Window on the World Banquet

Religious Intolerance at a High Level, says Ambassador

Religious intolerance has become more severe and widespread,

according to Suzan Johnson Cook, United States Ambassador at Large for Religious Freedom. Johnson Cook made these remarks during the Baptist World Alliance (BWA) Window on the World (WOW) Banquet in Arlington, Virginia, in the United States, on March 3.

The ambassador noted that several dominant characterize trends restrictions on religious freedom — government

repression of religious rights and religious groups, violent extremist attacks that exacerbate sectarian tensions, lack of rule

Durosinjesu Ayanrinola, left, general secretary

of the All Africa Baptist Fellowship,

greets Everton Jackson, executive secretary/ treasurer of the Caribbean Baptist

Fellowship

vibrant civil society can only exist where freedom of religion is respected and protected.” The ambassador appealed

to international religious

organizations such as the BWA “to build bridges across religious differences [and] to work together against religious hatred, violence and repression.” Faith groups and their leaders, she said, “are often best positioned to spread the message of tolerance and reconciliation” as often they are a “crucial thread in the economic and political fabric of society.” Religious organizations such as the BWA “have a stake in having the freedom to operate” and can do so by “promoting mutual respect and freedom for their own faith and for others.” Johnson Cook, an ordained Baptist pastor, is the fi rst woman,

of law regarding violations of religious freedom, apostasy and blasphemy laws, rising anti-Semitism and Islamaphobia, and restrictions on religious attire and expression. Johnson Cook said that “religious freedom is pivotal to

peaceful, prosperous and secure societies,” and that “many confl icts in the world today are fueled by religious intolerance, with governments sometimes exacerbating religious tensions through inaction, restrictive religious legislation, court judgments, and police enforcement targeting certain religious groups.” She pointed to research showing that a “third of the global population live where there are government restrictions on religion or where there are acts of social hostility targeting religious groups.” “High levels of government restriction

on religious freedom and societal violence go hand in hand,” she emphasized. “Where there is religious freedom, there is more stability” and “a healthy, strong, and

fi rst African American, and the third person appointed as US Ambassador at Large for Religious Freedom. The position was created by the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 to promote religious freedom as a foreign policy of the US, and to advocate on the behalf of individuals viewed as persecuted on account of religion. In addition to the post of ambassador, the act led to the creation of a bipartisan US Commission on International

Religious

Freedom and a Special Adviser on

International

Religious Freedom within the National Security Council. Tony Peck, BWA regional

secretary for Europe and gen-

eral secretary for the European Baptist Federation, told the banquet audience of both the blessings and challenges faced by churches in Europe related to the integration of immigrants, particularly refugees. Refugees from Myanmar, for instance, have had profound infl uence on Baptist churches in Denmark, Finland,

Top: Suzan Johnson Cook, US Ambassador at Large for Religious Freedom, delivering the keynote address at the BWA Window on the World Banquet on March 3

Above right: Alberto Prokopchuk, general secretary of the Union of Baptists in Latin America, left, converses with Andres Esteban Forteza from Argentina, a member of the BWA Youth International Program Committee at the WOW Banquet

Left: Pete Stickl, a member at the Memorial Baptist Church in Arlington, Virginia, giving testimony at the WOW Banquet on March 3