Home News Room USCIRF In the News 6/15/09: The Big Joke - The American Spectator
6/15/09: The Big Joke - The American Spectator PDF Print

http://spectator.org/archives/2009/06/15/the-big-joke


Cuba also is one of the worst violators of religious liberty. Last year, explained the State Department in its annual International Religious Freedom Report: "The government continued to exert control over all aspects of social life, including religious expression. Certain groups, particularly Seventh-day Adventists and Jehovah's Witnesses, faced significant harassment and maltreatment." Although repression had eased of late, "The Ministry of the Interior continued to engage in efforts to control and monitor religious activities and to use surveillance, infiltration, and harassment against religious groups, religious professional, and laypersons." Last month the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom placed Cuba on its Watch List since "Within this reporting period, the government expanded its efforts to silence critics of its religious freedom policies and crack down on religious leaders whose churches operate outside of the government-recognized umbrella organizations for Protestant denominations."