FOR YOUR INFORMATION

September 22, 2015 | Robert P. George and Katrina Lantos Swett

The following op-ed appeared in The Washington Examiner on September 22, 2015

"The Assad regime made no effort to protect the al-Hasakeh province … [the Islamic State] launched a surprise attack ... along the Khabor on February 23 ... kidnapped 265 men, women, and children, sold 30 young women as sex slaves, and executed all captured Syriac defense forces ... Upon securing control of ...Tel Hormizd, [the Islamic State] informed [the elders] that all crosses must be removed … In fighting for control of Tel Tamr, they seized the Saint Circis Church and burned its Bibles and broke its cross ..."

This chilling testimony, given in March of this year by Bassam Ishak of the Syriac National Council of Syria before the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission of the U.S. House of Representatives, provides a horrifying snapshot of persecuted Middle East religious minorities, including Christians. Violent religious extremist forces like the Islamic State have repeatedly assaulted these communities, some of which now face the threat of extinction. Too often, governments don't protect religious minorities' fundamental right to practice their faith without forfeiting their lives or their freedom; some governments even may fuel extremism through their repressive ways.

Given such testimony and the Islamic State's depraved videos, the world sees clearly what is happening. It must act fully on that knowledge, considering the use of every potential tool on behalf of the persecuted. These tools include diplomatic, military, economic and humanitarian options.

But concerned countries also must undertake two core tasks: First they must accurately identify the malignant ideas behind the Islamic State's evils, ideas that fuel the Islamic State by sustaining its adherents and attracting recruits and other supporters. Second, they must treat religious freedom as not just a victim of the Islamic State, but also as a vehicle that can help beat the Islamic State by defeating its ideas.

While the Islamic State and like-minded religious extremist groups look to the past to recover a supposed religious utopia or golden age, they are propelled by an inescapably modern and terrifying idea. Surfacing in the last century, it became known as totalitarianism.

Totalitarian leaders and movements seek complete control over the individual — from outward conduct to innermost conscience — by any means. They also exempt themselves from accountability to any law or custom, belief or institution, moral norm or precept.

For the better part of a century, totalitarianism has advanced by donning various costumes and hijacking key ideals and institutions.

In the 1930s and 1940s, it surfaced through Nazism or other forms of fascism, hijacking nationalism. After World War II, totalitarianism posed its greatest threat through various forms of Communism, hijacking people's strivings for social justice.

By the close of the 20th century, it had claimed more than 100 million lives. Totalitarians also waged war against conscience, leaving behind a world in which most people, including Christians and other religious minorities in the Middle East, live in countries that do not protect freedom of religion or belief.

Today's totalitarians often use religion as their vehicle. Displaying contempt for the rule of law and any distinction between combatants and non-combatants in the conduct of war, they commit mass torture and murder, as the Nazis and Communist groups often did.

As the Islamic State and like-minded groups embrace this totalitarian distortion of religious ideas, they must be countered and defeated by better ideas. But doing so requires a free and vibrant marketplace of ideas and beliefs. It requires strongly affirming the right of religious freedom and the efforts of its advocates to weave it into the fabric of their societies.

Is embedding religious freedom in any society ever easy? Of course not. It is hard work that requires societies to replace rule of man with rule of law.

But what is the alternative? Should we trust in strongmen to keep extremism in check? Ask Christians in Iraq or Syria who believed Saddam Hussein or Bashar Assad – both of them representing an earlier age of secular totalitarianism — would be there in full command.

It is obvious that without the Islamic State's violence being diminished, there can be no marketplace of freedom. But without this marketplace, the Islamic State's ideology can never truly be defeated. With it, people will have the opportunity to choose alternate beliefs and ideas, thus weakening the Islamic State at its root.

In other words, the long-term way to ensure the survival of Christians and other Middle East religious minority communities is not only to stop the Islamic State's violence, but to dissuade people from joining it in the first place. Religious freedom can be an antidote to religious extremism.

Robert P. George is chairman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF).  Katrina Lantos Swett is a USCIRF commissioner. 

To interview a USCIRF Commissioner, please contact USCIRF at [email protected] or at 202-786-0615.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

September 22, 2015

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) solemnly marks the one-year anniversary of the life sentence handed down to Chinese Uighur Muslim scholar Ilham Tohti for “separatism.”  USCIRF calls on the Chinese government to immediately and unconditionally release him and seven of his students who also were sentenced after a separate and secret trial.  

