By Bob Allen
Lawmakers in Nepal rejected an effort to declare the Himalayan nation a Hindu state, adopting draft language to a new constitution Sept. 14 maintaining its status as a secular state.
The news brought relief for minority groups, including Christians, who feared reverting to a Hindu state, a designation that existed in Nepal’s constitution for nearly 45 years, could result in persecution.
Concerns remain about draft language carried over from a 2007 interim constitution prohibiting proselytizing. Critics say language criminalizing any “act to convert another person from one religion to another” contradicts another provision upholding religious freedom, including the freedom to “separate oneself from any religion.”
Nepal was the only officially Hindu state in the world until 2007, following success of a democracy movement in 2006. Recently Hindu nationalists called for restoring the designation of “Hindu Rashtra” that existed under monarchy, along with other laws banning cow slaughter and religious conversions.
Recently the 21st Century Wilberforce Initiative, a think tank led by former Baptist General Convention of Texas Executive Director Randel Everett, organized a coalition of more than 350 individuals from a dozen countries urging government officials in Nepal to remove any ban on religious conversion from the new constitution.
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