 The final item of business today is the member's business debate on motion No 1.0093 in the name of Dave Tomson on highlighting the plight of persecuted Christians.this debate will be concluded without any questions being put and I invite those members who wish to speak in the debate to press their request to speak butens now or as soon as possible. Mr Thompson if you are ready seven minutes, please. Gamin, mae'n cael eu bod yn allu ei ddau ar gyfermiannol ac mae'n cynnyddu'r ddod yn ddod. Mae'n cael i ddoch yn gallu hynny fel rheoliadau o ffansiadau oedd yngrydd ysbawr o'r paroliadol, mae Unitech yn ddiddordeb yn cyffredinol. Mae'n ddiddordeb yn cael eu ddod ymlaen i zeistio fel gyflym ei bod yn y cas roedd, driverio, lleol ac yn teimlo i gael. Felly, y llwyddau â'r llwyr yn gallu i fyny i fod yn ystod yn yr ymlaen i yw greadig sydd yn y roi shefyd, byddwn yn ei bobl oedd o hyd yn ôl. Rwy'n fyny yn ystod i'w gwahodd, rwy'n ei bod yn ôl yn y dderbyn yn gyd ein hwn, ac mae'r ddau i fynd o'r llwysgwyr gwahoddu. Fy heywch,edd yng Ngwyfyrdd o'r gweithio allu peirwydau o'r gweithio'r gwaith gan beth efallai hynny i hynny y portafolio rhywun wedi'i ei gweld prilywedd o'r gweithio'r gwaith. Llyfrgellwch yr Exchydig dangos ar y parlymenau i'r holl ffordd yn teimlo o'r gweithio'r cyfarfod i gael yr oedd. Rydw i fod ych chi'n ddifrw ato, wych oherwydd yr Restor has been a source of persecution and times gone by. It is an acknowledgement off that we are committed to acting and praying for peace around the world. The SCPO went on to say, although many high profile examples in the news today speak of Christians facing discrimination in predominantly Muslim societies, we do not see Islam as a threat or a problem. ac cael ei gynllunion o ysgrifennu genedlaetholwyddon gwirionedd i gweithio am gyferwyr Cresri ac aredodololwyddolwyddiam yn Ysgrifennu North Africa a Ysgrifennu Middydd, llمكن coi'i d opportun, cyllidwyr a'r broth. A'i dweud am 15a mwy yn Saed iewn, myriadwch Maryam Yehya Ybryhawn, 26 ysgrifennu sy'n eight months pregnant, was sentenced to death by hanging for apostasy and to a hundred lashes for adultery. Her crime, she was unwilling to renounce her Christian faith. It is great news that after a period of intense pressure on the Sudan Minister of Justice by Amnesty International and general denunciation of Ibrahim's detention by countries around the world that she has since been released. This was a very serious case where persecution on religious grounds was all too clear and should never have happened. However, it is not just Sudan where there are examples of Christians being persecuted. North Korea has become one of the most difficult places on earth to live if you are a Christian. Christians are classified as hostile. They face arrest, detention and torture, and even public execution. There is a system of labour camps, including the renowned prison number 15, which is thought to house at least 6,000 Christians, and the oppression of Christians there is continuing to grow. Also in Iraq there are terrifying reports that Christians are being targeted in Mosul by ISIS militants and that many Christians are fleeing the region. The fundamentalists are giving Christians the grim choice of converting to Islam or paying a non-Muslim tax or facing death. In parts of the Middle East, like Saudi Arabia and Iran, Christian churches are outlawed, with Christians being persecuted and even condemned to death. However, this type of scenario is not reserved solely to the Middle East. In China, the Government there has been ordering the demolition of Christian churches and there are reports that those Christians resisting demolitions have been beaten, which has resulted in many people being hospitalised. As if that was not bad enough, in May this year a campaign was started to outlaw Christian church gatherings in homes and private dwellings. In Nigeria, according to advocacy group Jubilee campaign, Islamist extremists Boko Haram and others have killed thousands of Christians for their faith this year alone. As we have seen, there are numerous global examples of Christians being persecuted and killed for their beliefs. So what can we do? Well, a Christian lives out what they believe about God. We see in Proverbs that a Christian should be active in standing up for what is right in rescuing those who are perishing and in defending those who are poor and in need. In Proverbs 31 verses 8 to 9 it states, open your mouth for the mute, for the rights of all who are destitute. Open your mouth, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy. For the Christian, apathy and abdication are to be replaced by an active pursuit for justice. According to recent census results, over half of Scotland identifies as Christian and there are a significant number of people in my own constituency of Skylwch Aberyn-Bedinogh who hold their religion dear. Ffortunatly, we are able to practice our faith without fear of retribution and for this we should thank God. As convener of Christians for independence, the type of Scotland I wish to see is a Scotland that condemns the persecution of those expressing their religion, whether that be at home or abroad. A Scotland that values people of faith and unites rather than divides along religious lines. A Scotland that is welcoming to all. A Scotland that is international in outlook. And finally, but importantly, a Scotland that enshrines in its constitution the right to have and express faith and indeed the right to have none. More than this, I am looking for an outward looking Scotland which will provide a safe haven for those fleeing religious and other forms of persecution. And hope this will be the