On 18/19 January 2018, EIFRF will participate to the International convention "Law and Freedom of Belief in Europe, an arduous journey", organised by the Federation for Freedom of Belief (FoB). EIFRF is an active member of this Federation. Here is the very interesting program and we encourage you to attend this convention.
 

Under the auspices of the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, 
Mr Thorbjørn Jagland

Under the patronage of

18 - 19 January 2018
Auditorium Sant'Apollonia
Firenze - Via San Gallo, 25/a

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Partecipation is free till the reaching of the maximum capacity of the hall.
Please, confirm your attendance by writing at: conference@freedomofbelief.com
For info: info@fredomofbelief.net  

How to reach the auditorium

 

PRESENTATION

Within globalization, within pluralism, in a multi-ethnic society, with the many exoduses and with the diversities bursting into our society, protection of civil rights and especially the right to believe and the right for freedom, have become a crucial need for the European Community and the national governments that comprise it. In an uncertain and volatile reality, that protection is our duty and the duty of each country, and the only way to make it valid and effective all over Europe and in each and every country of the Union, is to have European laws as well as European justice enforcement bodies.

With the differences of laws and rulings of each national government, with the pressures of anti-liberal forces and sometimes of nonsense politics, it is not an easy task, the one we are entitled to. Within the protection (with no shyness) of freedom to believe and freedom of religion, dwells a hope for peace, for pacific cohabitation and reciprocal acknowledgment which alone turns the different, the ‘other’, the unknown, into a comrade, a friend and a fellow citizen.

In such often puzzling protection stands the creation, as well, of the most truthful identity for Europe and its role amongst the nations and continents.

PROGRAM

Thursday, 18 January, 8:30am

Registration of partecipants

Welcome address

Professor Silvio Calzolari, Secretary of FOB

Dr. Eugenio Giani, President of the Regional Council of Tuscany

Hon. Riccardo Migliori, Past-president OSCE

Hon. Marietta Tidei, Vice-president OSCE-PA

Hon. Luciano Ciocchetti, Former vice-president of the Lazio Region

Dr. Alessandro Amicarelli, President of FOB

 

I session (moderator Pietro Nocita)

Philosophy and Theory of Law

Professor Pietro Nocita, Lawyer, he taught Criminal Procedure at La Sapienza University in Rome, which awarded him the Diploma of Benevolence

Dr. Fabrizio D’Agostini, Lawyer in Turin

Professor Roberto Celada Ballanti, Universiy of Genoa

Professor Marco Vannini, Philosopher, Florence

Professor Marco Ventura, Universy of Siena

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Thursday, 18 January, 2:30pm

Music with Vincenzo Zitello
(Bardic harp and Celtic harp)

II session - Part 1 (moderator Paolo Naso)

Sociology of Religions

Professor Luigi Berzano, University of Turin

Professor Massimo Introvigne, Sociologist of Religions, Turin

Professor Enzo Pace, University of Padua

Professor Stefano Allievi, University of Padua

Professor Aldo Natale Terrin, University of Padua

II session - Part 2 (moderator Alessandro Amicarelli)

Ideological and Legal Obstacles 
to the Right of Freedom of Belief in Europe

Professor Susan J. Palmer, University of Concordia, Montreal

Dr. Patricia Duval, Lawyer in Paris, France

Mr Willy Fautre, Director of Human Rights Without Frontiers Int., Austria

Mr Thierry Valle, Director of NGO CAP Liberté de Conscience, France

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Friday, 19 January, 8:00am

III session (moderator Fabrizio d’Agostini)

Ecclesiastical Law

Professor Germana Carobene, University of Naples

Professor Nicola Colaianni, University of Bari, former Magistrate of the Supreme Court of Cassation

Dr. Alessandro Amicarelli, Lawyer in London, Human Rights specialist

Professor Muamar Salameh, University Prince Mohammed bin Fahd, Dhahran

IV session (moderator Silvio Calzolari)

History of Religions and Legal Aspects
of Religious Confessions

Professor Silvio Calzolari, High  Institute of Religious Studies, Florence

Professor Paolo Naso, University La Sapienza, Rome

Professor David Monti, Magistrate at the Milan Court

Dr. Nelly Ippolito Macrina, Deputy Prefect, former director of the Division for the Affairs of Religious Groups other than the Roman Catholic of the Ministry of the Interior

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Friday, 19 January, 2:30pm

Music with Flavio Cucchi
(classic guitar)

Round Table (moderator Luigi Berzano)

Law and Freedom of Belief in Europe

Ms Camelia Marin, project coordinator SOTERIA International, Denmark

Mr Eric Roux, director of EIFRF, France

Imam Izzeddin Elzir, Minister of Islam in Florence, president UCOII

Professor Mohamed Bamoshmoosh, Islamic Community of Florence and Tuscany

Dr. Fabio Fanfani, Consul - Vice Dean of the Consular Body of Florence

Professor dr. Stefano Grossi, Teacher of ethics and anthropology at the Theological Faculty of Central Italy

Mr Martin Weightman, director of All Faiths Network, England

Dr. Faisal Yousif Al Anezi, Director Prince Naif Bin Abdulaziz center for peace and tolerance, Saudi Arabia

Professor Thierry Vissol, Director of LIBREXPRESSION Center, Rome

Dr. Andrea Bottai, Soka Gakkai Regional In-charge for Tuscany

Ms Rosita Šorytė, President ORLIR, International Observatory of Religious Liberty of Refugees

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For press accreditation write to conference@freedomofbelief.net .

