15 NGOs+ send letter to Secretary Blinken to throw pro-Russian anticult organization out from United Nations

On June 2, 15 NGOs plus 33 scholars and well-known activists have written to the US Secretary of State, to ask him to start a procedure to have the UN ECOSOC’s consultative status of the organization FECRIS withdrawn. It’s a very rare request based on the fact that affiliate associations of the FECRIS, a French “anti-sectarian” umbrella organization, has engaged in the Russian anti-western propaganda for years, and continued to support the Kremlin in ominous ways at the beginning of the war against Ukraine. We reproduce here the content of the letter followed by the list of signatories, which includes 15 prominent Ukrainian scholars.

Dear Secretary Blinken,
We write as an informal group of organizations and individuals who are religious and secular leaders, human rights advocates, practitioners, and scholars to respectfully urge you, as a member of the Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) at the United Nations (UN), to request the withdrawal of consultative status that is currently held by FECRIS (the European Federation of Centres for Research and Information on Sects and Cults) with the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).

This letter is a multi-faith initiative of the International Religious Freedom (IRF) Roundtable, a multi-faith, inclusive (of all faiths and beliefs), equal citizenship forum that has proven it is possible to engage cooperatively and constructively across deep differences and increase mutual understanding, respect, trust, and reliance through joint advocacy actions.

While we hold an extremely broad diversity of theological views and political positions, we all agree on the importance of international religious freedom. It strengthens cultures and provides the foundation for stable democracies and their components, including civil society, economic growth, and social harmony. As such, it is also an effective counter-terrorism weapon as it pre-emptively undermines religious extremism. History and modern scholarship make it clear that where people are allowed to practice their faith freely, they are less likely to be alienated from the government, and more likely to be good citizens.
In signing this letter, we have opted into a multi-faith coalition to urge you to strip FECRIS of its consultative status with ECOSOC.

Indeed, per ECOSOC Resolution 1996/31, the consultative status of NGOs with ECOSOC shall be suspended up to three years or withdrawn in the following case:

If an organization, either directly or through its affiliates or representatives acting on its behalf, clearly abuses its status by engaging in a pattern of acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations including unsubstantiated or politically motivated acts against Member States of the United Nations incompatible with those purposes and principles.

FECRIS is a French-based umbrella organization that coordinates with member associations in more than 40 EU countries, and beyond. It was created in 1994 by a French anti-cult association named UNADFI and receives all of its funding from the French government (while its member associations may receive funding from their own governments). In 2009, FECRIS was granted “ECOSOC Special Consultative Status” by the UN.

During its history, FECRIS and its members have accumulated a great number of civil and criminal convictions for their actions that defame minority religions and spread hate-speech against them.

From 2009 to 2021, Alexander Dvorkin, head of the Saint Irenaeus of Lyons Center for Religious Studies in Russia, served as Vice-President of FECRIS. Since 2021, he has continued to serve as a member of its board of directors. Dvorkin, on behalf of FECRIS, has been a key architect of the crackdown on religious minorities in Russia and beyond, as he spread his anti-religious propaganda and misinformation to other countries, including as far as China.

Moreover, Alexander Dvorkin has been a driver of the Anti-West propaganda of the Kremlin for years, and directly and publicly attacked the democratic institutions of Ukraine after the Euromaidan protests, accusing them of being members of cults (Baptists, Evangelicals, Greek Catholics, pagans and Scientologists) being used by Western secret services to harm Russia.

Further, Dvorkin and other members and correspondents of the Russian FECRIS have been involved in the constant propaganda, which prepared the ground and justified the current war in Ukraine, as a war against Western decadence and a war to protect Russian spiritual values.

During the first four weeks of the war in Ukraine, Russian FECRIS associations have been actively supporting the war and openly working with Russian law enforcement agencies to gather information on anyone who would oppose it or even just share information on the casualties in Ukraine.

At the same time, Russia has enacted a law that established a jail sentence of up to 15 years for any person “discrediting the armed forces,” which includes speaking of “war” instead of the official Russian term, “special military operation.”

Until now, no discipline has ever been taken against Dvorkin and/or Russian FECRIS associations for their actions that spread propaganda and catalyze discrimination and persecution of religious communities.

