Catholic peer, Lord Alton, has called on the British government to accept the “reality” of the persecution of Christians in Pakistan, as a report launched today finds UK government policy on Pakistani religious minorities to be inadequate. The All Party Parliamentary Group for International Freedom of Religion or Belief, of which Lord Alton is a…
TUESDAY 16 FEBRUARY 2016 AT 6.00 ARRIVAL FOR 6.30PM PROMPT START UNTIL 8.30PM IN PARLIAMENT (ROOM TO BE CONFIRMED) The meeting will be considering the vexed questions of religion and interfaith in relation to issues of empire, colonialist abuse of power and racism. This is particularly relevant to the Church of England-led interfaith scene in the…
The All Faiths Network is pleased to announce our new membership of the UK Inter Faith Network. The Inter Faith Network for the UK works to promote understanding, cooperation and good relations between organisations and persons of different faiths in the UK. We hope that our common purpose will lead to much future cooperation and success….
Gillingham MP Rehman Chishti is campaigning for the UK to refer to the so called “Islamic State” (also referred to as ISIS or ISIL) as “Daesh” in line with other countries around the World, calling on the BBC and the Government to make this change. Prime Minister David Cameron echoed the call in an interview with the…
“If ‘Satanic Islam’ pastor James McConnell goes to jail I will go with him, insists Muslim cleric” is the headline in the Belfast Telegraph, as the Belfast Pastor faces prosecution for a sermon describing Islam as heathen and satanic. The prosecution of Pastor McConnell, under the 2003 Communications Act, has been described as “absurd” by Dr…
For the 30th year the Westminster Interfaith Multi-Faith Pilgrimage for Peace with the Hounslow Friends of Faith in the Hounslow area took place. Two members of the All Faiths Network also participated. Launching the Pilgrimage were MPs Ruth Cadbury (Brentford & Isleworth) and Seema Malhotra MP (Feltham & Heston) along with Councillor Nisar Malik, Mayor…
Prime Minister David Cameron will include new counter-terrorism measures aimed at tackling radical extremism in the forthcoming Queen’s Speech. A new Bill will be intended to “catch not just those who spread or incite hatred on the grounds of gender, race or religion but also those who undertake harmful activities for the purpose of overthrowing democracy”, according…
As the new Conservative government takes shape, there will be interest in the Party’s plans to tackle the fomenting of extremism. Teresa May announced, in the month before the election, that measures would be introduced to deal with ‘entryist’ subversion of organisations (see our previous item here). The relevant section of the Conservative manifesto states: “Dealing with…
A press statement on The Church of England official website welcomes the recent Court of Appeals judgement as “upholding the freedom of clergy to be office holders rather than employees”. The judgement, in the widely reported case regarding former Worcestershire vicar, Mark Sharpe, has agreed with the initial judgement of the Employment Tribunal, which ruled that…
Last month the All Faiths Network hosted an interfaith forum concerning governmental and institutional responses to religious extremism. The debate explored critical issues, including suggestions that Government subsidies to interfaith bodies are failing to improve relations between faith communities. It was suggested that some bodies had been hijacked by unrepresentative cliques with links to extremist factions. The meeting also emphasised the…