mark of Scotland as a good global citizen. And I look forward to hearing the minister's response. Many thanks. I would call on John Mason to be followed by Patricia Ferguson. Four minutes or thereby please. Thank you, Presiding Officer, and many thanks to Dave Thompson for raising this important subject. We cannot concentrate on all the problems of the world all the time. One day we have a natural disaster but then it gets pushed out of the media by the fighting in Iraq and then it in turn gets pushed out of the media by the crisis in Israel and Palestine. The media, the public and we ourselves in Parliament can have a tendency to be caught up in what is the latest news story. So this afternoon we are looking at the plight of persecuted Christians and that is not just in one specific place or time but in a range of places around the world. Open doors is one of the organisations I have contact with and they focus on this subject. They produce annually a list of the 50 worst countries in the world using categories including absolute persecution, extreme persecution, severe persecution and moderate persecution. Another organisation aid to the church in need does a similar exercise and while it is true in several cases that persecution is from Islamic extremists on Christians, in fact the worst country for the last several years as Dave Thompson has already referred to and number one on the list is North Korea and it is in fact the only one which is headed up under absolute persecution. In North Korea open doors tell us that between 50,000 and 70,000 Christians, which is close to a quarter of the entire Christian population there, live in concentration camps. Being caught with a Bible is grounds for execution or lifelong imprisonment and parents normally cannot tell their children that they themselves are believers for fear that the children will innocently say something outside the family home. In the briefing that I have from the Barnabas Fund and other such organisation it notes that Christians are the most persecuted religious group in the world with the second largest being Muslims and it is debatable that Christians are the most persecuted group of any kind in the world. I think that today is an appropriate day for us to be discussing all this because aid to the church in need tells us in one of their press releases that 6 August is the feast of transfiguration for the Eastern church and that has been linked to a call for prayer today for especially peace in Iraq. In 2003 there were some 60,000 Christians in Mosul and that is now down to almost none. For the first time in 1600 years no mass or Christian service is happening in that city. Looking at Iraq as a whole the 1987 census showed that there were 1.4 million Christians or 8% of the population. That is now down to 300,000. I want to be clear about a couple of things that I am not asking for. I do not want to return to Western imperialism with richer white liberal countries telling the others what to do. We need to respect each country that we work with and I fully support the tone of the motion which uses words like supports, work toward, concerns to be raised and assist. Apart from anything else Christianity is not a Western religion, it comes from the Middle East and has probably suffered from being linked to the West. Secondly, I am not asking for aid to be linked to improving the lot of Christians. Part of Jesus' teaching was that we should love our enemies and do good to those who persecute us. However, I would say that we should raise this as an issue with governments that we work with and as far as possible we should ensure our aid is targeted at those in greatest need which may well mean working with third sector organisations rather than governments themselves. A lot of what I have said relates to long standing Christian communities, for example in Iraq, where even those from a Christian background are being persecuted. However, in many countries often the strongest attack are against those who have chosen to change their religion to the Christian faith. That can follow from the concept that one state has one faith and that used to be the way of thinking here in Europe as well. However, a fundamental belief of Christians is that each individual has the ability and responsibility to follow the way of their own choosing. I believe that many of us from a more liberal or secular persuasion would agree with this fundamental concept of individual choice. Therefore, if I have one absolute bottom line to ask for today, it is that each individual in this country and every other country should have the right to follow the religion of their own choosing or none. That should be set out in a written constitution, whether that be for Scotland or for the UK. At the beginning of July, Pope Francis celebrated mass in Rome to commemorate the early martyrs of the church, those persecuted in the 1st century AD during the reign of the emperor Nero. During his homily, the Holy Father reflected on the fact that there are more Christian martyrs today than there were in the 1st centuries of Christianity. We should reflect on that, and in a way that is what we are doing in this debate tonight. I congratulate Dave Thompson for securing this debate and for allowing us to do exactly that. If Pope Francis is right and the evidence suggests that he is, then the persecution of Christians must be one of the least remarked upon cases of human rights abuse in our world and one that is seldom discussed. On our televisions, we see thousands of Christians flee Syria, and in Egypt the plight of Coptic Christians is increasingly worrying. The irony of that situation being that the