Jim Shannon

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Sir Jeremy. I thank the right hon. Member for Salisbury (John Glen) and the hon. Member for Battersea (Marsha De Cordova) for leading today’s debate. I extend my heartfelt thanks to all who are gathered here today and, furthermore, to all who support the work of the all-party parliamentary group for international freedom of religion or belief, of which I am privileged, honoured and humbled to be the chair. I want to give a perspective on churches and their impact on communities, and I will describe three countries where they are important. Churches and religious buildings have long played an essential role in our communities. They are places not only of worship but of support, guidance and service. In my constituency of Strangford, I have seen churches that run food banks, offer support to the elderly, provide youth programmes and bring people together across the community—including my own Baptist church in Newtownards, which I love and am grateful for. Those buildings serve the whole person—not just spiritually, but practically—and it is important that we do that. I want to focus first on Morocco and the challenges that religious buildings face around the world. The recent destruction of minarets—symbols of religion and cultural identity—has caused great distress. Those structures are much more than buildings: they are central to the spiritual life of the community. For many Moroccans, the minaret is a sign of their faith and history; losing it is about not just architecture, but identity, culture and the right to express their beliefs. Secondly, just a week or 10 days ago, on a parliamentary visit to Egypt—I encourage our Christians here to do the same—I had the opportunity to visit one of the evangelical churches in Cairo. It is a congregation of 1,800, with 600 children who attend its services on a Sunday morning. Pastor Youssef Samir’s words were, “It’s a golden age for churches.” That should be encouraging for each of us here—although we see persecution and discrimination across the world, we can also see a country trying to come to terms with that.