|TOP|Barnabas Fund has launched its new international campaign called The Right to Justice, aimed to protect Christian minorities in non-Christian majority contexts.

Concerned that Christianity is not protected enough in comparison to the protection of Islam, which is increasingly high on the agenda of national and international bodies, Barnabas Fund seeks an end to the discrimination which leads to injustice both at the institutional and social level.

New Zealand Director Julian Dobbs recently returned from Egypt and Syria, where he worked with Iraqi Christians who have fled Iraq under pressure. In Egypt Dobbs spent time with converts from Islam to Christianity who have suffered torture and rape as a result of their Christian faith.

“New Zealanders must wake up to the terrible persecution facing Christians who convert from Islam to Christianity. Much of this persecution is happening less than a days’ flight from Auckland,” Dobbs said.

|AD|The Right to Justice campaign has a twofold aim, firstly to inform the elected representatives of governments in as many Western countries as possible of the widespread religious discrimination and injustices daily suffered by Christian minorities in many countries across the world.

The second aim is to ask these governments to put pressure on the leaders of those countries where such discrimination and injustices occur to try to bring about an end to the sufferings of the Christian minority. Whilst Christians are persecuted in many different contexts Barnabas Fund is particularly concerned about the treatment of Christians in Islamic contexts.

Barnabas Fund’s International Director Dr Patrick Sookhdeo says: “We very much hope to make a change, given that such campaigns highlight and bring to the top of the public agenda the discriminatory nature of Islam and the sufferings of the Christian minority. We believe that such a position is now intolerable and must be addressed.”

Meanwhile, The Right to Justice site urges people to take part and take action: “Please present The Right to Justice campaign to your church, fellowship or house-group, and encourage them also to commit to this campaign.”

For more information, go to http://www.righttojustice.org.