Source: wechat official account: Bu Yidao has been authorized to reprint
Writing / Hu Yidao
After dozens of cabinet members and senior government officials announced their resignations, British Prime Minister Johnson first refused to resign. However, early on the morning of the 7th local time, Johnson finally announced his resignation as the leader of the conservative party, but wanted to remain prime minister until this autumn.
Why did Johnson betray his relatives?
In addition to the continuous scandals of himself and his important cronies, Johnson did not take a pragmatic solution to the current problems in Britain and the people facing record high inflation and high prices. Instead, he focused most of his energy on showing “tough on Russia” and cooperating with the United States to form an ideological camp.
Of course, this practice has caused dissatisfaction among the domestic people. For example, while cabinet members continued to announce their resignations, the Johnson administration also held a “global summit on promoting religious freedom” in London on the 5th and 6th.
It is intended to use the banner of so-called “protection of religious freedom” to crack down on countries with different ideologies from the United States and Britain, engage in extreme prejudice political struggle, and even provide a platform for some forces to stage a farce of “splitting China”.
So it seems that Johnson, who doesn’t work hard, will step down sooner or later.
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The so-called “Global Summit for the promotion of religious freedom” organized by Britain is actually promoted by the “international religious freedom alliance” composed of the United States, Britain and other major western countries, and is allegedly hosted by the foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) of the British government.
Britain, on the other hand, cooperates with its “big brother” the United States in doing things.
From June 28 to 30, the so-called “religious freedom summit” led by the United States has just been held in Washington.
This operation of singing one accord all claims to “promote specific actions of religious freedom and investigate those who violate religious freedom”, and publish the recent “religious persecution events” in many countries around the world.
However, the standards of what is “violation of religious freedom” and “religious persecution” are in the hands of the United States and Britain. Therefore, fundamentally speaking, “religious freedom” has become another “big stick” outside the ideology of the United States and the West.
It’s entirely for political purposes. Whoever doesn’t stand on his side will be beaten.
However, both the United States and Britain will falsely use various means to package these means as “conforming to the mainstream consensus of Western society” and standing at the “commanding height of international morality”.
Earlier, Lord Ahmed, the then British Secretary of state, announced that “hosting the International Ministerial Conference on freedom of religion or belief in London” would bring together the government, civil society, faith and belief groups to reach an agreement on the following actions: preventing violations and abuses of freedom of religion or belief and protecting and promoting freedom of religion or belief internationally.
The British side said that “the conference plan will be wide-ranging and inclusive, involving a wide range of participants and speakers”.
This is also the first time since 2020 that the UK has hosted an “International Ministerial Conference” on this theme.
The British said with a high sounding voice, “although Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of human rights stipulates the right to freedom of religion or belief, it is regrettable that it is indeed sad that too many people in the world continue to live in fear of persecution for the reasons they choose.”
“The fundamental human right to be deprived of freedom of religion or belief can be devastating for individuals and communities. Therefore, at the meeting, we will hear directly from survivors about the impact of persecution on them, their lives and their communities.”
But in fact, the British side stressed that “the meeting will bring together ministers, but it is important that other representatives from the government, leaders from faith groups, and in fact important representatives from civil society” in order to facilitate their own “smuggling”.
According to various information, they took advantage of this so-called “International Religious conference” platform to reach out to Taiwan related, Xinjiang related and Tibet related issues.
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Let’s first look at the second so-called “American Summit on international religious freedom” held in the United States at the end of last month.
Not only did Pelosi, speaker of the house of representatives of the United States, attend the meeting, but also former Secretary of state Mike Pompeo and Rashad Hussain, Ambassador at large for international religious freedom of the United States, as well as the so-called “Tibetan representatives” were invited by the “International Alliance for religious freedom”.
The host of the meeting and former ambassador at large for international religious freedom of the United States, brown Beck, also took the opportunity to slander “China’s suppression of the human rights of all ethnic groups under its rule”, claiming that he was worried about this. He advocated that “all parties need to work together to increase sanctions against those human rights violators”.
Isn’t this interference in China’s Tibet affairs and providing a stage for the Tibetan separatist forces?
Let’s take a look at the “Global Summit for the promotion of religious freedom” held by Britain, which is actually similar to the conference just ended in the United States.
The reason why the British side highlighted this religious theme was the “International Ministerial Conference”, which actually provided space for some people and forces in Taiwan.
According to Taiwan media reports, “Taiwan’s ambassador at large for religious freedom” Bu Xing Dali and “representative to the UK Xie Wuqiao” attended the “2022 ministerial International Conference on freedom of religion or belief” held in London from the 5th to the 6th.
Some people in the Gulf took this opportunity to show off that their representatives could exchange views on promoting the freedom of belief across religions and ethnic groups on the “international stage” with representatives of countries with similar ideas such as the United States, Britain, Poland, Slovakia and so on.
Taiwan media also said that at the invitation of Fiona Bruce, the special envoy of the British Prime Minister for freedom of religion and belief, buchen Dali attended the British “parliamentary prayer breakfast” on the morning of the 5th, and then attended the opening ceremony of the general assembly and participated in group discussions on three major themes: prevention, protection and promotion.
The so-called “Tibetan representatives” also appeared in this London meeting, which is the kind of “meeting string” who roamed all kinds of grass-roots group meetings.
And they also posted “here for a visit” photos on their website to prove that they had participated in the meeting. Show your sense of existence.
In fact, the UK wants to increase its aura by holding such meetings. Trass, the British Foreign Secretary, once said that the British government regarded “promoting freedom of religion and belief as an important part of British foreign policy”.
She also announced that Britain is committed to building a “free network” around the world and that “the summit will play an important role”.
Who knows, just after the meeting, the Johnson Administration fell.