Ottoman Empire, which covered most of the Middle East in times gone by, actually was a really multicultural area which saw Christians, Shia, Sunni, Jews, Alawites and Druze people all living cheek by jail mostly peacefully. It is estimated that some 3,000 evangelical and Pentecostal Ethiopians are imprisoned in their homeland because of their religion. As we have heard in North Korea, the government executes and tortures Christians. In Burma, Christians, together with Rohingya Muslims, are abused on a regular basis. Of course, the blasphemy laws introduced in Pakistan leave Christians open to charges that are unjustified, and we must not forget the bombing of the church in Peshawar, which killed 80 people and injured many more. The reasons why this persecution occurs will vary from country to country in region to region and situation to situation. It may be religious intolerance and it may be one of any number of other reasons, but no matter the reason, it can never be right. To persecute someone for their faith, no matter what that faith happens to be, it can never be right. So whatever the rationale, it isn't acceptable and it must be challenged wherever it occurs by people of faith and people of no faith. In doing so, we do not support one faith over another. We stand up for all peoples and their right to freedom of conscience, of thought, of religion and their right to worship, to teach and to observe in the way of their choosing. That principle is already laid out for us in article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Those of us in the chamber tonight may not all be Christians, we may not all share the same faith, we will come from different denominations, but we all share respect for our fellow human beings and try to uphold the human rights of our fellow citizens here in the UK and those in other countries. Perhaps it behoves us as politicians of all parties to speak out more on this issue because where Christians are persecuted, the right to religious freedom for everyone is in jeopardy. I think that it can be quite easy for the ordinary person, the ordinary man or woman in the ordinary Scottish street to find the idea of persecution of Christians, a surprising one if they are not familiar with the arguments that we have heard here, because they are not high profile arguments, sadly. We live in a nation where Christianity has long been preeminent among faiths. While there are places today, again sadly, where a denomination may lead to intimidation or bigotry, the idea that Christians could be driven from churches, forbidden from gathering or Bible bands just seems alien to us. We live in a society that takes its holidays at Christmas and Easter Christian festivals that we have streets, towns, places, bear the names of religious origin and significance in many people too. Even our blasphemies said that every atheist is a Christian when they stub their toe. Scotland's 15th centuries of Christian heritage are much part of our national story as the political history varied languages, our geography and our climate that have done so much to shape the modern Scott. All those things that I just mentioned happen in other lands. I am one of those people that has been referred to that does not profess the Christian faith, but I do find much of the story of Jesus as recounted in the Bible that is fascinating, compelling and inspiring. The description and the significance attached to the humble beginnings, the teachings on poverty and justice and compassion, the willingness to accept and sit down with the outcasts and the excluded and the inner turmoil of the choices faced in the stories of the wilderness and the garden of Gethsemane. I find the stories and teachings of many other great figures from other faiths and histories to be inspirational too. It troubles me therefore and it should trouble all of us that there are societies, whether contemporary or historical, where holding any of those faiths has been the subject of intimidation and ostracism leading all the way even to outright state persecution as heretical and criminal. There is an elephant in this room. It was one that was referred to by Patricia Ferguson and that is perhaps a genuine difficulty that there is for some small L Liberals to rally to the cause of those persecuted around the world on the grounds of their religious beliefs as opposed to secular political views and particularly for Christians. Some Christians, such as the occupants of the White House, for example, rank amongst the most powerful people in the world, but many are not. Maryam Yeha Ibrahim, the pregnant woman that was referred to, was not powerful, nor was Savin Massey a Christian road sweeper from Lahore or the Coptic Christians that have been targeted by widespread attacks. Each of those has been highlighted by Amnesty International and other organisations. I congratulate Amnesty for being willing to highlight human rights abuses, the persecution of people on grounds of religion, whatever that religion may be. We all have a right to hold our beliefs and we all have a right to express them. Those who feel the passion of their convictions will want to evangelise and spread their message, they always have. We all have an obligation to do it by persuasion and inspiration, not by coercion. In too many countries around the world, those who disagree with Christianity have moved from the tools of preaching to the weapons of persecution. I have a great fear of what governments can do when motivated by the dislike of those who hold other views. Those states who say that you must fear and hate that which is different to you and who use their powers and laws to turn