Europe
Religious Freedom Institute
Responding to the Crisis in Ukraine

The dramatic intensification of the Russian invasion of Ukraine that commenced February 24, 2022 (with origins that go back to 2014) constitutes a shameful and horrific injustice. In the context of this ongoing conflict, RFI seeks to increase understanding of the religious dynamics of the region — both the thriving landscape of religious pluralism in Ukraine and the many dimensions of religious freedom that have helped to secure and foster it. The resources below address these themes, and RFI will continue to add to them throughout the crisis.

Responding to the Crisis in Ukraine
Europe, FORIS Project
Religious Freedom Institute
Religious Aid Organizations Serve Ukrainians in ...

Numerous faith-based organizations, seeking to fulfill the mission they believe God has given them, are working to ease the suffering of Ukrainians whose lives have been ravaged by this war.

Islam Action Team, North America
Ismail Royer
RFI’s Islam Team Joins Supreme Court Brief ...

RFI’s Islam and Religious Freedom Action Team has joined several religious institutions in a friend of the court brief filed in the Supreme Court in support of the religious liberty of Quaker prisoners. The case is Green Haven Preparative Meeting v. New York State Department of Corrections, No. 21-1027.

RFI’s Islam Team Joins Supreme Court Brief Supporting Quaker Prisoners
Middle East, FORIS Project
Religious Freedom Institute
RFI's Middle East Director and Vice President ...

From February 12-19, RFI’s Vice President for Public Policy, David Trimble, joined Jeremy Barker, Director of RFI’s Middle East Action Team, to lead a series of religious freedom trainings and public events across Iraq.

RFI's Middle East Director and Vice President for Public Policy Lead Religious Freedom Trainings in Iraq
China, IRF Policy
Religious Freedom Institute
RFI's Eric Patterson: "Beijing’s Berlin Moment"

RFI Excecutive Vice President Eric Patterson recently authored an article published in WORLD titled, “Beijing’s Berlin moment.” In it he draws parallels between the 1936 Olympics in Berlin and the 2022 Olympics in Beijing and asks what should have been done differently in the lead up to the current games, and what should be done now as they begin, to avoid letting “the Olympics overshadow China’s human rights abuses.”

RFI's Eric Patterson: "Beijing’s Berlin Moment"

SSEA

RFI’s Paul Marshall Discusses Repression in South and Southeast Asia

RFI’s Paul Marshall Discusses Repression in South and Southeast Asia

Paul Marshall, Director of RFI’s South and Southeast Asia Action Team, was recently interviewed on the National Catholic Register’s “Religious Freedom Matters” podcast to discuss the rise of religious repression in India, Pakistan, and elsewhere in Southeast Asia. In the course of the interview, Marshall addressed the background and religious dynamics of different countries in the region, the types of affronts to religious freedom that are occuring, and what he believes are contributing factors.

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RFI’s Paul Marshall: "Pew Survey On Blasphemy Laws Must Be Supplemented With Grounded Realities"

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RFI’s Paul Marshall: "Pew Survey On Blasphemy Laws Must Be Supplemented With Grounded Realities"

Paul Marshall, Director of RFI’s South and Southeast Asia Action Team, authored an article published recently in Religion Unplugged titled, “Pew Survey On Blasphemy Laws Must Be Supplemented With Grounded Realities.”

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The Intersection of Blasphemy Laws & Institutional Religious Freedom: Egypt, Indonesia, Pakistan, and Turkey

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The Intersection of Blasphemy Laws & Institutional Religious Freedom: Egypt, Indonesia, Pakistan, and Turkey

Produced under RFI’s Freedom of Religious Institutions in Society Project (FORIS), an initiative funded by the John Templeton Foundation, this report is the second in a series of three FORIS policy reports published this year. During the International Religious Freedom Summit held in Washington, D.C. in July 2021, RFI hosted a side event that featured a panel discussion on the report and the principles and societies it addressed.

Imran Khan Has Normalized Prejudice in Pakistan

Imran Khan Has Normalized Prejudice in Pakistan

In an article published recently in The Diplomat titled, “Imran Khan Has Normalized Prejudice in Pakistan” RFI Senior Fellow and former Member of the Pakistani Parliament Farahnaz Ispahani discusses how the Pakistani prime minister and his party colleagues are fueling intolerance toward religious minorities in the country.

RFI Vice President Appears on EWTN News Nightly Discussing Crisis in Burma

RFI Vice President Appears on EWTN News Nightly Discussing Crisis in Burma

Although the February 2021 military coup is fresh in people's minds, Burma has been ruled by military leaders or former military leaders for most of the time since independence from the British Empire in 1948. In fact, from 1962-2010, the military directly ruled Burma. In recent years, the military has continued to play a strong role despite a decade of titular civilian leadership. This awkward relationship can be seen in the military's ethno-religious cleansing camp to rid the country of ethnic Rohingya, a minority Muslim group of making up as much as 1.5 million people of Burma's 58 million citizens.

