Archives

  • Christian mission and FoRB
    Vol. 18 No. 1 (2025)

    The genesis for this special issue on Christian missions and Freedom of Religion or Belief was a symposium at Fjellhaug International University College in Oslo, Norway, in September 2023. Many of the students at Fjellhaug are training to be missionaries, so the topic was of great interest to both faculty and students. A rich variety of papers was presented, and only a small sample have made it into this issue.

    We start with two opinion articles. The first comes from Anna Hampton, a pseudonym for a former missionary to Afghanistan who now develops training resources for a theology of risk. Hampton distinguishes between a theology of suffering and a theology of risk, arguing that missionaries in sensitive regions need both of these. The second opinion article, by Amy West, addresses a theology of suffering, complementing Hampton’s contribution.

    The first peer-reviewed article is my overview of international human rights law and advocacy on freedom of religion or belief. It urges organizations and training facilities to ensure that missionaries are properly trained in all aspects of religious persecution, including legal matters.

    Carsten Polanz examines the 2019 Catholic-Sunni Document on Human Fraternity. He has provocatively titled his article “Is the glass half full or half empty?” because he addresses both the positive aspects of this document for inter-religious dialogue between Christians and Muslims and also the possible restrictions it might impose on Christian missionary activities.

    Wolfgang Häde, a noted expert on Turkey, looks at negative perceptions of Christians as portrayed in Turkish newspapers. He notes that suspicion of Christians is exacerbated for political gain. His article is a valuable case study because many of the roots of religious discrimination and persecution in Turkey are similar to those in other countries.

    In a similar vein, Torbjörn Johansson analyzes theological responses to totalitarianism, starting with German and Norwegian Christian leaders’ statements on Nazi Germany. He then considers ways in which modern welfare states are adopting totalitarian tendencies to control thought and speech. This development has negative implications for mission as the state limits certain types of religious speech that it finds offensive.

    Finally, Christof Sauer explores the feasibility of establishing a Mission Hostility Index, which would be useful in preparing missionaries for work in sensitive and hostile areas.

    I commend to you the usual Noteworthy section. Many annual surveys of FoRB have been published in the first months of 2025, as well as country and regional updates. There is also an excellent selection of book reviews.

    This issue has some important contributions for addressing challenges to religious freedom and Christian missionary activities. I hope it will encourage missionaries to be well-prepared for work in sensitive regions.

    Yours for religious freedom,

    Prof Dr Janet Epp Buckingham (Executive Editor)

  • Children, youth and FoRB
    Vol. 17 No. 2 (2024)

    This special issue has been a long time coming and I am very pleased to present it to you. It was initially conceived as a joint project of the Gender and Religious Freedom Task Group (GRF) and the Research Group of the Religious Liberty Partnership (RLP). We recognized that the special concerns of children and youth in FoRB were under-researched. But of course, that was also what made developing such an issue for this journal so hard – where do we find authors willing to break new ground in research?

    We planned a one-day seminar following the annual RLP consultation, scheduled for April 2022 in Kyiv, Ukraine. The consultation was quickly moved to Warsaw, Poland when Russia invaded Ukraine. But our seminar was delayed until the 2023 consultation in Kathmandu, Nepal. So you will see some unusually long lead times between submission dates and acceptance dates of articles in this issue. It’s all due to the unanticipated ways in which global events interfered with our work.

    Although we are calling this a special issue, not all the articles focus on children and youth. And some of the articles focus on issues faced by a broader range of people, not only youth.

  • Ideology, theology and practicality
    Vol. 17 No. 1 (2024)

    I am pleased to present this general issue of the International Journal for Religious Freedom. Many of our issues are on special topics, usually containing a series of papers from a single conference. But we also receive unsolicited articles on interesting topics. For this issue, we even received a poem, which we are pleased to include directly after this Editorial. Following that is another unusual piece: a personal reflection on the importance of relationships across religions by a Mus- lim author, Ikhtiar Mohammad.

    We are delighted to have an opinion article from Willy Fautré, director of Hu- man Rights Without Frontiers, highlighting issues of discriminatory taxation.

  • Challenges of religious communities in European secular states and beyond
    Vol. 16 No. 2 (2023)

    The theme of secularism and its impact on religious freedom is an important one. This issue builds on our previous issue on secularism from 2020, “Responding to secularism,” vol 13(1/2). This issue explores the challenges of secularism from legal, political and statistical perspectives. This provides a rich array of perspectives.

