Muslim British cabinet member laments persecution of Christians
November 19, 2013
In an address at Georgetown University, Sayeeda Warsi, the United Kingdom’s Minister of State for Faith and Communities and Senior Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, lamented the persecution of Christians.
“I want to focus on a religion which is suffering particularly in the wake of changes to the Middle East: Christianity,” said Baroness Warsi, a Muslim. “Catholics, Protestants, Orthodox Christians and others are the victims of this type of militant sectarianism. These communities have lived in these regions for centuries, in places where their faith was born. Yet some are portrayed as newcomers.”
“A mass exodus is taking place, on a biblical scale,” she continued. “In some places, there is real danger that Christianity will become extinct … Of course, this sectarianism can take different forms. From ostracism, discrimination and abuse to forced conversion, torture and even murder. The perpetrators range from states to militant groups, and even to a person’s own family.”
“Let me explain what religious freedom means to me,” she added. “It means the freedom to have a religion. To believe what one chooses to believe. The freedom to manifest those beliefs. To show them outwardly. To share them with others. It means being free to change your faith. And it means being free to have no faith. And to do all this without fear of discrimination, without fear of attack, without fear of persecution.”
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Posted by: geoffreysmith1 -
Nov. 19, 2013 6:16 PM ET USA
Baroness Warsi is preaching to the choir. She needs to read the riot act to her fellow-Muslims in Arabia, Syria, Egypt,Iraq, etc. Unless and until the Muslims reject the bellicose phraseology in the Koran, the violence against Christians and others in Islamic countries will continue unabated, and Madame Warsi is simply wasting her breath in denouncing the Muslim fanatics.
