Pence: Brunson release ‘not good enough’

TURKEY: U.S. Vice President Mike Pence told an international gathering in Washington he spoke by phone to Andrew Brunson and his wife, Norine, on Wednesday, shortly after Turkish authorities released the American pastor from prison but placed him under house arrest. Brunson’s return to his home in Izmir, said Pence, “is a welcome first step, but it is not good enough.” In a closing speech yesterday to international delegates gathered for the State Department’s Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom, Pence said the United States will impose “significant sanctions” on Turkey until Brunson is freed.

UNITED STATES: The State Department’s first Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom—which included officials from 85 nations and nearly 400 faith group and civil society representatives—ended with a declaration to extend rights to “freedom of thought, conscience, and religion” and with pledges from Vice President Pence to create a “genocide response” program and a U.S. International Religious Freedom Fund.

PAKISTAN: Former cricket star Imran Khan won Pakistan’s general election Wednesday to become the country’s next prime minister, but it required 350,000 soldiers deployed to polling stations to secure voting. The victory was a first for Khan’s Movement for Justice Party and will bring changes in U.S.-Pakistan relations, as Khan, for example, has called for U.S. troops to leave Afghanistan.

IRAN: Saying U.S. President Donald Trump uses the language of “night clubs and gambling halls,” Quds Force Cmdr. Qassem Soleimani told Trump via Iranian media: “As a soldier, it is my duty to respond to your threats. … If you want to use the language of threat … talk to me, not to the president [Hassan Rouhani]. It is not in our president’s dignity to respond to you.”

EGYPT: On Facebook, Coptic Abdol Adel compared Jesus and Mohammad, prompting his Muslim neighbors to complain to the police, who arrested Adel July 6. Three days later, a mob attacked the homes of other Copts in the village, forcing police to intervene, and Adel is due to appear in court Aug. 8, where he could face up to five years in prison.

CHINA: Thirty-four house church leaders in China signed a statement asking the government to respect the constitution and grant them religious freedom. According to Radio Free Asia, one pastor said, “It’s far more likely that churches will have to put up with further forms of persecution as a result of speaking out.”

WEEKEND READ: Just going to chew on these refugee numbers a while longer (based on State Department data and first provided by Matthew Soerens of World Relief).

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