On 30 September the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe [PACE] (not to be confused with the European Parliament) agreed a Resolution on freedom of religion: the report on which it was based is available here. The Resolution noted the renewed importance of religion in European societies but expressed great regret and anxiety that the growth of non-European faiths gave rise to “tensions, lack of understanding and suspicion, and even to xenophobic attitudes, extremism, hate speech and the most despicable violence”. It noted that freedom of thought, conscience and religion was an established, universal and inviolable human right under the UDHR and the ECHR and, as such, “non-negotiable”. Continue reading →