This booklet published by Liberal International draws on the conclusions from the LI Human Rights Committee meeting at the Molenbeek Centre in Brussels hosted by the liberal Mayor of Molenbeek, Francoise Schepmans, in December 2016. It seeks to provide a liberal insight into the reconciliation of freedom of belief and freedom of expression in an age where extremism is misleadingly blamed on religion.
Freedom of Belief has always posed a paradox for
liberals around the world: how do we reconcile
freedom of belief with freedom of expression?Providing an insight into the liberal perspective
on these issues, this publication revisits important
exchanges and debates with front-line practitioners
and leading liberal leaders on the urgency of
confronting fundamentalism while promoting the
freedom to a religious and non-religious belief
alongside the right not to believe.
Right holders are human beings, as individuals and
in community with others, and in private as well
as in public. In this sense, freedom of religion or
belief follows exactly the same logic as freedom of
expression and indeed any other human right. It
specifically recognizes human beings as holders of
deep, existential, identity-shaping convictions.
Liberals have good reasons to commit themselves
to the thorough implementation of freedom of
religion or belief, in conjunction with all other
human rights.
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