    We are pleased to welcome two guest editors from the Evangelische Theologische Faculteit (ETF) in Leuven, Belgium for this issue. Prof Dr Jelle Creemers is Dean and Professor of the Department of Religious Studies and Missiology. Dr Tatiana Kopaleishvili is an Affiliated Researcher in Religious Studies and Missiology. As they explain below, the papers in this special issue come from their annual conferences addressing religious freedom issues. As a journal dedicated to religious freedom, we are grateful for the work of the ETF in Leuven!

    As usual, we have a good variety of book reviews and our regular Noteworthy section highlighting current reports on religious freedom from around the world.

    Yours for religious freedom,

    Prof Dr Janet Epp Buckingham
    Executive Editor

  • The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on religious minorities
    Vol. 16 No. 1 (2023)

    The COVID-19 pandemic was more than a health crisis; it had a disproportionate impact on minorities, including religious minorities. We are pleased to publish this special issue on religious freedom in the age of COVID-19. It is a timely analysis of the crisis from a variety of perspectives. While the IJRF has typically had its major focus on persecution of Christians, this issue addresses many religious minorities. It is important to recognize that while diverse religions experience persecution, the experiences of persecution are similar.

    We are pleased to welcome two guest editors for this issue. Adelaide Madera is a Full Professor at the Department of Law of the University of Messina, Italy, where she currently teaches Canon Law, Law and Religion, Comparative Religious Laws, and Religious Factor and Antidiscrimination Law. Since 2020, her research has focused on the impact of COVID-19 on religious freedom and the evolution of church-state relationships.

    Kerstin Wonish was a PhD researcher in the field of religious minorities at the Institute for Minority Rights at EURAC Bolzano until 2022. With a background in law and religious studies she studied the accommodation of Islamic pluralism, religion and gender, and religion and human rights.

    In addition to the thematic articles, I note a short “In my opinion” article by Kyle Wisdom about his project with the International Institute for Religious Freedom on “Good practices to reduce, resolve and prevent religious conflict”. The IIRF is looking for input so please consider participating in this project. As well, we have an interesting selection of book reviews.

    We are also very pleased to have a new look for the journal. A hearty thank you to Ben Nimmo of Solid Ground for the new design.

  • Refugees and religious freedom
    Vol. 15 No. 1/2 (2022)

    We are delighted to publish this special issue on Refugees and FoRB. It is a very timely issue in more ways than one. It is the first issue in several years that is being published in the year that it is dated. The 2019 issue, a special issue on the impact of religious freedom research, contained two articles on refugees and FoRB. We commend those articles by Kareem McDonald, a study on religious refugees in Dan-ish asylum centres, and me, examining the role of religious freedom research in the Canadian refugee determination system, to add to the fine collection in this issue.

    We are very pleased to have Dr Marnix Visscher guest edit this issue. He has been working with the Dutch Gave Foundation since 2008. The Gave Foundation supports and trains churches and individual Christians for ministry among asylum seekers and refugees in the Netherlands. During Dr Visscher’s initial years with the foundation, Gave faced an increasing number of questions on issues of religious liberty regarding asylum seekers. The concerns included discrimination against and even harassment of religious minorities in the reception centres, along with how to assess asylum claims based on the fear of religious persecution. Dr Visscher took the initiative to form a judicial support team, campaigning for the rights of religious minorities in the reception centres and supporting asylum lawyers with expert reports based on the case files of individual asylum claims. Most of these reports assessed the credibility of the claimant’s conversion. The expert reports provided by Gave have had a significant impact on the outcome of asylum claims. Moreover, the work of Dr Visscher and his team has shaped important decisions on higher appeals, which in turn initiated further improvements in the decision process. Dr Visscher is also involved in the training of asylum lawyers and in consultations with the Dutch government.

    Yours for religious freedom,

    Prof Dr Janet Epp Buckingham
    Executive editor

  • The 21 martyrs
    Vol. 14 No. 1/2 (2021)

    This issue represents a number of significant changes for the International Journal for Religious Freedom. There have been some major changes in the leadership of the International Institute for Religious Freedom (IIRF), the research institute that publishes this journal. One of the founders of the IIRF was appointed the Secretary General of the World Evangelical Alliance. Dennis Petri has been appointed the new International Director of the IIRF and has ambitious plans to develop the institute. We have interviews with both Thomas Schirrmacher looking back on his years with the IIRF, and with Dennis Petri looking forward to a new vision for the institute. Also, after seven issues catching up with back issues, this issue represents the final “catch up” issue.

