Africa Christian and Muslim Religious Leaders Conference for Peace and Development

54 Christian and Muslim leaders from eight African countries met in Addis Ababa Januar 8 - 12, 2012, for a conference on religion, peace and development, organised by Programme for Christian Muslim Relations in Africa.
Concept paper for conference: Download. Read more about the conference in the documents below.
Blog from the conference by Mogens S. Mogensen here
Statement on the situation in Nigeria - in English. Download.
Statement on the situation in Nigeria - in Danish. Download.
Informations about the conference - in Danish. Download .
Conference Communique: Download.

International Essay Competition celebrating Danish Mission Council’s 100-years Anniversary

"Celebrating the Danish Mission Council’s (DMC) 100-years anniversary in 2012, the Council’s Study Commission has announced an internatio- nal essay competition. The theme of the essay competition is partnership in missions: Theology and Practice of Partnership in Missions. - All Christian mission organizations are today dependent upon their partner organizations in realizing their missions. This implies a challenge namely how to establish fruitful partnerships bridging cultural, social, economical and theological differences. Thus, the question is: What does a good partnership include – economically, organizationally, and theologically? The aim is to further reflection and formulation of a new theology and practice of partnership in missions on the basis of historical investigations, present experience and systematic theological reflection." Read more. See Danish vversion of the essay competion on mission here .

Religious Freedom in Europe

The latest issue of Vista published by the NOVA research centre focuses on religious freedom in Europe. In the editorial it is stated that "The history of Europe could be (and often is) told as a story of religious intolerance. Whether the focus is on the shifting frontiers of Christendom as it interfaced with paganism and and Islam, or the conflicts between Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant Christians, or even the treatment of religious minorities within those larger blocks of Christianity, there are numerous examples of inhumanities conducted in the name of religion." In his lead article Darrel Jackson notes that "The advent of the 18th century heralded the Enlightenment ideal of religious tolerance, though frequently rooted in indifference rather than a positive welcome for religious plurality. Despite this new atmosphere, Church leaders were generally hostile to religious tolerance and continued to persecute dissidents" and even today ... " Examples of regulation, favouritism, discrimination and intolerance are to be found acros contemporary Europe." Download.

Interreligious declaration agains terrorism

One of the world’s leading Muslim clerics will issue a global declaration against terrorism at a speech in London on Saturday, September 23. Dr Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri, the international leader of Minhaj ul-Qurøan, who in March 2010 issued a fatwa against terrorism and suicide bombing,  will make the declaration at the ‘Peace for Humanity Conference 2011’ at Wembley Arena, where up to 15.000 participants are expected to be present.The peace declaration, which will call for an end to terrorism and for the protection of human rights in new Arab regimes, is expected to be signed by major religious and political leaders, including David Cameron and the Archbishop of Canterbury. Read article in The Independent. Visit the website of the Peace for Humanity Conference.

Here is an interesting Christian ministry among Muslims that apparently endavours to engage Muslims in conversation about faith in a very peaceful way: "The roots of Jesus in the Qur’an (JIQ) go back to September 11, 2001, when the collapse of the World Trade Center awakened us to the existence of the Muslim world and the importance of learning how to engage it well. Immediately after the attacks in New York, Grace Fellowship Church sent a team to Manhattan to serve and minister, and there, in the midst of the smoldering rubble, our Senior Pastor Buddy Hoffman knelt and prayed very simply, “God, if you can use a local church in Snellville, Georgia, in all of this, we’re in.” Since that time, we have actively sought ways to engage the Muslim world in productive conversation about faith. ... Our team shares an intense desire to see peace blossom between Christians and Muslims, and we believe that true peace can only be found in the Kingdom of God. Our approach to these conversations about faith has its roots in the model of Jesus and his early followers. We build friendships, study the Bible and the Qur’an together, and ask God to help us answer the all-important question: 'Who is Jesus and what does He have to do with entering the Kingdom of God?'" Read more.

Rising Restrictions on Religion

More than 2.2 billion people – nearly a third (32%) of the world’s total population of 6.9 billion – live in countries where either government restrictions on religion or social hostilities involving religion rose substantially over the period of 2006-2009. Only about 1% of the world’s population lives in countries where government restrictions or social hostilities declined. It is noteworthy that Denmark is listed among the countries that had substantial increases in social hostilities involving religion. These and many other data are available in a newly released report by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion and Public Life, entiteled "Rising Restrictions on Religion". Download.

EU Terrorism Situation and Trend Report

EUROPOL has just published its report on terrrorism in EU in 2009. “Islamist terrorism is still perceived as the biggest threat to most Member States, despite the fact that only one Islamist terrorist attack - a bomb attack in Italy - took place in the EU in 2009. Islamist terrorists have threatened EU Member States with perpetrating attacks aiming at indiscriminate mass casualties. … Separatist terrorism continues to be the type of ter-rorism which aff ects the EU most in terms of the number of attacks carried out. This type includes Basque separatist terrorism in Spain and France,and Corsican separatist terrorism in France.” Download.