states worldwide, 80 per cent of all acts of religious discrimination in the world are directed against Christians. The Pew Research Center has said that hostility to religion was at its highest in 2012, when Christians in 139 countries faced some sort of discrimination. That accounts for three quarters of the world’s nations, which is quite a staggering thought.

In anticipation of this debate, I received letters from constituents who were particularly concerned about the plight of persecuted Christians in Pakistan. I would like to take the opportunity to speak about that in more detail.

Although the Christian population in Pakistan is barely 3 million—compared with 180 million Muslims—Christians have had a considerable impact on Pakistani society, particularly in the field of education. Many of Pakistan’s most prominent leaders, including the current Prime Minister and the assassinated former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, went to Christian schools. Under Pakistan’s constitution, Christians were guaranteed equal rights, but the recent increased targeting of Christians in Pakistan should be an issue of great concern to the international community.

While I was researching for this speech, I encountered some horror stories about the scale of the violence that has been directed towards those people. Militant groups are frequently the culprits in attacks on Christians, and it seems that a general anger against the United States’ foreign policy has caused a large number of people to wrongly target Christians, whom they associate with that foreign policy.

Blasphemy laws are often used as a tool of oppression. For example, in 2012, an 11-year-old Christian girl was arrested after being accused of burning pages of the Qur’an. In Peshawar, 78 people were killed and 130 were wounded in a fatal attack on a church.

I could list many other instances, with which we will be familiar or unfamiliar. However, I repeat my colleagues’ appeal for tolerance throughout the world for people whatever their religious background. I look forward to hearing the minister make clear the Scottish Government’s abhorrence of all persecution on religious grounds, as it has done on previous occasions.

Photo of Roseanna Cunningham Roseanna Cunningham Scottish National Party

I add my congratulations to Dave Thompson on securing this members’ business debate. It comes at a time when I have personally been experiencing increasing frustration with the apparent complete lack of interest anywhere within the media in what is going on, particularly in the middle east just now. It is important that Dave Thompson has taken the opportunity to highlight the escalation of the persecution of Christians, together with that of members of other faiths—and, indeed, members of none—in certain countries.

I welcome the opportunity to draw this debate to a close. I thank members in the chamber for their thoughtful contributions to the debate, whether they be Christians or, like Marco Biagi, non-Christians. It is important that the debate is seen in that wider context.

The motion clearly expresses this Parliament’s condemnation of any form of persecution of or discrimination against minority communities throughout the world, wherever it occurs. I note that yesterday, in her resignation letter, Baroness Warsi highlighted the

“ever growing crisis of the persecution of Christians.”

We are all aware of recently reported cases of persecution of or discrimination against Christian and other minority communities in the middle east. However, both Dave Thompson and John Mason ranged across a number of geographical areas in highlighting the attacks worldwide, as indeed did Joan McAlpine in focusing on the situation in Pakistan.

I make no apology for focusing my remarks on what is happening right now in the middle east. In Isis-controlled areas of Syria and Iraq, as many as 30,000 people have fled the area around Mosul following the recently published ultimatum to northern Iraq’s dwindling Christian population effectively to either convert to Islam or die. It is estimated that only a few hundred Christian families now remain in Mosul but, as Kenny Gibson said, that may now in fact be none. Of course, it is not only Christians who are under threat in Iraq. Reports yesterday highlighted the plight of the Yazidi community—a community of believers who combine Zoroastrianism with some early aspects of Islam and Christian belief—who are being forced into the mountains surrounding Sinjar following an Islamic State offensive on the city last Sunday. Reports today suggest that those people are now dying of thirst. If they go back down the mountain, they die; if they stay, they die. They, too, are under the most appalling persecution and we should not forget them when we are talking about the persecution of Christians.

