Trump takes first UN stand to stop religious persecution.

President slams world leaders for 'silencing, shunning, or censoring the faithful.'

NEW YORK—President Donald Trump called on countries to end religious persecution around the world, asking governments to release prisoners of conscience and repeal laws that restrict religion and belief.

World leaders gathered in New York recently for the 74th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). Trump started his meetings by hosting the “Global Call to Protect Religious Freedom” event on Sept. 23 at U.N. headquarters.

In his keynote remarks, the president said that he was the first leader to initiate discussion of religious freedom and persecution at the UNGA high-level meetings. He added that the meeting was long overdue.

“I was shocked when I was given that statistic that I would be the first. That’s very sad in many ways,” he said. “Today, with one clear voice, the United States of America calls upon the nations of the world to end religious persecution.”

Trump urged governments around the world to stop persecuting their citizens, release prisoners of conscience, eliminate laws that restrict religion, and protect oppressed people.

“Our Founders understood that no right is more fundamental to a peaceful, prosperous, and virtuous society than the right to follow one’s religious convictions,” he said.

Trump noted that the religious freedom enjoyed by Americans is rare in the world, adding that 80 percent of the world’s population live in countries where religious liberty is threatened or banned.

He slammed world leaders saying that too often they “preach diversity while silencing, shunning, or censoring the faithful.”

In his speech, Trump condemned both state-sponsored persecution and terrorist attacks against religious targets in the United States and around the world.

“We’re also urging every nation to increase the prosecution and punishment of crimes against religious communities,” Trump said.

He announced that the United States would form a coalition of U.S. businesses for the protection of religious freedom.

“This is the first time this has been done. This initiative will encourage the private sector to protect people of all faiths in the workplace,” he said.

In addition, the Trump administration will allocate an additional $25 million fund “to protect religious freedom and religious sites and relics.”

‘Communist Party in China’

Speaking at the event, Vice President Mike Pence singled out countries where the persecution against people of faith is the most severe, such as Iran, Iraq, China, Nicaragua, and Venezuela.

“The regime in Iran brutally persecutes Christians, Sunnis, Baha’i, and Jews,” he said, adding that Iran-backed militias slaughtered Christians and Yazidis in Iraq.

“The Communist Party in China has arrested Christian pastors, banned the sale of Bibles, demolished churches, and imprisoned more than a million Uyghurs in the Muslim population,” he said.

“The president’s speech is an important and historic moment precisely because religious freedom is too often ignored or downplayed at the U.N.,” Kelsey Zorzi, Alliance Defending Freedom international director of global religious freedom and president of the United Nations’ NGO Committee on Freedom of Religion or Belief, said in a statement.

By Emel Akan - Follow Emel on Twitter: @mlakan
Full article at:https://epochtimes.today/trump-urges-nations-at-the-un-to-stop-religious-persecution/