The UK has “heavy-handed” policies affecting religious freedom, a US report claims.
The criticism comes from the Religious Liberty Commission, established by President Donald Trump last May, which has published a draft report, highlighting Britain and several other countries.
The report is focused on the protection of religious freedoms in the US, but also warns about cases in other countries where religious beliefs have been put at risk.
“Even in other Western countries, governments have adopted many such policies,” the report said. “In the United Kingdom, police recently arrested army veteran and physiotherapist Adam Smith-Connor for the crime of silently praying.”
Connor, an army veteran, was convicted after silently praying outside an abortion clinic in Bournemouth.
“I am grateful to the US Religious Liberty Commission for highlighting the growing threat to freedom of thought, religion, and speech in the UK. I was investigated and convicted for nothing more than silently praying,” Connor told The Telegraph.
“I hope my case serves as a warning that liberty cannot be taken for granted – it must be actively defended. No genuinely free and democratic society should criminalise peaceful, even silent, expressions of faith.”
This case is only one of several recent instances in the UK related to the breaching of abortion buffer zone laws. Isabel Vaughan-Spruce was criminally charged in December for silent prayer near an abortion facility in Birmingham, while retired pastor Clive Johnson was convicted earlier this year for preaching Bible verses near a hospital in Coleraine.
In response, British businessman Samuel Leeds has said he will financially support anyone facing legal action for preaching publicly in the UK.
“If any street preacher gets bullied by the UK police for preaching the Word of God, I will personally pay for top UK Christian lawyers to represent you in court,” he announced on social media.
Alongside the UK, the report also mentioned Canada in reference to Quebec’s Bill 21, which bans public sector workers from wearing any religious articles, and Finland, in reference to Finnish MP Päivi Räsänen who was recently convicted for expressing her Christian views on sexuality.
“The American people must choose whether to vociferously defend religious liberty or to allow the United States to join the other 86% of the world in repressing individuals’ first freedoms,” the report said. “If Americans forfeit this fight, we will squander the magnificent inheritance of our Founders – and we will soon experience the consequences on an even more dramatic scale.”
