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International Journal for Religious Freedom (IJRF) International Journal for Religious Freedom (IJRF) Journal of the International Institute for Religious Freedom IJRF is the journal of the International Institute for Religious Freedom (IIRF). It is published bi-annually and aims to provide a platform for scholarly discourse on the issue of religious freedom in general and the persecution of Christians in particular. It is an interdisciplinary, international, peer reviewed, scholarly journal, serving the practical interests of religious freedom and contains research articles, documentation, book reviews and academic news on the issue. The editors welcome the submission of any item that could contribute to the journal. Manuscripts submitted for publication are assessed by a panel of referees and the decision to publish is dependent on these referees' reports. IJRF is freely available on the web a few weeks after publication: www.iirf.eu Editorial Committee Editors Prof Dr Thomas Schirrmacher (TS) Dr Christof Sauer (CS) Executive Editor Dr Mirjam Scarborough (MS) International Advisory Board of the IIRF Prof Dr Dr John Montgomery (France) Patson Netha (Zimbabwe) Dr Janet Epp Buckingham (Canada) Glenn Penner (Canada) Prof Dr Ken Gnanakan (India) Prof Dr Bernhard JG Reitsma (Netherlands) Prof Dr Thomas Johnson (Czech Republic) Prof Dr Christine Schirrmacher (Germany) Max Klingberg (Germany) Pierre Tschanz (Switzerland) Drs Behnan Konutgan (Turkey) Anneta Vyssotskaia (Russia) Ihsan Yinal Oezbek (Turkey) Godfrey Yogarajah (Sri Lanka) Dr Paul Marshall (USA) Yoshiaki Yui (Japan) IJRF address Subscriptions Bank details IJRF Annual subscription fee for 2 issues: International Institute for P.O. Box 746 South African Rand 200 (~ 20 EUR) Religious Freedom Cape Town Sea Point, 8060 VAT and postage included Bank Standard Bank Rep South Africa See subscription form in the back. Branch Sea Point Tel +27-21 439 32 09 Branch Code 02 41 09 Fax +27-21 433 14 55 For international payments or Account Number 071 117 431 [email protected] donations use: www.givengain.com SWIFT Code SBZAZAJJ International Institute for Religious Freedom (IIRF) of the World Evangelical Alliance Friedrichstr. 38 PO Box 535 32, Ebenezer Place 2nd Floor Edgemead 7407 Dehiwela 53111 Bonn Cape Town (Colombo) Germany South Africa Sri Lanka www.iirf.eu [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] International Journal for Religious Freedom Volume 2, Issue 1, 2009 ISSN 2070-5484 Articles and opinions published in IJRF do not necessarily reflect the views of the editors or of IIRF. © Copyright 2009 is with the individual authors or bodies mentioned in the respective items. Printed with permission. Note to librarians 2009 carries the first full volume of IJRF. There was only one issue in 2008, as the pilot issue appeared late in the year. Cover art Jesus asked his disciples to wake and pray with him in Gethsemane before his impending arrest and suffering, but they fell asleep. Christians today might face the same challenge regarding their solidarity with those facing religious persecution. The Gethsemane scene is enacted by the Mafa people, a north Camerounian ethnic group, and painted by an anonymous French artist. This is part of a coherent set of pictures illustrating 62 scenes of the New Testament. Reproduction with kind permission by the association Vie de Jesus Mafa (Life of Jesus Mafa). All rights reserved. Vie de Jésus MAFA, 24 rue du Maréchal Joffre, 78000 Versailles, France, www.jesusmafa.com. Contents International Journal for Religious Freedom Volume 2, Issue 1, 2009 ISSN 2070-5484 Editorial ...................................................................................................... 5 We introduce Religious Liberty Partnership....................................................................... 7 In my Opinion The OIC and the UN: Islamophobia and ‘defamation of religion’ Elizabeth Kendal ..................................................................................... 13 Academic Articles The range of religious freedom in 2008: Results of a global survey Paul A Marshall........................................................................................... 25 Religious freedom and social well-being: A critical appraisal Brian J Grim................................................................................................ 37 A biblical theology of persecution and discipleship: The historical books Glenn M Penner........................................................................................... 47 Minding the gaps: Overcoming misconceptions of persecution Charles L Tieszen......................................................................................... 59 Event Reports Between advocacy and readiness to suffer: Religious liberty and persecution of Christians as topics at the World Evangelical Alliance General Assembly and its Mission Commission Consultation 2008 Christof Sauer.............................................................................................. 73 Resolution on religious freedom and solidarity with the persecuted church World Evangelical Alliance........................................................................... 92 Interviews Johan Candelin............................................................................................. 95 Case Studies Christians still second-class citizens under Turkish secularism: Decades of experience of a Turkish Christian leader Behnan Konutgan......................................................................................... 99 4 IJRF Vol 2:1 2009 Iran: Suppression of religious freedom and persecution of religious minorities Thomas Schirrmacher.................................................................................. 111 Documentation WEA religious liberty press release: Iran – Apostasy law World Evangelical Alliance........................................................................... 131 Germany’s asylum policy and Iran’s new apostasy law Thomas Zimmermanns................................................................................. 133 Noteworthy .............................................................................................. 140 Book Reviews .......................................................................................... 149 Readers’ Response ................................................................................. 158 Call for submissions and instructions to contributors .................................... 159 Subscriptions ............................................................................................... 162 Editorial It gives the editors of the International Journal for Religious Freedom (IJRF) great pleasure to present our readers with the second issue of this interdisciplinary and scholarly publication. We hope that you will find the articles informative, thought-provoking, and of a high standard, and that the journal will equally serve religious freedom. For that purpose we have added some new rubrics. Contributions in this issue The newly created rubric We introduce … is designed to draw attention to the work of organisations working in the field of religious freedom. We start off with the Religious Liberty Partnership (RLP), an umbrella body of religious liberty organisations. Researcher Elizabeth Kendal then gives her opinion and analysis on the efforts of the Organisation of Islamic Conference to redefine religious freedom, which seeks to make defamation of religion a punishable offence by revising important foundational documents of the United Nations. Our section of Academic Articles opens with a contribution by Paul A Marshall, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute's Centre for Religious Freedom. He analyses the range of religious freedom in different parts of the world, with special reference to the regions’ dominant religion. Brian J Grim, a Senior Research Fellow at the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, demonstrates a positive correlation between religious freedom and the social well-being of any given country or region. The second instalment of the series on a biblical theology of persecution and discipleship, by Glenn M Penner, explains the implications for martyrdom and suffering that emanate from the purposeful view of history as portrayed in the Old Testament historical books. Charles L Tieszen discusses five commonly held misconceptions about religious persecution. The rubric Research in Progress needed to be postponed to the next issue. We would like to invite researchers from Masters degrees upwards to inform the readers on relevant projects they are currently pursuing. In order to keep our readership updated on major events concerning religious freedom taking place around the globe, we have created the section Event Reports. One of our editors, Christof Sauer, reports on the tension between advocacy on the one hand, and readiness to suffer on the other, in the deliberations of the 2009 World Evangelical Alliance General Assembly and its Mission Commission Consultation in Pattaya, Thailand. The Resolution on religious freedom taken by the WEA General Assembly, reproduced in the journal thereafter, was largely penned by members of the WEA Religious Liberty Commission and the IIRF. Also emanating from Pattaya is the 6 IJRF Vol 2:1 2009 interview with Johan Candelin, the outgoing Executive Director of the WEA Religious Liberty Commission, on some of the high and low points of his twelve years in office. Under our rubric Case Studies, you will find a brief historical overview by Behnan Konutgan, a Christian
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