The spokesman of the Chinese Ministry of foreign affairs had previously hit back at the so-called “religious freedom” attacks on China by the United States and Britain. China firmly opposes the groundless accusation and defamation of China’s religious freedom by the United States.
The Chinese government protects citizens’ freedom of religious belief in accordance with the law. China has nearly 200million religious believers of all kinds, more than 380000 religious staff, about 5500 religious groups, and more than 140000 legally registered places for religious activities. The Chinese people of all ethnic groups enjoy full freedom of religious belief.
China said that facts speak louder than words, and a lie repeated a thousand times will not become truth.
The proliferation of extreme thoughts such as “Islamophobia” in the United States has caused a large number of tragedies. The United States does not reflect on itself, but also ignores the facts and frequently uses religious issues to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries. The United States should face up to its own problems, do its own thing, respect the facts, abandon prejudice, and stop using religious issues to interfere and discredit other countries.
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The United States and Britain have used the stick of “religious freedom” to engage in “double standards” to attack other countries, which has attracted criticism and criticism from many relevant people in countries.
On June 29, the Indonesian time website reported that silif sidayatollah, Professor of Islamic politics at Jakarta National Islamic University, maskuli abila, said, “it is easier to build a church in Jakarta than a mosque in the United States.”.
This sentence also punctured the so-called “religious freedom” of the United States.
On the 29th, Professor abila made this remark when he attended the academic seminar on “the amendment to Western religious freedom” held at the graduate lecture hall of the National Islamic University.
Professor ASEP jahar, Dean of the Graduate School of National Islamic University, said in his opening speech that the principle of religious freedom should bring fairness. Indonesia is a good example of implementing religious freedom and does not need the “teaching” of other countries.
Professor abira said that in Indonesia, the number of churches is second only to the United States and Brazil, ranking third in the world. “Therefore, the West cannot only look at the report of one non-governmental organization when looking at the data, but should look at other similar reports.”
Dr. Suleiman, who attended the seminar, said that the concept of “religious freedom” concocted by the United States and the West was part of its forced implementation of the “liberal democracy project”. This is in line with the act of forcing other countries to implement a “liberal economy”.
In addition, some scholars said that on the whole, the number of religious discrimination cases in the west is much higher than that in developing countries.
On July 5, the website “European focus” reported that on June 28, a seminar entitled “religion and western politics” was held in the form of online video. The conference was initiated by the “European platform”, which integrates many European social groups. The participants included Laszlo flamm, the head of the platform, GAV Duncan, a famous journalist and social commentator, kiszelly Zolt á n, a political scientist, and t ó th g á bor, a social and political scientist.
These experts conducted in-depth discussion and Analysis on the so-called “religious freedom” in the West and the political attempt to use this concept to interfere in other countries.
In recent years, with the strong promotion of the governments of the United States, Britain and other countries, the influence of the “Global Summit for the promotion of religious freedom” has been increasing, and the importance of freedom of religion and belief seems to have reached an unprecedented height. The countries participating in the freedom alliance declared that “we should ensure that everyone’s right to religious belief is fully respected, and no matter where they are, they do not have to worry about discrimination or persecution”.
However, due to the influence of historical tradition and geopolitics, the religious belief problems of various countries are very complex, and there is no unified standard for freedom of religious belief. The United States, Britain and other countries have established a “Alliance for religious freedom” through their joint allies, raising the issue of religious belief to a political issue, and flaunting their own standards for freedom of religious belief as a global standard, occupying the moral highland, “It seems to have suddenly become a defender of global freedom of religious belief”.
However, many experts and scholars attending the meeting questioned whether these more than 30 western countries can set standards for freedom of religious belief on behalf of more than 200 countries and regions around the world? Are there no violations of religious freedom in these western countries? Is it a blessing or a curse that religious belief is over politicized? How should we correctly view the religious beliefs of countries in the complex global environment?
Laszlo flamm said in his speech that the United States, Britain and other countries cannot set standards for freedom of religious belief on behalf of the world. The “International Alliance for religious freedom” is only composed of more than 30 countries, mainly European and American countries. No matter in terms of quantity or geographical distribution of countries, it cannot formulate a so-called “general standard for freedom of religious belief” as a global leader, let alone condemn other countries and hold them accountable with the standards they think, which is contrary to common sense and even ridiculous.
GAV Duncan believes that the issue of religious freedom should not be politicized. “Caesar belongs to Caesar and God belongs to God”. Religion is about people’s spiritual world. It has nothing to do with politics, and even excludes secular politics. The politicization of religious freedom does more harm than good.
For example, in recent years, religious issues have become increasingly prominent in European political party disputes, and religious conflicts have intensified in policy-making and elections. The rise of right-wing conservative forces has led to an obvious tendency of xenophobia. From the world level, some big countries politicize religious issues and label the so-called “countries with no religious freedom” with their own standards, artificially dividing the world and hindering the inclusive development of mankind.
Kiszelly Zolt á n believes that there are many religious freedom problems in European and American countries. Moreover, ethnic groups with different religious beliefs from whites have widespread poverty, high unemployment rate and low education level, which shows that there are both racial discrimination and religious discrimination. A few European countries regard religious minorities as a threat to security, and “Islamophobia” is widespread in American and European societies.
T ó th g á bor said that the issue of religious freedom is complex, different countries and regions have different historical and cultural traditions, and their understanding and needs for religious freedom are also different. There is no unique standard of religious freedom in the world, and no one or several countries can naturally become a “beacon of world religious freedom”. If there is, it is also boasting.
Therefore, while giving people the right to full religious freedom according to their own conditions, countries around the world should be tolerant of the religious freedom of other countries, and fully respect their religious policies, rather than pointing fingers.