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May 20, 2014 | By Robert P. George & Katrina Lantos Swett

The following op-ed appeared in the Wall Street Journal on May 19, 2014.

As Iran approaches the anniversary of Hasan Rouhani's presidential victory, the Islamic Republic's human-rights record, particularly its treatment of religious minorities, remains abysmal. This is especially true for the Baha'is, Iran's largest non-Muslim religious minority.

As with the cases of jailed Christian pastors, such as Saeed Abedini and Farshid Fathi, the Tehran regime shows no signs of wanting to free the so-called Baha'i seven—Baha'i leaders jailed on spurious charges, from espionage to "spreading corruption on the earth"—nor of stopping the persecution of its Baha'i population, which numbers more than 300,000.

Both houses of the U.S. Congress have spoken out for the Baha'is and other religious minorities in Iran. The Senate last December passed a resolution condemning Baha'i persecution. We urge the House to pass the companion measure speedily. Without continued attention from the U.S. and other members of the international community, the future of the Baha'is in the birthplace of their faith will be bleak, as will the fate of Iran's other minorities.

May 23 marks the 170th anniversary of the birth of the Baha'i faith in Iran. The faith emphasizes the unity of humankind. May 14 marked six years that the Baha'i seven—Jamaloddin Khanjani, Afif Naeimi, Saeid Rezaie, Behrouz Tavakkoli, Vahid Tizfahm, Fariba Kamalabadi and Mahvash Sabet —have been incarcerated for their faith. And as the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), on which we serve, noted in its just-released annual report, the number of Baha'i religious prisoners has increased under Mr. Rouhani. As of February 2014, at least 135 Baha'is remained jailed for their beliefs. Hundreds more, though no longer detained, have cases pending.

It is well-known that Baha'is seek peace, not political power, and pose no conceivable security threat. Yet Iran's theocracy persecutes them, revealing a deep aversion to those whose only "crime" is embracing beliefs other than the regime's.

While all religious communities in Iran have suffered persecution since the 1979 Khomeinist revolution, none have fared worse than the Baha'is. The government has since killed more than 200 Baha'i leaders and removed more than 10,000 from government and university positions.

Baha'is are mistreated in nearly every stage and station in life. Last year, USCIRF received reports of Baha'i babies incarcerated with their mothers. Baha'is are barred from attending colleges and universities, from starting their own schools, and from establishing houses of worship to raise their children in their faith. Baha'is can't serve in the military and face job bias elsewhere. Authorities won't recognize their marriages, and Iran's media demonize Baha'is, reinforcing their pariah status.

When Baha'is die, their relatives can't inherit their property, have difficulty obtaining their death certificates and often witness the desecration of their grave sites, not just by vandals but by the government. Recently Iran's Revolutionary Guards began excavating a Baha'i cemetery that is the resting place for 10 women the government hanged in 1983. They were convicted of "crimes" that included teaching children's classes. The women chose to die rather than renounce their faith.

Taking their cue from the regime and media, extremists have attacked Baha'i property in several cities. In August 2013, following months of interrogation, a local Baha'i leader, Ataollah Rezvani, was killed for his faith. No one has been charged with his murder.

In the face of these abuses, the U.S. should recognize that when it comes to human rights and religious freedom, Mr. Rouhani has yet to bring reform. Second, Washington must ponder the implications of Baha'i persecution. The Baha'is threaten no one; religious dictates and doctrine alone drive their persecution. Baha'i repression confirms Tehran's theocratic character and suggests that change won't come easily.

Third, in dealing with Tehran, the U.S. should push for religious freedom and related rights, while continuing to identify Iranian agencies and officials responsible for severe abuses, and then freezing their assets and barring them from entering the U.S. as required under American law.

Finally, the U.S. Congress should continue drawing attention to the Baha'is and other abused Iranians through legislation and other measures. Congress also should keep spotlighting the names, faces and stories behind these abuses.

Through the Defending Freedoms Project, an initiative of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission in collaboration with USCIRF and Amnesty International U.S.A., members of Congress have "adopted" prisoners of conscience, including Pastors Abedini and Fathi and the Baha'i seven, and advocated for their release. President Obama in February called for Pastor Abedini's release. It's time to call for the release of the Baha'i seven and other Iranian prisoners of conscience.

In the end, as go the Baha'is, so go freedom's prospects in Iran.

—Mr. George serves as chairman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom and is a professor of jurisprudence at Princeton University. Ms. Lantos Swett serves as USCIRF vice chair and is president and CEO of the Lantos Foundation for Human Rights and Justice.

To interview a USCIRF Commissioner, please contact USCIRF at 202-786-0613 or [email protected].

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

May 16, 2014 | USCIRF

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) strongly condemns the death sentence against Meriam Yahia Ibrahim Ishag, a Sudanese Christian woman accused of apostasy.  Ibrahim was sentenced to death by hanging on May 15 after she refused to recant her faith.  She also was sentenced to 100 lashes for adultery. 

“Mrs. Ibrahim should be released immediately and all charges dropped,” said USCIRF Chairman Robert P. George.  “This case and the sentencing are a travesty for religious freedom and human rights in Sudan.”