It is known and understood that FECRIS has known about the ideology and actions of its Russian members for years, and has continued to support them, nonetheless.
FECRIS as an entity must be held accountable for the activities of its Russian member associations for the following reasons:

While FECRIS has been alerted about the outrageous ideology and actions of Alexander Dvorkin and Russian member associations for years, it has kept Dvorkin on its board of directors, which elected him twice as Vice President, and has supported the associations all along, having never taken any disciplinary actions against any of them.

In fact, FECRIS has been actively coordinating as an entity with Russian authorities to trigger the crackdown on religious minorities since as far back as 2009—the same year it was granted “ECOSOC Special Consultative Status” by the UN.

The mere ideology and methodology of FECRIS, as a constant, is to use authoritative governments to trigger crackdowns on religious communities it stigmatizes as sects or cults, with no regard to their human dignity, liberty of conscience, and other fundamentals human rights.

In conclusion, FECRIS should be stripped of its ECOSOC consultative status at the UN. Its aims and activities are in complete opposition to the aims and purposes of the UN. Further, Russian FECRIS associates are actively supporting the war in Ukraine.

Thank you for your attention to this important matter.

Respectfully

ORGANIZATIONS
Bitter Winter, a daily magazine on religious liberty and human rights
Boat People SOS (BPSOS)
Campaign to Abolish Modern-day Slavery in Asia (CAMSA)
CESNUR, Center for Studies on New Religions
Committee for Religious Freedom in Vietnam
European Federation for Freedom of Belief (FOB)
European Interreligious Forum for Religious Freedom (EIFRF)
Gerard Noodt Foundation
Human Rights Without Frontiers
Jubilee Campaign USA
The All Faiths Network UK
The Center for Studies on Freedom of Religion Belief and Conscience (LIREC)
The Orthodox Public Affairs Committee (OPAC)
Ukrainian Association of Religious Studies (UARR)
Union of Councils for Jews in the former Soviet Union (UCSJ)
INDIVIDUALS
Greg Mitchell , Chair, IRF Roundtable, Chair, IRF Secretariat
Prof. Alla Aristova, Ukrainian Encyclopedia
Eileen Barker OBE FBA, Professor Emeritus, London School of Economics
Prof. Alla Boyko , Institute of Journalism, Shevchenko University of Kyiv – Ukraine
Keegan Burke, DC branch director Alliance of Religions
Prof. Yurii Chornomorets, Drahomanov University – Ukraine
Anuttama Dasa, Global Director of Communications, International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON)
Soraya M Deen, Founder, Muslim Women Speakers
Nguyen Dinh Thang, PhD, Laureate of the 2011 Asia Democracy and Human Rights Award
Prof. Vitalii Dokash, Vice-President, Ukrainian Association of Religious Studies (UARR)
Prof. Liudmyla Fylypovych, Vice-President Ukrainian Association of Religious Studies (UARR)
George Gigicos, Co-Founder and Chairman, The Orthodox Public Affairs Committee (OPAC)
Nathan Haddad, Coordinator, OIAC (Organization of Iranian American Communities)
Lauren Homer, President, Law and Liberty Trust
PhD Oksana Horkusha, Institute of Philosophy of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine
Massimo Introvigne, Editor in Chief, Bitter Winter, a daily magazine on religious liberty and human rights
Ruslan Khalikov, PhD, Member of the Board, Ukrainian Association of Researchers of Religion
Prof. Anatolii Kolodnyi, President, Ukrainian Association of Religious Studies (UARR)
PhD. Hanna Kulagina-Stadnichenko, Secretary, Ukrainian Association of Religious Studies (UARR)
Larry Lerner, President of Union of Councils for Jews in the former Soviet Union (UCSJ)
PhD Svitlana Loznytsia, Institute of Philosophy of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine
Prof. Raffaella Di Marzio, Managing Director, Center for Freedom of Religion Belief and Conscience (LIREC)
Hans Noot, President, Gerard Noodt Foundation
Prof. Oleksandr Sagan, Vice-President, Ukrainian Association of Religious Studies (UARR)
Bachittar Singh Ughrha, Founder and President, Center for defence of human rights
Prof. Roman Sitarchuk, Vice-President, Ukrainian Association of Religious Studies (UARR)
Rev. Dr. Scott Stearman, UN Representative, Baptist World Alliance
Prof. Vita Tytarenko, Grinchenko University – Ukraine
Andrew Veniopoulos, Co-Founder and Vice-Chairman, The Orthodox Public Affairs Committee (OPAC)
PhD Volodymyr Volkovsky, Institute of Philosophy of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine
Martin Weightman, Director, The All Faith Network
Prof. Leonid Vyhovsky, Khmelnytsky University of Law – Ukraine
Prof. Victor Yelenski, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Former member of the Ukrainian Parliament
Honorary Member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe

“Youth stand up to Violent Extremism” Training Course in Jordan

“Desert Bloom” United Religions Initiative (URI) Cooperation Circle (CC) conducted “Youth stand up to Violent Extremism Training Course” in cooperation with EUROMED EVE Polska – Poland in Jordan, from 12-16 February 2022, – reports Mamoun Khreisat, Regional Coordinator of URI Middle East & North Africa.

