Leo Igwe on Global Humanism
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): Medium (Personal)
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2018/08/28
Dr. Leo Igwe provided some more, as per usual, needed light on the participation of one of the most populated African nations in non-religious events and programs.
He laments the excess focus on the variety of religious activities including “the Hajj, the pilgrimage to Jerusalem, the meetings of the Organisation of Islamic Conference, of the World Council of Churches, of the Anglican, Methodist or Presbyterian and the Vatican establishments.”
He’s right. Why not some more attention to the individuals who do harbour the beliefs behind the actions involved in the pilgrimages and the meetings of the various international religious communities?
In fact, the non-religious, and in particular the humanist, global communities have been hosting events, meetings, and so on, for a long time. One of the most recent has Nigeria present at it.
“The International Humanist and Ethical Union, now known as the Humanists International held its general assembly in Auckland in New Zealand,” Dr. Igwe explained, “New Zealand is one of the most irreligious nations in the world. In fact, almost half of the population identify as nonreligious.”
The Humanists International is a global collective of the formal non-religious communities around the world. It is an important organization and does crucial work in the development of plans of actions and in the visibility of the irreligious global movement.
They were using this time to discuss the important policy issues of the day in addition to the direction desired for the international irreligious, and often humanist, community under the rubric of Humanists International.
Igwe stated, “New Zealand Humanists hosted this year’s General Assembly at the Heritage Hotel in Auckland, and Nigeria was among the few African humanist organizations that attended the meeting. There were other African attendees from Uganda.”
Igwe went on to described important events before the General Assembly, which included one of the functions at the House of Parliament in Wellington. That is, the Hon. Grant Robertson hosted an event in which a representative from Nigeria spoke in order to bring serious attention to the persecution of a formal non-religious minority, the humanists.
He went on to explain how Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Mauritania, Nigeria, and Saudi Arabia continue hold the real, illegitimate threat of an attack, imprisonment, or killing of a citizen, of one of the respective nations, who does not believe in the religion of birth or of the majority of the country. This violates freedom of belief and freedom of religion as stipulated in the UN Declaration of Human Rights.
Humanists and other nonbelievers, or unbelievers — or “infidels” — deserve and reserve the same rights as everyone else to the freedoms codified in international rights documents and are working assiduously to have them realized for them — and others.
Igwe described another event as follows:
Another event that preceded the General Assembly was an international humanist conference. The event took place in Auckland. The conference featured speakers from the host country, New Zealand, and others from Pakistan, Australia, the UK, Nigeria, and Nepal. The presentations explored a wide variety of themes and situations. For instance, one presentation discussed the challenges that the New Zealand Maori face because there was no word for ‘atheist’ in the local language. Thus every Maori was assumed to be a believer in gods and should lead in prayer.
There were educational presentations on the ways in which to defend secularism with arguments and also the means humanism can bring to bear on the violent and extremist religiosity witnessed in nations including Afghanistan and Pakistan. Then he also reported on some other lectures/speeches about the secular educational paradigms and the role of secularization in the world.
There was also a tribute paid to the late Josh Kutchinsky, who died in 2018.
One of the most important aspects, personally opinion, would be the adoption at the Assembly of the Auckland Declaration Against the Politics of Division. There is a terrifying and worrying rise in the politics of authoritarianism, xenophobia and racism and even sexism, and calls for policy or social-political orders at odds with the prevailing international human rights frameworks.
One important progression for the Nigerian non-religious community was the ratification of the Atheist Society of Nigeria.
“The admission of the atheist society into the world humanist body is a positive development for nonreligious in Nigeria. Since the 90s, the humanist/ nonreligious community Nigeria has been growing in terms of number and social visibility,” Igwe said, “Nigeria has been taking an active part in the international humanist event and has featured in the several general assemblies of the Humanists International.”
Now, Nigeria’s Atheist Society of Nigeria, Humanist Assembly of Lagos, and Humanist Association of Nigeria play an important role in the formal non-religious movements into the future.
I look forward to their progress and praise their efforts, hoping they receive the accolades they deserve for the work they’re doing in one of the more difficult areas of the world in which to make this progress.
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