Speakers & Organizers   

www.csi-usa.org Biography
An Episcopal priest, Father Keith Roderick was a Cold War human rights activist on behalf of Soviet citizens facing religious persecution under Communist rule. A chance encounter with an Egyptian Muslim who faced death threats upon converting to Christianity awakened Roderick to the problem of religious persecution in the Muslim world. He now serves as Christian Solidarity International's Representative in Washington, D.C. Christian Solidarity International (CSI) is a Christian human rights organization for religious liberty helping victims of religious repression, victimized children and victims of disaster. It is based in Zurich, Switzerland but has office in several countries, including the U.S. www.csi-usa.org

Father Roderick has served as Secretary General of the Coalition for the Defense of Human Rights (CDHR) since 1993. The Coalition is a consortium of over fifty-five organizations working together to champion the rights of minorities living in Islamic countries. Its primary focus is the condition of religious minorities living in Islamic countries. Members of the Coalition include Catholics, Protestants, Orthodox Christians, Jews, Hindus, Muslims, Assyrians, Armenians, Bahai, Copts, Lebanese, Indonesians, Iranians, Pakistanis, Indians, Sudanese, Nigerians, and others. Father Roderick has testified to the Senate and House of Representatives on the issue of religious freedom and human rights concerns of non-Muslim minorities in Islamic countries. www.dhimmi.com

He is an Episcopal priest of the Diocese of Quincy, serving as the only Canon for Persecuted Christians in the Episcopal Church. Father Roderick also serves as Executive Director of the Sudan Campaign and was one of the organizers of daily demonstrations at the Sudan embassy in protest of slavery and genocide in Sudan in 2004.

Father Roderick and his wife, Mary Beth, have six children, Seth, Micah, Noah, Sarah, Joseph and Susannah. Formerly he was the Director of Spoon River College in Macomb, Illinois and taught religion and philosophy for fifteen years. He founded the Society of St. Stephen in 1982 that worked on behalf of religious prisoners of conscience and their families in the former Soviet Union. He served as the Co-Director of the International Task Force, formerly The Task Force on Soviet Jewry.

Education
1996 - Doctor of Divinity, Faith Theological Seminary, Gujranwala, Pakistan
1986 - Certificate for Post-Graduate Studies, Nashotah House, Delafield, WI
1980 - Master of Divinity, University of Dubuque Theological Seminary, Dubuque, IA
1976 - Bachelor of Arts, University of Illinois - Springfield, Springfield, IL

---

Session SP34:
History of Persecution of Minorities Under Islamic Rule
February 20, 14:00 - 14:45
Abstract:
Persecution of religious and ethnic minorities, non-Muslim and Muslims, by hegemonic Islamists reveal the challenge faced by the West. ChaldoAssyrians, Yazidis, Turkomen, and Mandaeans struggle to survive as minorities among minorities in Iraq. The Iranian president has vowed to stop Christianity in Iran. The Coptic Christians of Egypt, the largest non-Muslim minority in the Middle East, are disfranchised victims of Islamic extremists who attack them with impunity. Repudiation of pluralism, hatred of the other, and triumphal confessionalism have created for the minorities a world of discrimination, fear, and violence. Accommodation and containment are strategies that did not prevent their decline under the face of Islamization.

The first front of the war against Islamofacism is being waged by these minorities as they resist cultural genocide. The West should be more attentive to the lessons that they have learned through suffering. Rather than being regarded as inconvenient and irrelevant players by Western powers, they should be appreciated as tested guides who can provide ways to avoid danger and achieve success in the societies from which they originate and understand in ways not possible for outside observers.