The training aimed at building the capacity of youth workers in the field of the prevention of violent extremism while reinforcing global competence and universal morality that promotes values of respect, cultural diversity, continuous improvement and self-confidence to advance a shared respect for human dignity.

The training achieved its main objectives of:

1.      Supporting the professional development of youth workers in the field of P/CVE through non-formal and informal methodologies, tackling the Root Causes of violent radicalization, Radicalization Process, Intercultural Citizenship, Digital & Media Literacy, critical thinking and effective communication.

2.      Fostering youth civic engagement in public life (economic, political and socio-cultural participation), through:

a.      Economic empowerment by building youth entrepreneurial competencies)

b.      Enhancing young people’s engagement in political and public life by developing youth advocacy skills to develop effective youth policy, improve youth access to service, defend youth rights and challenge horizontal inequality.

The project was coordinated by EUROMED EVE Polska (Poland) and hosted and implemented in Jordan by Desert Bloom for Training and Sustainable Development (Jordan). is co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union.

Thirty youth workers/leaders participated in this training representing the following 9 organizations, out of which are 5 URI CCs:

1.      EUROMED EVE Polska- Poland

2.      Desert Bloom- Jordan (URI CC)

3.      Have A Dream- Egypt (URI CC)

4.      ASSOCIAO MEDESTU – Portugal

5.      BRIDGES-Eastern European Forum for Dialogue- Bulgaria (URI CC)

6.      Beit Ashams for Self-Development – Palestine (represented by Volunteering for Peace CC)

7.      Moroccan Youth Forum for Cultural Exchange & Scientific Research – Morocco (URI CC)

8.      Kalamáris Egyesület- Hungary

9.      Association Euro-Med EVE Tunisia- Tunisia.

The participants along with 5 URI members in Jordan attended the World Interfaith Harmony Week celebration in Madaba, a city well-known for churches, Byzantine and Umayyad-era mosaics, and archeological complexes. We listened to inspirational stories of the deep-rooted cohabitation between Muslims and Christians in Jordan by distinguished religious leaders. Then we visited religious sites the city including the Church of the Beheading of John the Baptist, the mosque of Jesus Christ, St George’s Greek Orthodox Church (which has the oldest mosaic map of Palestine and other biblical sites and important places such as Jerusalem, Gaza, Dead Sea or Nile Delta, it goes back to the 6th century) and Mount Nebo (famous pilgrimage site).

The participants will continue working on PVE, they agreed to develop a practical and user-friendly Toolkit to serve as a guide on building youth resilience to PVE. Also, they launched a Facebook page under the name “United Against Violent Extremism” to serve as a Social Media platform dedicated to preventing violent extremism (VE) through raising awareness of the root causes of VE, and counter extremists and terrorists’ online propaganda.  Please like the page.

Feedback from some participants:

        Even though the topic was harsh, I enjoyed the workshops and we’ve discussed some very important and interesting topics. I liked that we talked and brainstormed about things we don’t usually talk about at home with our friends and family. Here we learned new perspectives and we could share our thoughts with each other.

        The content of the course is quite interesting. I learned a lot.

        I like the diversity of activities and the diversity of participants and their perspectives. I learnt a lot of new information, and got new experiences.

        I liked the activities, the cultural diversity of the group as well as teamwork

        I enjoyed expressing our identities in painting. Also, I liked the religious leaders’ presentations on the occasion of the World Interfaith Harmony Week.

        Interesting and useful course content which opened my mind to a variety of issues in the Middle East and Europe, mobilized me to work and thinking about solving problems that lead to Violent Extremism in a peaceful way through understanding the roots of various problems. I like the diversity of participants and making new friends as well as the accommodation and the delicious local food.

        The training opened many opportunities for developing further projects.

