PERSECUTION ISSUE

by David Nuttle

The U. N. is doing little to deter religious persecution in many parts of the world. Last year, 4,476 Christians were killed. In Congo, 70 Christians were beheaded last month. Bo Haram in Nigeria, an Islamic terrorist group, is burning churches, killing pastors & other Christians on a massive scale. In N. Korea, they execute their citizens just for owning a Bible. Islamic Wahhabi jihadists are pledged to eliminate all non-Wahhabi from Earth. Not less than 380 million Christians are now being persecuted.

Diplomatic and funding pressure needs to be used to persuade the U. N. to take actions to end all the religious persecution. To wit:

a) Influence nations to make laws to provide religious protections and prevent favoritism of any one religion.

b) Start dialogue & resolve disputes peacefully.

c) Create advocates and peace building.

d) Build resilience & share values using a community-embedded approach.

e) Address structural injustice while holding intra/ inter-faith discussions.

f) Focus on education and building support networks.

g) Eliminate inequalities while building mutual trust.

h) Create a negotiations mechanism.

Conflicts between different religious followers has long been a cause of much armed conflicts. Many different solutions have been tried and failed. When I was in S. Vietnam, its President, Ngo Dinh Diem, attempted to solve the religious conflict problem by forcing Viets from the Cao Dai, Hoa Hao, Buddhist, and Catholic religions, along w/ animistic Montagnard from two tribes to live together and construct a new village with cottage industries as one happy family. Multiple conflicts resulted between forced participants. A fence and guards were soon required to keep these people from escaping to return to their respective homes.

Solutions to religious persecution and armed conflicts between religious groups must be found if we are to ever have global peace!!