Thursday, November 10, 2005

Muslim nations pressed over rights of religious minorities

http://www.churchnewspaper.com/news.php?read=on&number_key=5794&title=Muslim%20nations%20pressed%20over%20rights%20of%20religious%20minorities

[The Church of England Newspaper] November 11, 2005--Islamic groups are pressing Christians living in Muslim countries to accept major reductions to their civil liberties, the Bishop of Rochester, the Rt Rev Michael Nazir-Ali, will reveal in the Scott Holland lectures over the weekend. The influential Jamaat-e-Islami group is one of the strains of Islam eager to bring back an outdated arrangement called the Dhimma. This was a medieval agreement, in place up to the 19th century, whereby major limitations were imposed on Christians and Jews living in the Muslim world. Christian communities in Pakistan, Egypt, and Iraq now fear for the return of the Dhimma, which once saw Christians excluded from public office.

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