neighbours against each other. Mark 1231 gives a very good message on that, that we should love our neighbour and desire for them all those good things, both for the body and for the soul that we desire for ourselves. You do not have to be a Christian to believe in that sentiment to support it. I wholeheartedly endorse that motion and look forward to a day when, all around the world, people have a right to believe as they wish and also observe the responsibility to respect others' rights to believe differently or not at all. Can I start by commending David Thompson on his motion, which I was very happy to sign. I congratulate him on securing this debate on this very important subject. I could not help but smile at the reference in David Thompson's motion to the fact that there is very little persecution in Skye, Lochaber and Badenock, which probably says more about the nonsensical parliamentary rules on submitting motions than it does in the United Kingdom. The question is about the reality of the situation. It is true to say that Christianity as a religion is growing faster today than at any time in its 2000-year history. It is also true to say, as Patricia Ferguson pointed out, that Christianity has never been more persecuted today than at any time in its 2000-year history. The two are probably linked, both as cause and as effect, because Christianity is never stronger than when it is persecuted. Christian faith never grows faster than when it is subject to persecution. The Vatican just last month suggested that, in the current year, 100,000 Christians will die for their faith across the world. That is a staggering statistic, a one that we hear too little about in this country, and I am particularly grateful that David Thompson has given the Parliament the opportunity to highlight this important issue this evening. Something like 31 per cent of the world population are Christians. 80 per cent of all acts of religious discrimination are directed against Christians, making that statistically Christianity the most persecuted religion in the world. When we look at the Commonwealth games held just closing earlier this week, there are 10 of the top 50 countries in the Commonwealth, highlighting on the list of the most persecuted countries for Christians, including Maldives, Pakistan, Nigeria, Brunei, India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Kenya, Bangladesh and Tanzania. John Mates and others mentioned the horrendous situation that exists today in Iraq and Syria with the formation of the new Islamic State. The Human Rights Watch has said that the IS seems intent on wiping out all traces of minority groups from areas that it now controls in Iraq. No matter how hard its leaders and fighters try to justify these heinous acts as religious devotion, they amount to nothing less than a rain of terror. The family wants an indication of what that rain of terror feels like on the ground. I would commend to them the regular dispatches from the chaplain of St George's Baghdad, Cannon Andrew White, reported in the church times just the other day. He said, things are desperate. Our people are disappearing. Are we seeing the end of Christianity? We are committed, come what may. We will keep going to the end, but it looks as though the end could be very near. He added that Iraqi Christians were in grave danger. There are literally Christians living in the desert and on the street. They have nowhere to go. Even more chillingly, just the other day, he reported a family of eight found in their home, shot through their faces, lying in a pool of blood in an open Bible beside them because they would not renounce their Christian faith. We have horrific pictures reminiscent almost of what happened in Roman times. What can be done? What can we do? We have an opportunity, first of all, to use the avenues that have opened us to actively promote human rights. Obviously, within the Scottish Government, the opportunity is to use the monies that we have for foreign aid. The UK has a substantial foreign aid budget, where the second largest donor of foreign aid across the UK. We can use that to promote our message of spreading freedom and human rights around the world. The UK has already given 5 million in humanitarian aid to Iraq, and there is more that can be done. However, that is also about simply solidarity. Christians in other countries need our prayers. They need to know that we are thinking of them and praying for them. I think that the most important thing that we can do is highlight their plight, and that is why I am particularly grateful that Dave Thompson's motion allows us to do that this evening. I would like to add my congratulations to my colleague Dave Thompson for securing valuable time to debate this important issue. Some years ago, I submitted a motion criticising the Western-backed Karzai regime in Afghanistan from prisoning and allegedly torturing and threatening to hang disabled Red Cross aid worker and physiotherapist Saeed Musa for converting from Islam to Christianity. The increasing intolerance toward and ill-treatment of Christians in Afghanistan and the regime's lethal approach to apostasy is something that is shameful at any time, but even more so, given that the Afghan regime has relied for years on troops from Western nations to preserve its security. More recently, in Sudan, we had the case of Dr Merriam Yaha Ibrahim Ishaq, which Dave Thompson outlined for us. In this case, which made headlines across the world, highlights the individual plight of many Christians in many countries. According to Open Doors International, the world's largest organisation that reaches out to persecuted Christians in