        I appreciate the fact that this training was not only based on lectures, we had hands-on practices and activities

        I liked everything about the course. It was great. I loved the diversity of activities, experiences, culture and getting to know new people from whom I learned a lot.

Source: The United Religions Initiative – Middle East & North Africa Office | Zamzam Commercial Complex, Tela Al-Ali, Ar-Raafah Street, P.O. Box: 942140, Amman 11194 Jordan | Mamoun@uri-mena.org | info@uri-mena.org | www.uri-mena.org  | Follow URI MENA on Facebook: https://web.facebook.com/mena.uri

Is France using political Islam to target religion as such?

The law meant to tackle political Islamism in France should not target religion

The resurgence in attacks by radical Islamists in France, home to Europe’s largest Muslim population, has rekindled fierce debates about Islam, secularism, and discrimination. The deplorable assassinations in October 2020 of Samuel Paty, a teacher, and three Catholics in the Basilica of Nice have accelerated the political will of the authorities to adopt a law meant to tackle some of the root causes of Islamist terrorism.

The proposed law announced in October by the President of the Republic and the Minister of the Interior was often titled ‘law on separatisms’, in the plural, while other times it is in the singular form. This was not a mistake, an inaccuracy or a hesitation about spelling or grammar. It reflected the current uncertainty of whether to take the risk of identifying the problem as a religious one and to exclusively target one religion: Islam.

According to the French authorities, a specific group of Muslims are said to separate themselves from the historical majority of society and from its values in a dangerous manner, for example by rejecting scientific truths such as the evolution theory or by contesting the Holocaust.

To avoid the accusation of Islamophobia and concerns about religious discrimination, the government planned to include other religious groups, especially ones labelled ‘sectes’, to instrumentalize them as an alibi of its good faith. All the while, authorities would continue ignoring some very closed Jewish communities. The inherent flaw with this approach is that the security threat is considered religious in nature, which it is not.

A few days ago, the French authorities made the draft law and its new title public. It has changed entirely and is now the “Draft Law Strengthening Republican Principles”. Its scope is much wider than what had been announced, but it still targets separatism. The Council of State has begun examining it. 

The source of the problem that France is attempting to solve is a political ideology: radical Islamism. It is not Islam.

Radical Islamism’s objective is to impose a theocratic governance in Muslim minds whether they are in Muslim majority countries or not. This is accomplished by instilling its ideology in Muslim families, parents, and children, even before school education.

The enemy to combat is not a religion or some religions and their disciples, but a political project. If the French authorities persist in singling out an entire religious community as a threat, they will make the work of radical Islamism all the easier.

Therefore, the law should not target Islam as a religion, but should instead tackle political Islamism, in particular Salafism and its organisations such as the Muslim Brotherhood and its satellite associations.

In line with this objective, about 50 suspicious mosques have been closed since the appointment of Gerald Darmanin as Minister of the Interior in July 2020. However, closing ‘suspicious’ mosques is not a solution and is in fact counterproductive. Such a restrictive measure angers the Muslims who are deprived of their right to collective worship, which is a violation of the international standards on freedom of religion or belief. It’s not ‘mosques’ that disseminate extremist ideas, but rather the individuals in leadership roles in some mosques who instrumentalise religious teachings for political purposes. Certain imams and preachers, who have been identified by the authorities for a very long time, behave as political militants instead of providing faith-building to their communities. The draft law must combat them, not the religious community they belong to.

The draft law sets the fight against radical Islamism at the religious level when it should only be carried out at the ideological and political one instead. Other religious or spiritual communities and other categories of believers have nothing to do with this political militant activism and should not be targeted.

The French government’s plan is to present the draft law to the Council of Ministers after it has been finalized on the basis of the remarks of the Council of State. The choice of the date of 9 December 2020 will coincide with the anniversary of the 9 December 1905 Law which regulates the relations between state and religions in France.

All religions should feel concerned by this law. Indeed, several vague concepts in the draft law such as ‘behaviours threatening human dignity’ and ‘psychological pressures’ may open the door to many abuses in the implementation of the law on other religious groups as well.

Moreover, an article of this law provides that if any member of a group is considered to have acted in violation of a point of the law, it will allow the ban of the whole association by the Council of Ministers.

It is to be hoped that the Council of State will keep in mind the guidelines of the OSCE/ ODIHR about freedom of religion or belief and the Venice Commission recommendations and will contest these questionable provisions.

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Photo by Sung Shin on Unsplash