Global Britain: How the UK can help protect religious freedoms around the world

The Coalition for Global Prosperity hosted a panel discussion which looked at how Global Britain can help to protect religious freedoms around the world.

On the panel were Saqib Bhatti MP, Fleur Anderson MP, David Landrum, Director of Advocacy & Public Affairs (Open Doors UK & Ireland), Uzma Hussain, SFCG's Pakistan lead on Freedom of Religion and Belief, Brenden Thompson, CEO of Catholic Voices and was chaired by Libby Smith, Advocacy Director at the Coalition for Global Prosperity.

Libby Smith, Director of Advocacy for the Coalition for Global Prosperity, welcomed the guests to the webinar. She said fundamentally standing up for religious freedom is the right thing to do. The UK has a moral imperative to act on this. So as the UK redefines its role in the world, we have the opportunity to consider what sort of nation we want to be, standing up for freedom of religious beliefs must be at the top of the agenda.

Saqib Bhatti MP said protecting religious freedom is a moral imperative and goes to the heart of who we are as a nation.The word freedom has been spoken about a lot in the UK over the last few weeks in terms of exiting lockdown and ‘freedom day’ - yet around the world there are countless instances of people being robbed of the most basic freedoms with no roadmap, exit strategy or end point. Saqib said he will work to make  persecution of religious communities a thing of the past.

“On a personal level the closure of faith institutions during COVID and being unable to attend public practices - brought into sharp focus the reality of those around the world never allowed to practice their faith” Saqib Bhatti MP

The audience then heard from Uzma Nabeel Hussain, Project Manager for an international conflict resolution NGO called Search for Common Ground. Uzma works to empower people across Pakistan to encourage faith leaders and legislators to improve freedom of religious belief. Uzma said by empowering and educating young people enables them to work with key actors to promote religious freedom around the world.

Dr David Landrum, Director of Advocacy and Public Affairs at Open Doors UK said the appointment of Fiona Bruce MP, special envoy on religious freedom, is a step in the right direction for the UK on religious freedom. The UK can continue to protect religious freedoms by promoting them. Religious freedom is the litmus test for democracy. David said work of local faith based actors has been incredibly powerful, sometimes more so than other civil society actors - in conflict resolution, community development, tackling poverty and crisis response.

“Religious freedom underpins and supports a whole variety of other freedoms” Dr David  Landrum

 Next up the audience heard from Fleur Anderson MP. Fleur said it’s not just about religious freedom in its own right but how much it joins up with other freedoms and poverty reduction as well. From her own experience in Bosnia, she saw how quickly religious persecution can slide into genocide and civil war, with communities split apart. It is crucial to build peace all the time and promote and protect the ability to practice religious freedom all the time. Fleur said it’s critical to work cross-party on this and share a resolute desire to protect freedom of religion.

Finally, the audience heard from Brenden Thompson who is the CEO of Catholic Voices and a Trustee of the Bible Society. Brenden said Faith cannot be compartmentalised but is essential to people's identity. Religion is not a problem to be solved by legislators but a contributor to national conversation. Brenden said religion is diverse and continuously evolving and is serious business.

“We need to treat religion like a professional competence - it is an omnipresent and geopolitical reality” Brenden Thompson