the most high-risk places, Christian persecution is any hostility experienced from the world as a result of one's identification with Christ. From verbal harassment to hostile attitudes and actions, Christians in some countries can pay a heavy price for their faith, brutal physical torture, confinement, isolation, rape, slavery, discrimination in education and employment and death. In the Middle East, some 3 million Armenians, Assyrians and Pontic Greeks were murdered in a series of massacres from the 1890s until the mid-1920s in the Ottoman Empire and its successor states, with up to half of the world's Armenian and Assyrian populations exterminated in the genocide that have not been recognised by some of those successor states. The Assyrians that converted to Christianity in the first century AD and, like many nations, survived the vicitudes of history in an area frequently fought over by differing empires and faiths, but usually living in harmony with neighbouring nations, faiths and cultures, now they face an existential threat. Since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, by what was perceived to be Christian powers, a peaceful Assyrian population has suffered much persecution such that more than 90 per cent have fled their homeland, and indeed in Iraq, as John Mason pointed out, a community of one and a half million Christians has withered to perhaps a third of a million or less. In Mosul, the leadership of the self-proclaimed Islamic State of Iraq issued a decree only last month that all Christians in the area of its control must leave, pay a special tax of $470 per family, convert to Islam or die. Many of them took refuge in nearby Kurdish-controlled regions of Iraq and Christian homes have been painted with the letter Nun for Nasserie, an Arabic word for Nazarene or Christian, and a declaration that they are the property of the Islamic State. On 18 July, the jihadists seemed to have changed their minds and announced that all Christians would need to leave or be killed. Most of those who left their valuable possessions stolen and, according to patriarch Louis Sacco, there are no Christians remaining in Mosul for the first time. In Syria, where the civil war continues to rage, the ancient army community of Maloula is seeing its Christian community attacked. The rate of Christian persecution is, as speakers have said, continuing to rise. Christians in almost every country in the Middle East and North West Africa and 23 countries in North East Africa and Southeast Asia suffer from discrimination to severe persecution. In some of those countries, government policy or practice prevents Christians from even obtaining Bibles or other Christian literature, from Belarus to Burma, Algeria to Azerbaijan to Syria, to Saudi Arabia and Sudan. Some nations who persecute Christians or ostensible allies come with countries like Pakistan or Bangladesh, as Murdo Fraser pointed out, or Friends of the West, such as Saudi Arabia, makes it worse and adds to the helplessness of Christians in these countries. In an address to the UN Human Rights Council, Archbishop Sylvanna Tomasi, the Permanent Observer of the Holy Seat of the United Nations on the Earth, stated that credible research has reached the shocking conclusion that more than 100,000 Christians are violently killed each year. I figure we've heard before this afternoon and one I repeat. We do know, of course, that only 20 years ago it was the Muslims in Europe in Bosnia that were being persecuted. We know about inter-denominational strife in Christian nations. On Christianity and the scale of things, this is the biggest problem of any religious group in the world, the persecution of Christianity. I agree with what colleagues have said. We must raise the issue of human rights, dialogue and freedom. We must ensure that we have tolerance in our own communities. We must fight against everything from church burnings to discrimination. Colleagues, as has been said, we need to show solidarity with Christians around the world who are suffering from persecution at this time. Thank you. I, too, would like to extend my congratulations to David Thompson for securing this debate. I want to begin by quoting an article from the European Convention on Human Rights. Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscious and religion. This right includes freedom to change religion or belief and freedom either alone or in community with others and in public or private to manifest religion or belief in worship, teaching, practice and observance. We are used to people having a pop at the convention of human rights, particularly in the media, but in this particular instance it is a great pity that it does not apply beyond Europe and through other societies in the world. Others have highlighted the plight of Miriam Ibrahim, the Sudanese mother who was jailed while pregnant and had to live with the expectation of being hanged once her baby was born. The focus on Miriam's eight-month or deal personalised what is a global issue affecting millions of other people. Her crime, as we know, was that she had married a Christian and had been accused by the authorities in Sudan of apostasy, renouncing her faith, even though she had never been a Muslim in the first place. While we can rejoice that Miriam and her children are now safe, that is not the case for thousands and millions of less well-known cases around the world. Others have highlighted a number of cases, including the 3,000 Christians who fled Mosul after the Fatwa and other societies such as North Korea. It has been asked on a number of occasions why more attention is not paid to these atrocities, and it has been