    The theme of this issue “The 21 Martyrs” reflects the seriousness of the moment of 21 Coptic Christians being executed for their faith on a beach in Libya. The event was filmed and spread around the world. Two resources countering the ISIS narrative are addressed in this issue. In 2019, a book was published, which is reviewed by Paul Rowe. Second, Mark Rogers, a film producer, is working on an animated film to be released in 2023 on the 21 Martyrs. The cover photo is from the film. These resources paint a very different picture than the ISIS video and reveal 21 heroes of the faith who died on that beach.

    The articles in this issue cover a broad diversity of geographical locations and perspectives on persecution. Two articles address theological issues. One addresses a methodological issue. Two articles focus on legal issues, one national and one international. One article focuses on describing the persecution of a religious minority. Another suggests that organized crime can be an engine of persecution. And finally, an article examines religious education. The articles address persecution in China, France, Myanmar and Mexico.

  • Responding to secularism
    Vol. 13 No. 1/2 (2020)

    We are pleased to address in this issue the important issue of how secularism impacts religion and religious adherents. Secularism arose in the West, largely through the influence of European philosophers and sociologists. Christians in the West have in- creasingly been marginalized in secular states. But secular intolerance has spread to other countries as well. The articles in this issue represent a wide range of current and historical issues across several countries. We trust that you will find them interesting and informative. Please note that this issue is being published in early 2022.

  • The impact of religious freedom research
    Vol. 12 No. 1/2 (2019)

    We are pleased that IJRF is continuing to catch up on its backlog. While this volume comes under the label of 2019, the articles were written in 2020 and 2021. The issue is being published at the end of 2021.

    Our guest editors for this special issue are Dr Dennis P. Petri and Prof Dr Govert J. Buijs. Dr Petri has contributed articles to several previous issues of the IJRF. A political scientist, international consultant and researcher, Petri founded and serves as scholar-at-large of the Observatory of Religious Freedom in Latin America (OLIRE).

  • From marginalization to martyrdom
    Vol. 11 No. 1/2 (2018)

    This issue covers a wide variety of topics from a truly global array of authors. Several authors show that Christians face marginalization, particularly in the West, for their faith. Christians can even be marginalized within their religious communities. But we are also aware that Christians face death for their faith and we honour those who have been martyred for their faith.

  • Responding to Persecution
    Vol. 10 No. 1/2 (2017)

    This issue of IJRF deals with responses by those who are persecuted, as well as responses by those advocating on behalf of the persecuted.

  • Gender and Religious Freedom
    Vol. 9 No. 1/2 (2016)

    Religious persecution is frequently gender-specific, impacting men and women dif-ferently. Grassroots research in countries such as Egypt and Pakistan in 2012 and 2013 showed that many women were experiencing double vulnerability not only due to their faith, but also as women. As a result, representatives of international charities who aid Christians facing persecution decided to form a steering group, bringing together non-governmental agencies, Christian ministries, and church leaders who were already seeking to address these issues. This issue presents some of the papers originally delivered in the scholarly tracks of several conferences, as well as other papers related to the issue of gender and persecution. Some of the papers are more recent than the 2016 date of this issue, which is being published in 2020 because the journal was dormant for several years.

  • Christian minorities & religious freedom
    Vol. 8 No. 1/2 (2015)

    This issue represents the geographical and interdisciplinary breadth that the jour-nal strives for, with articles ranging from law to theology and from Nigeria to North America. While there was no preconceived thematic focus, the uniting thread of most of the contributions is a focus on Christian minorities and religious freedom.

  • Religious Extremism & Religious Tolerance
    Vol. 7 No. 1/2 (2014)

    Religious extremism is considered as one of the major causes of contemporary reli-gious persecution, whereas religious tolerance is a foundation of religious freedom. This dual topic covers most of the articles in this issue and its terminology is inspired by the opinion piece of Thomas K. Johnson on “Religious extremism” and the report on the research project “Measuring religious tolerance ...” by Johannes van der Walt et al.

  • Researching Religious Freedom
    Vol. 6 No. 1/2 (2013)

    There are several platforms and networks used by researchers interested in the study of religious freedom. Some of the contributions in this issue emanate from the In-ternational Consultation on Religious Freedom Research, held in Istanbul on 16-18 March 2013. They have all undergone the usual peer review process for IJRF – includ-ing the opinion pieces. They only represent a fraction of the many papers presented at the consultation. A separate consultation compendium is still being contemplated.The articles fall in roughly three groups: the opinion pieces, research that focuses on various regions and countries and an equal contingent of research on diverse topics relating to religious freedom and persecution.