 

While interviewed on a pro-government television channel in Hungary on November 3, 2017, Fidesz parliamentary delegation leader Gergely Gulyás declared that “there will be no mosques in Hungary”, and added that “from the perspective of our own security, mosques would have a negative impact”. 

Gulyás was speaking to government propagandist Zsolt Bayer, a founding member of governing Fidesz party known for making offensive and racist statements and comments. During the TV show, Bayer said that “the problem is that now you almost have to say with boring grayness that, of course, Islamist, Jihadist, Islamic State, when did he get there, where was he radicalized…We know that next week, in two weeks, in a month, it’s going to happen again somewhere. We know this, but still nothing is happening.”
Then Gulyas answered "“Western Europe has not done anything against this danger…Wherever radical Islam raises its head and is allowed to take root, these kinds of acts can occur at any moment.” This is the moment where Bayer said “Wherever there’s a mosque, there’s a problem”, and Gulyas added: “That’s right. There will be no mosques in Hungary…There is such an initiative. We can’t change our position on this.”

 

Thousands of members of the Church of Almighty God (CAG) have been incarcerated in China, following a further crackdown on unauthorized religious organizations. According to the rough statistics, more than 300,000 members of CAG were incarcerated and detained in China from the beginning of the persecutions in the 1990s to 2017. Many have been tortured and at least 30 died in custody in suspicious circumstances, according to a report just released by CAG and published by several human rights organizations internationally (see e.g, http://www.cesnur.org/2017/almighty_china_report.pdf). In the last few days, we have seen unprecedented media attacks against CAG published simultaneously in Korea, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, which seem to be an answer to the publication of this report.

The Church of Almighty God (CAG) is a new religious movement founded in China in 1991. It teaches that Jesus has returned to the Earth and incarnated as the Almighty God in a living person and is with us today. It also claims that prophecies in the Bible predict the fall of the Chinese Communist regime in China, although it does not advocate any form of armed rebellion. For this reason, CAG, credited by Chinese official sources with a membership of at least three million, has been persecuted massively since at least 1995.

The Chinese regime later started accusing CAG of various crimes, including causing riots based on a prediction that the world would end in 2012 and murdering a woman in a McDonald’s diner in Zhaoyuan in 2014. The recent media campaign repeats these accusations, although scholarly studies have debunked them as egregious examples of fake news spread to discredit CAG. In fact, the group responsible for the 2014 murder used the name “Almighty God,” but was not part of CAG and had different religious beliefs. Even studies hostile to CAG have concluded that, although some CAG believers expected the end of the world for 2012, this was not sanctioned by the leaders, was not part of CAG’s teachings, and did not lead to any riots.

The campaign also argues that CAG is regarded as a “heresy” by some Christian churches. Trading accusations of heresy is part and parcel of a century-old pattern of religious controversy, but has nothing to do with the religious liberty democratic countries recognize to all religions, irrespective of their “orthodoxy.” It is also repeated that CAG is a “cult,” a discredited word no longer used by mainline Western scholars and used by the Chinese regime to justify gross violations of religious freedom.

The fact that several articles against CAG appeared at the same time in different countries cannot be a coincidence. It is part of an effort by the Chinese regime to hide the fact that it violates the provisions of international conventions on religious liberty it has subscribed, something for which it keeps being condemned by international organizations.

The members of CAG who live abroad deserve the sympathy of their host countries. Their refugee status should be recognized, since merely being a CAG member or being found in possession of CAG literature is regarded in China as reason enough to be arrested or worse.

We also urge responsible media to consult the available scholarly literature on CAG, rather than merely repeating the fake news spread by the Chinese regime.

November 28, 2017

CAP Freedom of Conscience – Coordination of Associations and Individuals for Freedom of Conscience
CESNUR – Center for Studies on New Religions
CHNK – Citizens’ Coalition for Human Rights of Abductees and North Korean Refugees 
EIFRF – European Interreligious Forum for Religious Freedom
FOB – European Federation for Freedom of Belief
FOREF – Forum for Religious Freedom Europe
HRWF – Human Rights Without Frontiers
ORLIR – International Observatory of Religious Liberty of Refugees
Soteria International – Spiritual Human Rights