suggested that perhaps those of us from a Christian background might want to reflect on the fact that, despite non-violence being at the heart of true Christianity, for much of the last two millennium, Christianity has been the dominant religion of some of the world's most powerful empires. The leaders of those empires have misused Christianity in order to persecute other people. We only have to think about the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition or, indeed, the type of inter-Christian sectarian violence and war that has resulted in so many deaths over the century in Europe, which we are sadly familiar with in these islands. Perhaps that is the reason why we have not paid more attention to what is happening to Christians today, but in a sense it should make us more sensitive to the persecution of people for religious belief because we have come on that journey. According to the International Society of Human Rights, a secular group with members in 38 states worldwide, 80 per cent of all acts of religious discrimination in the world today are directed against Christians, and the Pew Research Centre said that hostility to religion was at its highest in 2012 when Christians faced some sort of discrimination in 139 countries, which accounts for three quarters of the world's nations, which is quite a staggering thought. In anticipation of this debate, I received letters from constituents who were particularly concerned about the plight of persecuted Christians in Pakistan, and I would like to take the opportunity to speak about this in more detail. Although the Christian population in Pakistan is barely 3 million compared to 180 million Muslims, Christians have had a considerable impact on Pakistani society, particularly in the field of education and many of Pakistan's most prominent leaders, including the current Prime Minister and the assassinated former Prime Minister, Benazir Butu, went to Christian schools. Under Pakistan's constitution, Christians were guaranteed equal rights. However, the recent increased targeting of Christians in Pakistan should be an issue of great concern to the international community. I encountered, while researching this speech, some horror stories about the scale of violence directed towards these people. Militant groups are frequently the culprits in attacks on Christians, and it seems that general anger against the United States foreign policy has caused a large number of people to wrongly target Christians with whom they associate with that foreign policy. Often blasphemy laws are used as a tool of oppression. For example, in 2012, an 11-year-old Christian girl was arrested after being accused of burning the pages of the Quran, and in Peshawar 78 people were killed in 130 wounded after a fatal attack on the church. There are many other instances that we will be familiar with and unfamiliar with, which I could list. However, I would like to repeat my colleagues' appeal for tolerance throughout the world of people, whatever their religious background. I look forward to hearing the minister make clear the Scottish Government's apporance of all persecution on religious grounds, as it has done in previous occasions. I add my congratulations to Dave Thompson for securing the member's debate. It comes at a time when I have personally been experiencing increasing frustration with the apparent complete lack of interest anywhere in the media as to what is going on, particularly in the Middle East just now. It is important that Dave Thompson has taken this opportunity to highlight the escalation of the persecution of Christians, together with members of other faiths and none, indeed, in certain countries. I welcome this opportunity to draw this debate to a close. I also thank members in the chamber for their thoughtful contributions to the debate, whether they be Christians or non-Christians, like Marco Biagi alike. I think that it is important that this is seen in that wider context. The motion clearly expresses this Parliament's condemnation of any form of persecution of or discrimination against minority communities throughout the world wherever it occurs. I note that yesterday, in her resignation letter, Baroness Warsi highlighted the ever-growing crisis of the persecution of Christians. We are all aware of recently reported cases of persecution of or discrimination against the Christian and other minority communities in the Middle East. Dave Thompson and John Mason ranged across a number of geographical areas in highlighting the attacks worldwide, as they did John McAlpine focusing on the situation in Pakistan. I make no apology for focusing my remarks on what is happening right now in the Middle East. In ISIS-controlled areas of Syria and Iraq, as many as 30,000 people have fled the area around Mosul following the recently published ultimatum to northern Iraq's dwindling Christian population effectively to either convert Islam or die. It is estimated that only a few hundred Christian families remain in Mosul and, as Kenny Gibson said, that may now be in fact none. Of course, it is not only Christians who are under threat in Iraq. Reports yesterday highlighted the plight of the Yazidi community, a community of believers who combine Zoroastrianism with some early aspects of Islam and Christian belief. They have been forced into the mountains surrounding Sinjar following an Islamic State offensive on the city last Sunday. Reports today suggest that those people are now dying of thirst. Go back down the mountain, they die, stay, they die. They too are under the most appalling persecution and we should not forget them when we are talking about the persecution against