Currently eight months pregnant, Ibrahim was arrested on February 17 after someone reported to the police her marriage to a Christian.  Charged and sentenced for apostasy and adultery under articles 126 and 146 of the 1991 Criminal Code, she is being held in the Omdurman Federal Women’s Prison with her 20-month-old son.  She is accused of leaving Islam to marry a Christian man, despite producing a marriage certificate which identified her as a Christian.  The Sudanese government’s application of Shari’ah law prohibits a Muslim woman marrying a Christian man and considers such a relationship to be adulterous.  The court has postponed carrying out the sentence until two years after Ibrahim’s child is born. Ibrahim’s lawyers plan to appeal.

USCIRF welcomes the May 14 joint statement by the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands expressing their concern over the apostasy ruling and noting an individual’s right to change faith.  The large diplomatic presence at the May 15 hearing at the Public Order Court in El Haj Yousif, Khartoum also was positive.

“International attention to this case is critical to holding the Sudanese government accountable for its constitutional provisions and international commitments to protect and respect freedom of religion or belief not only for Mrs. Ibrahim, but all Sudanese, regardless of faith,” said George.

While Ibrahim was born to a Muslim father and an Ethiopian Orthodox mother, her father left the family when she was six and she was raised a Christian.  Ibrahim produced witnesses to attest to her lifelong faithfulness to Christianity, but the court prohibited the witnesses from testifying.        

Since 1999, USCIRF has recommended, and the State Department has designated, Sudan as a “country of particular concern” (CPC) under the International Religious Freedom Act, based on the government’s systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of freedom of religion or belief.   The government of President Omar al-Bashir imposes a restrictive interpretation of Shari’ah law on Muslims and non-Muslims alike, uses amputations and floggings for crimes and acts of “indecency” and “immorality,” and arrests, harasses, and discriminates against members of the small Christian community.  President al-Bashir and other National Congress Party (NCP) leaders have stated that Sudan’s new constitution, when drafted, will be based on its interpretation of Shari’ah.  Since South Sudan’s independence from Sudan in 2011, the number and severity of harsh Shari’ah-based judicial decisions has increased, including sentences of amputation for theft and sentences for stoning for adultery. 

To interview a USCIRF Commissioner, contact USCIRF at [email protected] or 202-786-0613

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

May 12, 2014 | USCIRF

WASHINGTON, DC – House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) on May 9 appointed Dr. Daniel I. Mark and re-appointed Dr. Robert P. George to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.  Dr. Mark will assume the Commission seat being vacated by Elliott Abrams, whose term expires May 14.  Speaker Boehner first appointed Dr. George in 2012.

“USCIRF welcomes Dr. Mark to the Commission,” said USCIRF Chairman Dr. Robert P. George.  “As a gifted scholar and a dedicated advocate of human rights, he will be a great asset to our Commission as we work to help advance the cherished right of freedom of religion or belief around the world.”

Dr. Daniel I. Mark is an assistant professor of political science at Villanova University, where he teaches political theory, philosophy of law, American government, and politics and religion.  He also is a faculty associate of the Matthew J. Ryan Center for the Study of Free Institutions and the Public Good. In addition, he is a research scholar of the Witherspoon Institute in Princeton, New Jersey and an assistant editor of Interpretation: A Journal of Political Philosophy. He also works with the Tikvah Fund in New York and has taught at the Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought at Yeshiva University. Dr. Mark holds a BA, MA, and PhD from the Department of Politics at Princeton University. There, he was affiliated with the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions, the Program in Law and Public Affairs, and the Penn-Princeton Bioethics Forum. Before graduate school, he spent four years as a high school teacher.

“My fellow Commissioners and I also want to salute and honor outgoing Commissioner Elliott Abrams for his outstanding service to the Commission, his unwavering support for religious freedom, and his wit and wisdom,” said Chairman George.

“USCIRF also is very pleased with the reappointment of Dr. Robert P. George,” said USCIRF Vice-chairs, Dr. Katrina Lantos Swett and Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser. “As our current Chairman, he has provided invaluable guidance and wisdom as the Commission entered its 15^th year. His insights have been essential toward helping USCIRF fulfill its mandate of highlighting serious threats to religious liberty throughout the world and making the case that religious freedom is both a human rights imperative and a practical necessity that merits a seat at the table with economic, security, and other key concerns of U.S. foreign policy.”

Dr. George is McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University, and also is the Director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at the University. He has been a Visiting Professor at Harvard Law School, and is a Senior Fellow of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.

Dr. George is the author of Making Men Moral: Civil Liberties and Public Morality and In Defense of Natural Law, among other books. His articles and review essays have appeared in the Harvard Law Review, the Yale Law Journal, the Columbia Law Review, the Review of Politics, the Review of Metaphysics, the American Journal of Jurisprudence, and Law and Philosophy. He has also written for the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, First Things magazine, National Review, the Boston Review, and the Times Literary Supplement. Professor George is a former Judicial Fellow at the Supreme Court of the United States, where he received the Justice Tom C. Clark Award. His other honors include the United States Presidential Citizens Medal, the Honorific Medal for the Defense of Human Rights of the Republic of Poland, the Bradley Prize for Intellectual and Civic Achievement, the Phillip Merrill Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Liberal Arts of the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, a Silver Gavel Award of the American Bar Association, and the Paul Bator Award of the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy.

Comprising nine voting members, USCIRF is an independent, bipartisan U.S. federal government commission that monitors the universal right to freedom of religion or belief abroad and makes policy recommendations to the President, Secretary of State, and Congress. USCIRF Commissioners are appointed by the President and the leadership of both political parties in the Senate and House of Representatives.  

To interview a USCIRF Commissioner, contact USCIRF at [email protected] or 202-786-0613.