This Muslim NBA veteran marches for persecuted Christians – Catholic World Report

Boston, Mass., Sept. 3, 2022 / 8:00 a.m. (CNA).

NBA veteran Enes Kanter Freedom has used his platform as a professional basketball player to directly target the Chinese Communist Party for its gross human rights abuses.

“People need to understand this…the Chinese Communist Party does not represent the Olympic values ​​of excellence, respect, friendship. The whole world knows that this is a brutal dictatorship and that they practice censorship, that they trample on freedoms, that they do not respect human rights and that they hide the truth” , Freedom told Fox News’ Laura Ingraham in February.

But with no team signing the 6-foot-10, 250-pound center since February, he and others say he’s paying the price for his activism — activism that explicitly includes calling out to the NBA. , his former team the Boston Celtics and other league players for hypocrisy, citing their relationship with China and their failure to condemn it.

The 30-year-old seems more determined than ever to work for the defense of human rights.

Freedom, a practicing Muslim from Turkey, will speak September 24 at the March for the Martyrs in Washington DC, an event dedicated to raising awareness of the plight of persecuted Christians around the world.

“His voice in this generation is so important,” said Gia Chacon, founder and president of For the Martyrs, the organization organizing the march. Chacon told CNA on August 25 that Freedom “had the world at our fingertips,” but added that he “sacrificed everything to defend the interests of the voiceless.”

Chacon said the Martyrs’ March exists to “combat the silence” around the issue of Christian persecution. Moreover, its purpose is to draw the attention and prayers of Western Christians to the persecuted church across the world.

But why did Chacon choose a Muslim to speak at an event in support of persecuted Christians?

She says it’s because a bridge needs to be built between Muslims and Christians.

“Let him speak of persecuted Christians; talking about the importance of freedom of religion makes this issue all the more powerful,” she said.

“And,” she added, “it’s a message to Muslims — not just in the United States, but around the world — that we need to build a bridge between Christians and Muslims,” ​​especially since Islamist terrorists are among the main persecutors of Christians around the world.

This will not be Freedom’s first commitment to religious freedom. He spoke at the International Religious Freedom Summit in Washington, DC in June.

Freedom also recently launched its foundation — the Enes Kanter Freedom Foundation — in June, which the Washington Times says champions civil rights in authoritarian countries like China and Turkey. The Times reported that Freedom would take on the foundation’s work full-time.

In a Facebook post on June 22, Freedom said, “I am delighted to announce my new foundation which aims to promote #freedom, universal values, social harmony, poverty reduction, #human rights people and #democracy in the GLOBE. On the Freedom website, there is a page for donating to the foundation.

Freedom was born in Switzerland and raised in Turkey, before coming to play basketball in the United States. He was drafted by the Utah Jazz as the third overall pick in the 2011 NBA Draft and made his debut the same year.

The Bleacher Report recently called him one of the most underrated players of the past ten years, citing his top ten career rebounding and offensive rebounding performances, as well as his overall awareness on the court.

Freedom is a longtime critic of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, often calling him a dictator. Although his family still lives in Turkey, Freedom has said in previous interviews that he hasn’t spoken to them in years, which hurts him. But he says communication must be cut off because of the political climate there and his criticism of the regime.

While with the New York Knicks, Freedom said in 2019 that he skipped a team trip to London because he feared he would be killed, while calling the Turkish president a “crazy lunatic” and of “dictator”.

chacon; David Curry, President and CEO of Open Doors USA; Esther Zang, a survivor of Christian persecution in China and North Korea; Jacob Coyne, founder of Stay Here, an organization dedicated to ending the mental health crisis and suicide; Prof. Simon Esshaki, a Chaldean Catholic priest; Jason Jones, filmmaker, humanitarian and founder of the Vulnerable People Project; Shane Winnings, CEO and President of Overcomers Inc., an evangelical organization that helps Christians preach and teach the gospel; Russel Johnson, pastor of The Pursuit Church; and Ryan Helfenbein, executive director of the Standing for Freedom Center.

Evangelical pastor Andrew Brunson, who worked to spread Christianity in the Middle East for years before being imprisoned in Turkey for two years, will deliver another keynote address.

His experience as a pastor in the Middle East, in addition to his imprisonment, will be the subject of his speech, Chacon said.

As many as 1,000 people are expected at this year’s march, which begins at 3 p.m. with an opening rally before moving from the National Mall to the nearby Museum of the Bible. A new addition to this year’s event includes free bus transportation for any group of 50 people within three or four hours of the walk.

Buses will pick up groups and drop them off at the end of the night, Chacon said. Interested groups can email [email protected].

In addition to the march, Chacon’s organization conducts an annual mission trip to visit persecuted Christians around the world. In 2021, Chacon and his team traveled to Iraq.

The organization raises awareness of Christian persecution through online content, including through videos. It also sponsors various overseas development projects to help persecuted Christians, such as a computer lab in Iraq for internally displaced Christians, Chacon said.

According to Open Doors USA, an organization dedicated to serving persecuted Christians around the world, more than 360 million Christians worldwide face extreme persecution and discrimination because of their faith.

The organization, which compiles a “World Watch List” of the “top 50 countries where it is hardest to follow Jesus”, ranks Afghanistan as the world’s top persecutor of Christians, citing “Islamic oppression”.

Other countries that make up the top ten, in order, include North Korea, Somalia, Libya, Yemen, Eritrea, Nigeria, Pakistan, Iran and India. China is ranked 17th on the list. Turkey is ranked 42.