Christians. That has been a catastrophe long in the making. Last year, the Catholic Organisation aid to the church in Neat published a detailed report on Christians oppressed for their faith 2011-2013. It was called Persecuted and Forgotten. It is the Forgotten part of that, which is also important. Canon Andrew White mentioned already, I think, by a number of speakers, the Vicar of Baghdad, who has witnessed extreme sufferings of Christians in recent weeks, has accused the British Government of doing nothing to help fleeing Christians. Church of England bishops, along with other church leaders, have called upon the Government to offer asylum to Iraqi Christians, including the Bishop of Manchester, who pointed out the sobering truth that what is happening now in Iraq is the direct consequence of what happened in 2003. That is, in part, our mess. That is a direct quote from the Bishop of Manchester. I am not sure that anybody could really disagree with that. The Archbishop of Canterbury has joined a worldwide social media campaign of solidarity by adopting the image of the Arabic letter N, the first letter of an Arabic word in Asrani, which of course means Nazarene, or Christian, in solidarity with persecuted Christians suffering in Iraq. People may begin to see that particular image appearing more and more frequently. I also call on the global media not to ignore what is happening to these minority communities. Patricia Ferguson is right when she says that much of this persecution has gone largely unreported. Had it not been for social media indeed, much of what we currently know would have gone totally unknown. In numbers of those likely to die over the next year, the figure of 100,000 quoted by Murdo Fraser surely should mean this, going to the top of the news agenda instead of being at best buried at worst totally ignored. That is a media failure and it simply isn't good enough. I fear that it may be that Christians are simply not fashionable enough. It is, however, also important to acknowledge and recognise that many Muslims are just as concerned about attacks on Christians as we might be. Last month, over 200 people, including Muslims, gathered in front of a Catholic Church in Baghdad to show solidarity with their Christian neighbours by carrying I am Iraqi, I am Christian slogans. Given that a prominent Muslim academic has already been assassinated for speaking out in solidarity with Christians, acts of solidarity are also acts of incredible bravery and we need to recognise that when we see it. People have raised the issue of the Scottish Government's broad and general approach to this and I want to just take the opportunity to restate that. Of course, we in Scotland believe in equality for all people, whatever they believe, and as a good global citizen in Scotland we have a strong and enduring commitment to securing democracy, the rule of law and fundamental human rights across the world. Everyone knows that foreign affairs is reserved, but that doesn't let us off the hook when it comes to expressing our views and bringing what pressure to bear that we can, either as individuals or in our communities or indeed as a Government. During the Commonwealth games, we took every opportunity to engage with Commonwealth countries in a diplomatically and culturally sensitive fashion to make clear Scotland's views on equality and human rights. It's not only during the games, yes of course. Minister, thank you very much for taking an intervention and I appreciate everything she says. Both myself and John McAlpine quoted from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and it's interesting that the UK has now assumed its place on the UN Human Rights Council. I wonder if the Scottish Government would be prepared to write to the UK Government asking them to raise the issue of religious persecution in that forum to help to try and raise the profile and to influence other countries hopefully. Yes, I think that that's probably an extremely good idea and I will take that forward as the member has suggested. I was going on to say that it wasn't just during the games that we've been making appropriate representations. The Minister for External Affairs and International Development has regularly spoken out against the persecution of religious minorities wherever it takes place. Only last month he wrote to the Home Secretary about Gaza urging the UK Government to play a full role in any international efforts to provide homes for refugees from that region and stating that Scotland is ready to play its part. We've also donated £200,000 to the Disasters Emergency Committee in Scotland's Syria crisis appeal in response to the suffering in Syria and are also providing £500,000 funding to help the United Nations to provide water, food, shelter and medical assistance to the people of Gaza. We recognise the influence for good that religious belief can have on the lives of individuals, families and the wider community, which is why we actively promote and support interfaith relations as a means of developing trust, respect and social harmony between communities at local and national levels. In closing, I want to congratulate all the churches and other faith communities and organisations such as Christian Solidarity worldwide, Aid to the Church in Need, the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, Remembering Srebrenica, Open Doors UK and Islamic Relief UK, as well as all their supporters who work tirelessly towards supporting the victims of intolerance and hatred and removing religious intolerance wherever it is found. I want to take this opportunity to say to them that your work is known by us and is recognised.