This November, millions of Christians worldwide will gather together for one cause: to unite the global Church for International Day of Prayer (IDOP) for the Persecuted 2021. On November 7, faith communities and churches around the world will pray for those persecuted for their faith.
Prepare for IDOP 2021 with a free IDOP Resource Kit. Included are message themes, a bulletin insert, children’s resources, a video and creative ideas to use. Click this link to download the free 2021 Resource Kit.
ISIS Slaughtered My Yazidi Community. We Don’t Want Your Pity – We Want Justice.
Thoughts and prayers. Promises of “never again.” They are not enough. Seven years after ISIS committed genocide against the Yazidi community, my ethno-religious minority, in Iraq, hundreds of thousands of people remain internally displaced and more than 2,800 women and children remain missing. Shelter, clean water, health care and education are luxuries, if available at all.
Those of us who were there — who ran for our lives to the protection of Mount Sinjar, who heard the gunshots as men and older women were shot and dumped into mass graves, and who, like me, were sold into sexual slavery — cannot forget what happened or how the world ignored our cries for help. Read more.
21Wilberforce Global FoRB Action Summit features top experts who will train emerging leaders to lay groundwork for change
“At 21Wilberforce, we are passionate about helping emerging leaders develop strategies and campaigns to pursue real change,” said Randel Everett, President. “Today’s young activists are reaching out to legislators, organizing rallies, and masterfully using social media to raise their voices to break the chains of injustice. We help them turn activism into advocacy with impact.”
The virtual summit offers participants the opportunity to hear from persecuted communities and IRF advocates, then work collaboratively in teams to craft a real-life advocacy campaigns for a religious prisoner of conscience. Major topics to be covered include Exploring the Foundations of FoRB, Influencing the Oppressors, Building Your Campaign Toolkit, and Prisoner of Conscience Advocacy models. To learn more about trainers and topics and to apply click here.
Global Religious Freedom Data Spectrum Project Set to Launch
The Global Religious Freedom (GRF) Data Spectrum project, a new initiative by 21Wilberforce with partners Genocide Watch and George Washington University’s Loeb Institute, will launch on October 27, 2021.
The project will provide the International Religious Freedom community, analysts, and political decision makers with a comparative framework for viewing geospatial data and analytical perspectives from a wide range of politically and socially diverse organizations that evaluate and rank countries according to criteria related to freedoms and restrictions. The GRF Data Spectrum project maps these diverse perspectives in a compelling way and provides a report analyzing the indicators to help people understand the opportunities and gaps in Global Religious Freedom data. Learn more here.
OTHER HELPFUL LINKS
Please join the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) on Wednesday, October 6th at 12pm Eastern for a free one-hour virtual event discussing religious communities at extreme risk of persecution in Afghanistan since the Taliban seized control. The Taliban’s imposition of its harsh and strict interpretation of Sunni Islam poses a grave threat to all Afghans of differing interpretations and other faiths or beliefs. Register here.
The 6th Annual Modern Coptic Martyrs Remembrance Day: An Unjust Decade, is scheduled for October 8th at 2PM EST. This is a virtual Zoom program. They will re-air the program on Saturday October 9th at Noon. This year’s focus will be on the 10th anniversary of the Maspero Massacre in Egypt. Learn more here.