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USAID Evidence Summit Highlights Value of Strategic Religious Engagement

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From October 5th-8th, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) held its first-ever Evidence Summit on Strategic Religious Engagement. Participants examined what the data shows on the relevance of religion to USAID’s mission, particularly for shaping and developing its technical assistance efforts.

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Bayt ar-Rahmah: Europe’s Most Influential Political Network Responds to Inflammatory Remarks by Turkish President

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Bayt ar-Rahmah: Europe’s Most Influential Political Network Responds to Inflammatory Remarks by Turkish President

Indonesia’s National Awakening Party (PKB) issued a statement recently “in response to remarks by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey regarding the conversion of Hagia Sophia into a mosque.” Bayt ar-Rahmah highlighted this important statement in its August 6, 2020 Political Communiqué.

Humanitarian Islam: Fostering shared civilizational values to revitalize a rules-based international order

Humanitarian Islam: Fostering shared civilizational values to revitalize a rules-based international order

In an essay recently published in Indonesia’s top foreign affairs journal, Timothy Shah, RFI’s Vice President for Strategy and International Research and Director of its South and Southeast Asia Action Team, discusses the global impact and influence of the world’s largest Muslim organization, the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU).

Yahya Cholil Staquf: Responding to a Fundamental Crisis Within Islam Itself

Yahya Cholil Staquf: Responding to a Fundamental Crisis Within Islam Itself

In an article published recently in Public Discourse, Yahya Cholil Staquf—distinguished Muslim scholar and General Secretary of Indonesia’s Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), the world’s largest Muslim organization—urges his fellow Muslims to strive to end systematic persecution of religious minorities in the Muslim-majority world.

Pakistani courts go shamefully easy on terrorist who helped murder Jewish American journalist

Pakistani courts go shamefully easy on terrorist who helped murder Jewish American journalist

In a recent article published in the Washington Examiner, Farahnaz Ispahani, Religious Freedom Institute Senior Fellow, turns to a long-running murder case in Pakistan and the deeply rooted anti-semitism it represents.

Ispahani recounts the story of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. In 2002, Pearl had visited Karachi to investigate reported links between al Qaeda and Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Pakistan’s premier intelligence agency. While there, he was deceived by al Qaeda leader Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, kidnapped, and murdered for the alleged crime of being both American and Jewish. His murder was filmed and the video spread through Pakistan like wildfire.

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RFI President Joins Civil Society Leaders in Asking the Pakistani Government to Free Couple Sentenced to Death for Blasphemy

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RFI President Joins Civil Society Leaders in Asking the Pakistani Government to Free Couple Sentenced to Death for Blasphemy

The Religious Freedom Institute's (RFI) president, Thomas Farr, has joined over a dozen civil society members of the International Religious Freedom Roundtable in calling on the government of Pakistan to release a Pakistani Christian couple who have been sentenced to death under that country’s blasphemy law.

Marshall: This Indonesian Village Tradition Has Kept Peace Between Christians And Muslims

Marshall: This Indonesian Village Tradition Has Kept Peace Between Christians And Muslims

Paul Marshall, Wilson Professor of Religious Freedom at Baylor University and Senior Fellow with the Religious Freedom Institute, writes at Religion Unplugged that “Peaceful, and even loving religious co-existence, does not require secularism or relativism, nor a belief that our differing beliefs do not matter.”

Punish Those Responsible for the Sri Lanka Attacks, Not Muslim Minorities

Punish Those Responsible for the Sri Lanka Attacks, Not Muslim Minorities

The largest single attack on Sri Lankan soil was not claimed by any extremist group until early Tuesday when ISIS declared responsibility. ISIS has conducted targeted attacks on Easter in the past, so the likelihood that the little-known Sri Lankan Islamic radical group, National Towheeth Jamaath (NTJ), is actually an ISIS affiliate or franchisee seems plausible.  

Easter Terror Attacks Reveal New Perpetrators in Asia's Rising Tide of Religious Violence

Easter Terror Attacks Reveal New Perpetrators in Asia's Rising Tide of Religious Violence

Waking to the news of the Easter morning bombings of churches and hotels in Sri Lanka, my reaction was likely different than that of most people around the globe: Buddhist nationalists did this, I thought. The reason I reacted in this way requires some explanation, given the contemporary global and particularly western association of suicide bombings with radical Islamist groups.

Indonesia, Google and the Surveillance State

Indonesia, Google and the Surveillance State

The internet promises both greater freedom and greater repression. It gives a chance of increased expression to millions of people whose views and voices have been and could still be silenced by politically repressive regimes or monopolistic media. But, it can also give those same repressive governments and media empires control so that they can erase contrary views. 

Recent events suggest that currently the push for greater control is winning, sometimes abetted by major tech companies.