Extremism consultation
en staff
The Government issued a call for evidence on extremism and responses to it, in a consultation1 due to close on 31 January.
The independent Commission for Countering Extremism aims to ‘improve understanding of extremism and its impact on individuals, communities and wider society’.
Freedom to choose
en staff
An organisation was launched in October, which supports people who provide standard counselling services to those who want to seek changes to their unwanted relational and sexual behaviours.
The IFTCC, the International Federation for Therapeutic and Counselling Choice, supports people’s freedom to choose how they live their lives using standard counselling and psychotherapeutic approaches. At its launch, academics, paediatricians, psychologists and therapists eloquently and warmly explained the need for access to therapy for individuals who would be labelled ‘LGBT’. Case studies were shared, from years of experience, showing how lives had been transformed by ongoing care and support to address unwanted feelings. Therapists talked in terms of people addressing emotional wounds, and as part of that journey exploring these deep feelings, people felt a decrease in their attraction towards the opposite sex. Sometimes, their attractions and behaviours were transformed so they were able to say they were attracted to the opposite sex, or could live as their birth sex.
WHERE NOW FOR ASIA?
en staff
The court’s decision on the future of Asia Bibi on 31 October was never going to provide a peaceful ending, whichever way it went.
Pakistan’s Supreme Court decided to release her, rejecting calls for the death penalty for the mother, imprisoned for over nine years on a false charge of blasphemy. Unsurprisingly, this led to unrest in Pakistan, then government capitulation to extremists, and the innocent forced to flee the country.