freedom of religious expression

America Takes a Stand for the Rights of Western Christians

The U.S. State Department has once again sent the United Kingdom a clear warning: the ongoing persecution and prosecution of praying pro-lifers will not be tolerated. Their annual “United Kingdom 2024 Human Rights Report” opens with an ominous conclusion: “The human rights situation worsened in the United Kingdom during the year.”

The report noted “specific areas of concern, including … ‘Safe Access Zones’ (limiting speech rights around abortion clinics). These restrictions on freedom of speech could include prohibitions on efforts to influence others when inside a restricted area, even through prayer or silent protests.” The stark rise in antisemitism is also cited.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inChristian Persecution, Christianity, freedom of religious expression, Freedom of speech, USA

White House backs anti-Islam preacher in two-tier policing row

The Trump administration is backing a controversial Christian preacher at the centre of a “two-tier” policing row over his right to criticise Islam, The Telegraph can reveal.

Dia Moodley, a father of four, met US officials dispatched to interview British “victims of censorship” amid growing concern in Washington that free speech in the UK is under threat.

In the past four years, the evangelical pastor, from Bristol, has been the subject of repeated enforcement action by Avon and Somerset Police over his street preaching, which includes comparisons between Christianity and Islam, as well as sermons on abortion and homosexuality.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inFreedom, freedom of religious expression, Freedom of speech, UK, USA

Two-tier policing is real – just ask Christians

If you have ever doubted the existence of two-tier policing in the UK, just look at the appalling treatment of Christian street preachers. Earlier this year, a Christian pastor called Dia Moodley was arrested and held in a police cell for 13 hours. His alleged ‘crime’ was to have criticised Islam. Most of the details only emerged last week.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inFreedom, freedom of religious expression, Freedom of speech

Religious Freedom at Risk? Experts Warn of ‘Polite Persecution’ in the West

Expressing traditional beliefs on marriage and the family has become “the potential end of a political career or employment,” which presents “a serious threat to religious freedom” in the West, religious liberty experts were told at a Berlin conference.

The event, held alongside the Berlin Ministerial of the International Religious Freedom or Belief Alliance (IRFBA), focused on the difficulties that believers in traditional teachings on marriage, family, gender, and human nature face in Europe and North America.

The event, titled “FoRB and Tolerance for Tradition: The Challenge for the Pluralistic West,” drew speakers from Asia, America, and Europe.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Progressive Paradise", freedom of religious expression

‘Freedom’ movement fighting against ‘perceived government overreach’: CSIS

The loosely knit collective that vocally opposed COVID-19 health measures has morphed into a movement waging a broader fight against “perceived government overreach,” says a newly released assessment from Canada’s spy agency.

The Canadian Security Intelligence Service’s analytical brief traces the evolution of the “Freedom” movement that began to emerge following the early 2022 protests that paralyzed downtown Ottawa and key Canada-U.S. border points.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inFreedom, freedom of religious expression, Freedom of speech

Finnish Prosecutor Takes MP to Supreme Court for Tweeting Bible Verses

Despite having been acquitted of hate speech twice, Finnish MP Päivi Räsänen may still have to face another day in court on the same charges.

The Finnish public prosecutor has appealed the case to the country’s supreme court.

Räsänen, who has been a member of parliament since 1995 and also served as minister of the interior from 2011 to 2015, was formally charged with “agitation against a minority group” in 2021 under a section of the Finnish criminal code titled “war crimes and crimes against humanity”.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted infreedom of religious expression, Freedom of speech, WTF?

We Cannot Say We Weren’t Warned

It might seem overblown to call this appeals hearing the Trial of the Century. It’s not. The ability of people in every society of the West to speak freely about what they believe is true is on trial.

Believe it or not, the Trial of the Century just happened in a courtroom in Helsinki. The Finnish parliamentarian and physician Päivi Räsänen this week returned to the dock to face hate crimes charges for having quoted the Bible in defense of Scripture’s teaching on homosexuality.

