Middle East Concern

The Hon. D.G.E. HOOD (16:10): I rise to speak on the important work of the organisation Middle East Concern (MEC), which provides support to Christians across 24 countries and territories in the Middle East and North Africa where they are often persecuted on account of their beliefs.

MEC assists victims of persecution through offering encouragement and informed, trustworthy expertise; mobilising worldwide prayer effort in open or confidential networks; initiating political advocacy on behalf of victims of persecution; and providing practical and financial support where required. It challenges unjust laws, policies and attitudes by undertaking research-based advocacy on legal and policy issues underlying persecution, campaigns for the reinstatement of civil rights to converts from Islam in particular and addresses unhealthy responses to persecution such as hasty relocation to the West.

It also equips Christians to face persecution by leading seminars to assist them in responding to suffering and persecution, instructs community leaders in constitutional rights and international law and provides guidance in crisis management, including how to handle arrests and interrogation, again particularly in those countries or regions.

The prevalence of Christian persecution is certainly not an issue we are often made aware of, despite the fact that a recently released report by an organisation known as Open Doors regarding persecution figures and trends indicates that some 215 million Christians worldwide experience high, very high or even extreme levels of persecution due to living in places where Christianity is illegal, forbidden or barely tolerated.

The Pew Research Center also released its findings earlier this year in relation to restrictions on religion, revealing that in 2016 Christians reported incidents of harassment, including discrimination, verbal assault, physical attacks, arrests and the destruction of religious sites—usually the churches—in no less than 144 countries. In 2015 the centre reported that such incidents were occurring in 128 nations, implying the persecution is progressively worsening.

At present the communist regime in China is tearing down churches, confiscating bibles and arresting Christians. It has been suggested this year that it is the most intense persecution the Chinese have experienced since Chairman Mao’s Cultural Revolution. In northern Nigeria, society as a whole treats Christians formally as second-class citizens who deserve to be discriminated against and excluded. Christians from Muslim backgrounds—that is, those who have converted to Christianity—also face persecution from their own families who reject and pressure them into renouncing their faith in some cases, indeed in many cases. It has been estimated that in the Middle Belt, as it is known, of the country over 6,000 Christians have been slaughtered by the predominantly Muslim Fulani herdsmen.

In India, the perpetrators of persecution vary depending on the location within the country; however, Hindu radical groups in particular are the main instigators in attempts to cleanse the nation of other religions. These examples constitute just a small glimpse of the issues faced by a great number of Christians internationally in our current era.

One of the specific cases that MEC is currently assisting with concerns 10 converts to Christianity in Sudan. On Saturday 13 October, just a couple of weeks ago, officers of the National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) broke up a meeting of Christians in a house in the city of Nyala, the capital of the state of South Darfur. All 13 Christians present were arrested; three were subsequently released, given they were already Christian—that is, from a Christian background; the other 10 were converts to Christianity from Islam. The remaining 10—all converts from Islam—remain in detention to this day.

No-one has been permitted to visit them, and no charges have officially been filed against them. Sudanese law allow the NISS to hold people in detention for up to 4½ months before they have to either be charged or released. These men have committed no crime and are being detained solely because they have converted to Christianity.

I take this opportunity to commend Middle East Concern on its efforts to raise awareness of cases such as this within the international community. If any members would like to be informed as to how they can personally support MEC in its endeavours to obtain justice on behalf of persecuted Christians, my office can provide the contact details of the appropriate representatives from that organisation.

In short, MEC will distribute details of these particular cases to civic leaders—or members of parliament in this case—whereby they will provide the details and, if the member so chooses, they can write to the particular government concerned outlining their concerns about the way those individuals are being treated. I have personally written many letters, probably hundreds of letters over the years, to foreign nations that have treated people very poorly simply because they have chosen a religion that they do not agree with.