This has been a catastrophe long in the making. Last year, the Catholic organisation Aid to the Church in Need published a detailed report called “Persecuted and Forgotten? A Report on Christians oppressed for their Faith 2011-2013”. The “Forgotten” part of that is also important. Canon Andrew White, who has already been mentioned by a number of speakers, is the vicar of Baghdad. He has witnessed the extreme suffering of Christians in recent weeks and has accused the British Government of doing nothing to help fleeing Christians. Church of England bishops, along with other church leaders, have called upon the Government to offer asylum to Iraqi Christians. The Bishop of Manchester pointed out the sobering truth that

“What’s happening now in Iraq is the direct consequence of what happened in 2003 ... this is, in part, our mess.”

I am not sure that anybody could really disagree with that.

The Archbishop of Canterbury has joined a worldwide social media campaign by adopting the image of the Arabic letter N—the first letter of the Arabic word “Nasrani”, which of course means Nazarene or Christian—in solidarity with persecuted Christians suffering in Iraq. People may begin to see that particular image appearing more frequently.

I call on the global media not to ignore what is happening to those minority communities. Patricia Ferguson is right when she says that much of this persecution has gone largely unreported. Had it not been for social media, much of what we know would have gone unknown. The sheer numbers of those likely to die over the next year—Murdo Fraser quoted the figure of 100,000—should surely mean that the subject goes to the top of the news agenda instead of being at best buried and at worst totally ignored. That is a media failure and is simply not good enough. I fear that maybe Christians are simply not fashionable enough.

It is, however, important to acknowledge that many Muslims are just as concerned about attacks on Christians as we might be. Last month, more than 200 people, including Muslims, gathered in front of a Catholic church in Baghdad to show solidarity with their Christian neighbours by carrying “I am Iraqi, I am Christian” slogans. Given that a prominent Muslim academic has already been assassinated for speaking out in solidarity with Christians, acts of solidarity are also acts of incredible bravery, and we need to recognise that when we see it.

Members have raised the issue of the Scottish Government’s broad and general approach, and I take the opportunity to restate that. Of course, we in Scotland believe in equality for all people whatever they believe, and as good global citizens we have a strong and enduring commitment to securing democracy, the rule of law and fundamental human rights around the world.

Everyone knows that foreign affairs are reserved, but that does not let us off the hook when it comes to expressing our views and bringing to bear what pressure we can as individuals, in our communities or indeed as a Government. During the Commonwealth games, we took every opportunity to engage with Commonwealth countries in a diplomatically and culturally sensitive fashion to make clear Scotland’s view on equality and human rights.

Photo of Patricia Ferguson Patricia Ferguson Labour

I appreciate everything that the minister has said. Both I and Joan McAlpine quoted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and it is interesting that the UK has now assumed its place on the UN Human Rights Council. Is the Scottish Government prepared to write to the UK Government asking it to raise the issue of religious persecution in that forum to try to raise the profile and, hopefully, influence other countries?

Photo of Roseanna Cunningham Roseanna Cunningham Scottish National Party

Yes. That is probably an extremely good idea and I will take that forward as the member has suggested.

I was going on to say that it is not just during the Commonwealth games that we have been making appropriate representations. The Minister for External Affairs and International Development has regularly spoken out against the persecution of religious minorities wherever it takes place. Only last month he wrote to the Home Secretary about Gaza, urging the UK Government to play a full role in any international efforts to provide homes for refugees from that region and stating that Scotland is ready to play its part. We have also donated £200,000 to the Disasters Emergency Committee in Scotland’s Syria crisis appeal in response to the suffering in Syria and we are providing £500,000 of funding to help the United Nations to provide water, food, shelter and medical assistance to the people of Gaza.

We recognise the influence for good that religious belief can have on the lives of individuals, families and the wider community, which is why we actively promote and support interfaith relations as a means of developing trust, respect and social harmony between communities at local and national levels.

In closing, I congratulate all the churches and other faith communities and organisations, such as Christian Solidarity Worldwide, Aid to the Church in Need, the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, Remembering Srebrenica, Open Doors UK and Islamic Relief UK as well as all their supporters, who work tirelessly towards supporting the victims of intolerance and hatred and removing religious intolerance wherever it is found. I take this opportunity to say to them, “Your work is known by us and is recognised.”

Meeting closed at 17:49.