While it is not altogether surprising that yet another Christian has been brought up on charged of blaspheming against LGBTs—who have been elevated from ordinary people, as equal as anybody else, into liberalism’s divinities—a statement the Finnish prosecution made in the trial’s opening raised the proceedings from an ordinary example of post-Christian liberalism’s contempt for the faith and free speech, into something epochal. Attention must be paid.

 

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inFinland, Freedom, freedom of religious expression, Freedom of speech

Swedish Police Now Permitting Burning of Bible, Torah After Koran Was Torched

In applying for a police permit, a Swedish man claims he wants to protect free speech and argues his act is a response to the Koran burning.

In an inversion of a famous Supreme Court argument, Swedes seem to ignore the dangers of an actual fire in a crowded theater: Like Muslims last month after a Koran burning at Stockholm, world Jews are irate over a Swedish police decision to allow a Saturday protest centered on a burning of sacred scriptures in front of the Israeli embassy at the Swedish capital.

The planned burning of a Torah and a bible at the embassy was included in a request by a Swedish man who in applying for a police permit for his act claimed he wants to protect free speech. In his petition, the man reportedly argued his protest is a response to the burning of Koran in front of a Stockholm mosque on the Muslim holiday of Eid el Fitr.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inFreedom, freedom of religious expression, Freedom of speech

Biden Administration Goes After Campus Religious Groups

Do religious groups on public campuses have the right to choose leaders who adhere to their beliefs and behavioral tenets? Should religious campus groups at public institutions enjoy the same rights and accommodations that benefit their secular counterparts?

Common sense and the U.S. Constitution say yes. The Biden administration says no.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Joe Sleazebag Biden", freedom of religious expression

The FBI’s Catholic Canard

The bureau withdraws a document warning about ‘radical-traditionalist’ believers.

House Republicans are accusing the Federal Bureau of Investigation of political bias, and the bureau certainly isn’t helping its own defense. See its retraction of a field-office report lumping some “traditionalist” Catholics with “violent extremists” and calling for government investigation.

A whistleblower last week leaked a January report from the FBI’s Richmond office entitled: “Interest of Racially or Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremists in Radical-Traditionalist Catholic Ideology Almost Certainly Presents New Mitigation Opportunities.”

I believe the time has passed when calls to dismantle the FBI could be passed off as “fringe.”

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Criminalizing Dissent", FBI, freedom of religious expression

Prayer Is Becoming Criminal In The U.K.

Prayer, even silent prayer, could be a prosecutable offense in the United Kingdom, thanks to recent developments. Catholic priest Father Sean Gough from Birmingham, England, finds himself in the midst of a legal battle for allegedly violating a censorship zone banning prayer on public streets around an abortion facility. This marks the latest in a string of thought crime cases rocking fundamental freedoms in the U.K.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inFreedom, freedom of religious expression, Freedom of speech

As America Has Become More Secular, It Has Become Less Free

Why freedom in America is threatened as never before.

Here is something any honest person must acknowledge: As America has become more secular, it has become less free.

Individuals can differ as to whether these two facts are correlated, but no honest person can deny they are facts.

It seems to me indisputable that they are correlated. To deny this, one would have to argue that it is merely coincidental that free speech, the greatest of all freedoms, is more seriously threatened than at any time in American history while a smaller-than-ever percentage of Americans believe in God or regularly attend church.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inFreedom, freedom of religious expression, Freedom of speech

Why are the police handcuffing street preachers?

Why are the police handcuffing street preachers?

British police are arresting and investigating people over entirely legal speech.

This week police in Uxbridge, Greater London, handcuffed, arrested and detained a 71-year-old grandfather for fear he might have offended someone.

Naturally, the whole incident was filmed and uploaded to YouTube, where we can watch in horror at our hard-fought freedoms slipping through our fingers.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inFreedom, freedom of religious expression, Freedom of speech, UK