  • Measuring and Encountering Persecution
    Vol. 5 No. 2 (2012)

    Religious persecution is a phenomenon experienced by many adherents of various religions worldwide. In some contexts it is not outright persecution, but believers face serious challenges to the free exercise of religion. A common theme that unites most articles of this issue of IJRF is the encountering of persecution. What precisely are the challenges that believers, and particularly Christians, face in various con-texts? How do they cope with it? How do they react? Which role do theological inter-pretations play? Another question connected to the documentation of persecution is how it can be measured, and whether trans-national comparisons are possible.

  • Rising Restrictions Worldwide
    Vol. 5 No. 1 (2012)

    Religious freedom has been thrust to the top of the political agenda in recent months. The violence in places like Nigeria has been on the front pages for some time, where sadly it continues (as Yakubu Joseph and Rainer Rothfuss describe in this issue in some detail). But in the industrial democracies – and now the United States in particular – religious freedom is becoming newsworthy as seldom be-fore. President Obama’s healthcare mandates have highlighted conflicts between religious freedom and personal behavior elsewhere in the developed world. We hope to explore this in a future issue, but it brings to a head trends that have been explored in this issue and other recent issues of IJRF.

  • Religion and Civil Society
    Vol. 4 No. 2 (2011)

    “Civil society” is a concept that dates back to the late eighteenth century, as Silvio Ferrari points out in these pages, and it entered the vocabulary of political philoso-phy largely through Hegel and Marx. But it became newly fashionable following the collapse of communism in Central and Eastern Europe. It emphasizes the impor-tance to freedom of autonomous social groups and institutions below the state and not controlled by it. More recently, it has become controversial and the original meaning diluted by being adopted as the mantle for groups that are sometimes funded and supported by governments and international organizations. This is a significant potential pitfall when confronting problems of church and state. We approach civil society and the relations of church and state from several directions in this issue of the International Journal for Religious Freedom.

  • Advocacy and Law
    Vol. 4 No. 1 (2011)

    This issue of IJRF focuses on “advocacy and law”, namely issues related to reli-gious freedom advocacy and legal matters surrounding religious freedom. Here is a stimulating general definition which applies well to social justice advocacy, includ-ing religious freedom advocacy on behalf of those persecuted for the sake of their religion and/or because of the religious motives of the persecutors: “Advocacy is speaking, acting, writing, with minimal conflict of interest on behalf of the sincerely perceived interests of a disadvantaged person or group to promote, protect and defend their welfare and justice by being on their side and no-one else’s; being primarily concerned with their fundamental needs; remaining loyal and accountable to them in a way which is emphatic and vigorous and which is, or is likely to be, costly to the advocate or advocacy group.” (Action for Advocacy Development).

  • Volume 3, Issue 2
    Vol. 3 No. 2 (2010)

    This issue of our journal strongly reflects the interdisciplinarynature of the IJRF, presenting original research in Islamic Studies,Geography, Law and Ethics, Government Science, and Theology.

  • Volume 3, Issue 1
    Vol. 3 No. 1 (2010)

    There are a number of global Christian mission conferences happeningin 2010. In addition, the discussion on how the propagation of one’sworld view and the issues of religious freedom, persecution and evenmartyrdom are related, has increased. Therefore we have chosen tofocus in this issue of the International Journal for Religious Freedomon “mission and persecution.”

  • Volume 2, Issue 2
    Vol. 2 No. 2 (2009)

    This issue of the International Journal for Religious Freedom wasborn in the tension between a lot of excitement and deep pain. That istrue both on a global as well as on a personal level. The editors, staff, associates of the International Institute for Religious Freedom, and theauthors of this IJRF issue have had many opportunities to contributeto the upholding of religious freedom, some of which are reflected inthis journal. However, researching and documenting the abuse ofhuman beings and the restriction or denial of their religious freedom,do not pass lightly. Some of us have seen moments of breakthroughand triumph as well as various degrees of personal suffering.

  • Volume 2, Issue 1
    Vol. 2 No. 1 (2009)

    It gives the editors of the International Journal for Religious Freedom (IJRF) great pleasure to present our readers with the second issue of thisinterdisciplinary and scholarly publication. We hope that you will find thearticles informative, thought-provoking, and of a high standard, and that thejournal will equally serve religious freedom. For that purpose we have addedsome new rubrics.

  • Volume 1
    Vol. 1 No. 1 (2008)

    Introducing the International Journal for Religious Freedom: The International Journal for Religious Freedom (IJRF) is dedicated tothe scholarly discourse on the issue of religious freedom in general andthe persecution of Christians in particular. It is an interdisciplinary,international, peer reviewed, scholarly journal, serving the practicalinterests of religious freedom and contains research articles,documentation, book reviews and academic news on the issue.