The Church of England bishop charged with conducting a UK Government instituted review into the persecution of Christians around the world has said he will be asking “tough questions” about the government’s response to the issue.
Rt Rev Philip Mounstephen, the Bishop of Truro and chair of the independent review, said he was “determined” that, as suggested by Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, he would be considering “tough questions” and offering “ambitious policy recommendations”.
Noting that the terms of reference for the review are still being finalised with the Foreign & Commonwealth Office, Mounstephen said addressing the issue of persecution of Christians is important because Christianity is “primarily a phenomenon of the Global South and therefore it is primarily a phenonmenon of the global poor”.
“Despite the impression that we sometimes have to the contrary, not least when you see a bishop standing in front of you, the Christian faith is not primarily an expression of white, Western privilege. If it were, then perhaps we could afford to ignore this issue, or, more likely, this issue would not exist,” he said.
Mounstephen said Christian persecution is global phenomenon and not limited to one context or one challenge, adding that “specifically it is not limited to Muslim contexts” and that the review therefore “not a stalking horse for the Islamiphobic far right”.
He described Christian persecution as a human rights issue and said that if a person’s freedom of religion is removed, “so many other of your rights are put in jeopardy as well.”
Mounstephen said the review was not about “special pleading” for Christians but about “ensuring that Christians in the Global South have a fair deal and a fair share of the UK’s attention and concern”.
“In that sense, it is actually an equality issue,” he said.
Earlier, Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said 80 per cent of all people suffering religious persecution around the world are Christian and cited Open Doors recent report showing that at least 245 million Christians around the world are suffering some sort of persecution in nations including Afghanistan, Somalia, Sudan, Libya and North Korea.
The review is expected to report its findings by Easter.
