Alliance appeals to U.N. on religious liberty

GENEVA (AP) — The World Evangelical Alliance presented the United Nations Commission on Human Rights with an appeal that says more than 200 million Christians worldwide are being denied religious liberty as defined by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The alliance, which claims to speak for 335 conservative Protestants in 121 nations, said it's "deeply concerned about the dire state of religious freedom in many countries."

It singled out the following for violating rights of Christians and others: Eritrea, Iran, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Turkmenistan and the communist countries of China, North Korea and Vietnam.

Regarding Muslim countries, the paper noted that Sudan's compromise on applying Islamic law has yet to be implemented. In Pakistan, it said, more than 4,000 people have been accused under a blasphemy law that involves the death penalty in serious cases, but officials are working to moderate policies.

Only last week, 200 Pakistani Christians marched to protest the murder and mutilation of Protestant pastor Shamoon Babar and his driver in Peshawar, the capital of North West Frontier Province.