“The Chinese court’s sentencing of Ilham Tohti and his students flies in the face of the protections Chinese citizens are entitled to both under the Chinese constitution and its international human rights commitments. And yet there are many other prisoners of conscience in China in addition to Tohti and his students.  We urge President Obama in his meeting with President Xi Jinping during his trip to Washington to urge their release.  The plight of these prisoners undermines China’s claim to be a country based on the rule of law,” said USCIRF Chairman Robert P. George.

Before his imprisonment, Professor Tohti was an economics professor in Beijing and a peaceful advocate for both Uighur rights and autonomy in Xinjiang. He also encouraged dialogue between Uighurs Muslims and Han Chinese.  He was falsely accused of separatism and fanning ethnic tensions and sentenced to life imprisonment in September 2014 after a two-day trial. Seven of his students subsequently were arrested and after a secret trial received prison terms of three to eight years. They were accused of contributing to a website Tohti ran that focused on Uighur issues. Though little information about Professor Tohti’s condition is available, his family reportedly has been denied visits to see him in prison. Little also is known about his students: Perhat Halmurat, Shohret Nijat, Mutellip Imin, Abduqeyyum Ablimit, Atikem Rozi and Akbar Imin are Uighur Muslims, and the seventh student, Luo Yuwei, is from the Yi ethnic minority.

Since 2009, the Chinese government has instituted sweeping security measures that, among other goals, have sought to weaken Uighur Muslims’ religious adherence and eradicate so-called “illegal” religious gatherings and activities. The Chinese government’s crackdown on religious expression in Xinjiang has led to the detention or deaths of hundreds and possibly thousands of Uighur Muslims as well as instability and insecurity, fueling resentment and the very extremism the government claims it is trying to quell.

“The Chinese government should not treat the peaceful expression of beliefs as criminal conduct, and must end its repressive policies towards Uighur Muslims in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region.  These policies include restrictions on Ramadan fasting, confiscation of unofficial Islamic publications, raiding of mosques, and detention and dismissal of “illegal” imams and religious personnel.  The Chinese government should support religious freedom and the peaceful practice and expression of one’s faith,” said Chairman George.

USCIRF again recommended in 2015 that China be designated as a “country of particular concern,” or CPC, under the International Religious Freedom Act for its particularly severe violations of religious freedom. The State Department has designated China as a CPC since 1999, most recently in July 2014. For more information, see the China Chapter (in English and Chinese) in USCIRF’s 2015 Annual Report.  

For more information on China’s prisoners of conscience included in the Defending Freedoms Project, please click here.

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

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

September 21, 2015

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) warmly welcomes Pope Francis on his historic visit to the United States.  On September 24, the Pope will be the first pontiff to address a joint meeting of Congress.

“USCIRF welcomes Pope Francis as a champion of the dignity of each and every member of the human family, a bold witness and apostle for religious freedom, and a powerful voice for the persecuted and the displaced around the world,” said USCIRF Chairman Robert P. George. “Especially during this tumultuous time of upheaval in many parts of the world, we welcome the Pope’s presence and prayers, teachings and messages, as well as his affirmation of the imperative of dialogue and cooperation between religions.” 

As Pope Francis has stressed repeatedly, religious freedom is “not just a matter of thought or private devotion,” but a “fundamental right of the person” which national and international laws and organizations must “recognize, guarantee and protect” as well as “an indicator of a healthy democracy and one of the principal sources of a nation’s legitimacy.”

“Millions of refugees and displaced persons, forced to flee their homes in shocking numbers due to war, privation, and persecution, have no greater friend than Pope Francis,” Chairman George said.  “His meeting in May with Syrian and Iraqi refugees in Jordan, his condemnation of violence including the 'repulsive and damnable' atrocities of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), Boko Haram’s brutality in Nigeria, and the 'atrocious, inhuman and incomprehensible persecution' of Christians – which he has deemed genocide, has been heard around the world, and he has rightly urged the international community to take further action in response to these calamities.”

In a recent conference of some 60 nations on the plight of victims of ethnic and religious violence across the Middle East, the Vatican made the following three-fold plea for  action:  the international community must respond to the immediate humanitarian needs of refugees, while working in the longer term to ensure respect for religious rights and freedom of religion – especially the right to change one’s religion; guarantee the rights of refugees, especially religious and ethnic minorities, to return to their countries of origin to live in dignity and security and enjoy the full rights of equal citizens; and tackle terrorism and encourage interfaith dialogue.  

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