“If a person wants to believe in the Bible let him say so, but why should he discard his own religion? This proselytization will mean no peace in the world … My position is that all the great religions are fundamentally equal. We must have innate respect for other religions as we have for our own. Mind you, not mutual tolerance, but equal respect”.
Since August, radical Hindu nationalist mobs have rioted and attacked Christians in a number of Indian states, claiming Christians have been forcing conversion upon lower caste Hindus. Christians allege that Hindu activists in the area have tried to intimidate Christians to reconvert to Hinduism. Thirty people have already died in the violence, and thousands more have fled their homes. It has been described as the most serious violence against the Christian community in India in the last 50 years.
This is only one case of Religious Oppression, a wide-reaching problem that also raises the question of the balance between state sovereignty and human rights. Join us on Wednesday 29 October at 7PM in CAS 326 as we represent countries in SOCHUM (the UN Third Committee on Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Issues), deciding whose rights take precedence in the international system: the rights of states, or those of its citizens, and how states and the international community will respond to the increase in religious repression and violence in the world.
