(Photo Burmese Parliament courtesy Wikipedia)
Burma (MNN) — Burma’s Union Parliament is at it again. They just passed a controversial religious conversion bill.
It’s one measure in a package of “race and religion bills” which a
group of nationalist Buddhist monks (the Association for the Protection
of Race and Religion–also known as Ma Ba Tha) have advanced, and it
isn’t popular with the outside world. In fact, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) strongly condemns it.
Dyann Romeijn is a spokeswoman for Vision Beyond Borders.
She explains, “For anybody to convert to another religion, they would
have to get government approval so they’d have to go through a long
process and apply to change religions and that it would be another means
of discrimination against anyone who is non-Buddhist.”
USCIRF is quick to note that the target is likely Muslims, women, and
other non-Muslims. Romeijn specifies, “The Rohingya group is Muslim,
and so there has been a longstanding conflict between the Muslims and
the Buddhists. There’s a lot of persecution of the Muslims within Burma
as well as the Christians.”
“This measure is discriminatory, period. It is gravely wrong for the
government to presume to dictate whether an individual can change their
religion or belief,” said Chairman George. “We call on President Thein
Sein immediately to reject this ill-conceived measure.” Romeijn agrees.
“It does increase the amount of discrimination and the government’s
ability to discriminate legally against them.”
Burma’s government not only failed to implement meaningful
protections for religious and ethnic minorities, but they adopted a
population control law and interfaith marriage law. It’s a pattern,
says Romeijn. “Burma has just had a long period of human rights
violations, religious discrimination, a lot of basic human rights and
genocide going on there, and ethnic cleansing. So, to see them try to
restrict freedoms further is not very surprising coming from this
government.”
Vision Beyond Borders serves the indigenous Church by providing the
necessary tools and training for the local people to fulfill Christ’s
Great Commission. This
is done by supplying them with native language Bibles, training
materials, seeds, clothing, medical supplies, prayer teams, and
evangelism to children. That said, Romeijn is quick to note that
right now, the new law “doesn’t affect our work that much. It does
affect the people more. It makes it more difficult, it increases the
persecution that they already face; but in reality, any Christians or
minority groups in these countries are going to face a lot of
persecution anyway.”
(Map courtesy Wikipedia)
USCIRF again recommended in 2015 that Burma be designated as a
“country of particular concern,” or CPC, under the International
Religious Freedom Act for its particularly severe violations of
religious freedom. The State Department has designated Burma as a CPC
since 1999, most recently in July 2014.
Does it change anything? “We see this little bit of opening up and
then clamping down again, and I think that we will continue to see that
process. But I do think that the United States speaking out does help.”
For now, Romeijn says it’s a “wait-and-see” approach on the practical
impact of this new law. After all, it’s only 6 days old, plus Burma has
“bigger fish to fry,” so to speak. “They just face a lot of different
difficulties right now in Burma. There’s a lot of flooding; they dealt
with Cyclone Nargis, and still they’re rebuilding. They’re one of the 50
poorest countries in the world, so there’s a lot of poverty there–a lot
of difficult situations.”
But while the opportunities exist to help local Christians, Romeijn
asks, ”As people pray for Burma, pray for God’s truth to penetrate the
country. Really, without spiritual change, there is no hope.”
Source: Mission Network
News
Topic: ‘Anti-conversion’ laws in Burma a nail in religious freedom coffin
