(Un)likely Allies: Religion and the Fight for Free Societies

Today, authoritarians know that religion is power, and they are fighting over it. Faith has long given people the impulse to resist tyranny, and it is the core of an inner freedom that authoritarian regimes can neither master nor stop fearing. The Kremlin cloaks its war of aggression in religious language and uses the Moscow Patriarchate to project influence abroad. In China, the party demands that faith serve the state, from the persecution of Uyghur Muslims to the control of Tibetan Buddhism, including its claim to decide the Dalai Lama’s succession. 

In Iran, the Taliban’s Afghanistan and elsewhere, religion is both the regime’s instrument and its victims’ refuge. In Ukraine, fighting for its freedom, religion is a source of solace and resilience. In democracies, populists are hijacking religious identity for political gain. The panel takes on three questions: How do autocrats turn faith into a tool of control, and how do believers resist? Can democracies ally with religious communities without letting religion be captured by politics? How do we protect religious freedom without handing populists a cause to exploit? 

Speakers: 

• Leopoldo López (Venezuelan opposition leader, co-founder of the World Liberty Congress)
• Roderich Kiesewetter (Member of the German Bundestag, CDU)
• Lia Gazi (Crimean Tatar activist, Ukraine)
• Sophie Shengchun Luo (Chinese human rights defender). 

Facilitators: 

• Vytautas Bruveris (Arch Frontline, Lithuania) 
• Dr. Mantas Adomėnas (Secretary General, Community of Democracies). 

Organised by Arch Frontline and the Community of Democracies as a side-event of Berlin Freedom Week.

Please RSVP by November 10 or direct any questions to events@community-democracies.org