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August 14, 2012| By: Katrina Lantos Swett

The followingop-ed appeared in The Detroit News on August 14, 2012:

On July 19, on behalf of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), I spoke on Capitol Hill in Washington about the desperate plight of the Middle East's religious minorities, many of whose members have close friends and relatives in the Detroit metropolitan area.

In attendance were representatives from groups such as the Mandaeans, 85 percent of whom either fled Iraq in recent years to countries like the United States, including the Detroit area, or were killed.

Iraq's other religious minorities, such as Christians and Yazidis, face discrimination and marginalization, displacement and violence.

A decade ago, Iraq was home to over a million Christians. Today, half that number remains.

Beyond Iraq, Egypt under President Mubarak tolerated widespread bias against dissident Sunni and Shi'a Muslims and Baha'is, as well as Christians, while letting state-controlled media and state-funded mosques vilify them as well as Jews.

After Mubarak's departure, a breakdown in security and a rise in violence made 2011 one of Egypt's worst years for religious minorities, especially its Coptic Christians.

While religious minorities in Iraq and Egypt face societal violence, in other Mideast nations, Saudi Arabia and Iran, government poses the greatest threat.

Saudi Arabia only allows public religious expression reflecting its own interpretation of Sunni Islam.

It bans non-Muslim places of worship, permits state textbooks to incite violence, and uses criminal charges of apostasy and blasphemy to stifle dissent. It continues to support global activities promoting extremist ideology, and in some cases, violence.

Iran tyrannizes religious minorities, Muslim and non-Muslim alike, as well as Shi'a majority dissidents.

Since 1979, Iranian authorities have murdered more than 200 Baha'i leaders, while removing 10,000 from government and university jobs. Christians are periodically arrested and imprisoned. State-run television broadcasts anti-Semitism and President Ahmadinejad and high-level clerics promote Holocaust denial.

USCIRF has long recommended that the U.S. State Department designate these four nations as "countries of particular concern," marking them as severe religious freedom violators. Only Saudi Arabia and Iran have been designated.

We have also advanced specific proposals for these countries.

For Iraq, we support greater military protection for religious minorities, as well as fuller investigations of religiously motivated attacks and a stronger commitment to hold the guilty accountable.

For Egypt, Cairo should not only bring those who promote and perpetrate violence to justice, but repeal discriminatory decrees against religious minorities, remove religion from official identity documents and abolish blasphemy codes.

For Saudi Arabia, the United States should cease waiving punitive measures for Saudi religious freedom abuses.

And for Iran, the United States should continue to impose assets freezes and travel bans on repressive officials - including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Ahmadinejad - while demanding the release of prisoners of conscience.

We're also concerned about Syria. President al-Assad, from the minority Alawite community, has long ruled over Syria's Sunni majority and is now killing thousands to maintain dictatorial power. Not just the Alawites, but other religious minorities, including Christians, fear the worst as the violence spreads.

The plight of Middle East religious minorities is unmistakably grim. Nonetheless, there is hope. There is still time for the Arab Spring to produce pro-human-rights alternatives to authoritarian dictatorships and violent religious extremism.

And the efforts of various Mideast countries to draft constitutions offer a chance to consider not only protection for religious minority members, but for every individual.

Regardless of what the future holds, we must stand resolutely for religious freedom in the Middle East and across the globe.

Katrina Lantos Swett serves as chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.

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

For Your Information

August 14, 2012| By Mary Ann Glendon and Sam Gejdenson

The following guest column appeared in The Star-Ledger on August 14, 2012.

September will be here before we know it. While some will be looking forward to autumn, others will be apprehensive as the month approaches. They will wonder whether Congress will reauthorize a key measure that has allowed Jews, Christians, Baha"is and other religious minorities to escape religious persecution in Iran and in former Soviet nations.

Originally enacted as part of the 1990 Foreign Operations Appropriations Bill, the Lautenberg Amendment, named after its author, Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), has been reauthorized ever since. However, it is set to expire on Sept. 30 unless Congress steps up to the plate and does the right thing again.

What does the Lautenberg Amendment do? It provides critical safeguards for historically persecuted groups seeking refugee status by easing the burden of proof and permitting fast-track processing to prevent undue backlogs in "third” countries that host their processing. Without such assurances, these countries likely would no longer be willing to provide transit visas to allow religious minorities to be processed in safety on their soil.

The amendment does not increase the number of refugees allowed into the United States or require any special appropriated funds. Rather, it recognizes the kinds of persecution these groups historically have faced. The small number of refugees who qualify each year are fully screened and vetted.

The Lautenberg Amendment has been the lifeline for many refugees, especially religious minorities from Iran. Every year since 1999, the secretary of state has designated Iran a "Country of Particular Concern” under the International Religious Freedom Act for egregious, ongoing and systematic violations of religious freedom.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, on which we serve, has found that religious freedom conditions continue to deteriorate in Iran, especially for religious minorities, most notably Baha"is, as well as for Christians and Sufi Muslims, while physical attacks, harassment, detention, arrests and imprisonment have intensified.

Even the recognized non-Muslim religious minorities protected under Iran"s constitution - Jews, Armenian and Assyrian Christians, and Zoroastrians - face increasing discrimination, arrests and imprisonment. In fact, religious freedom conditions in Iran have regressed to a point not seen since the early days of the Islamic revolution, more than 30 years ago.

Failure to reauthorize the Lautenberg Amendment would clearly endanger the lives of people seeking freedom and send the signal that the United States is unconcerned. Such inaction would hearken back to the 1930s, when the United States largely closed its doors to refugees seeking to escape Nazi tyranny.

Thankfully, Congress is concerned. The Lautenberg Amendment has broad bipartisan support in the House and Senate, but last year was reauthorized only at the last minute. This year we hope that well before Sept. 30, Congress sends the signal loudly and clearly that religious freedom is paramount for all, including persecuted religious minorities.

Mary Ann Glendon serves as a vice chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. Sam Gejdenson serves as a USCIRF commissioner. Keep the conversation going at njvoices.com.

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

August 3, 2012 | by USCIRF

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom today issued a new report, “The Religion-State Relationship & the Right to Freedom of Religion or Belief: A Comparative Textual Analysis of the Constitutions of Majority Muslim Countries and Other OIC Members.”

This study is especially timely given that a number of these countries, including some that top the U.S. foreign policy agenda, currently are redrafting or revising their constitutions. A constitution’s text is important as both a statement of fundamental law and national aspirations, and a tool for those seeking to enforce its promises.

The study, which updates a 2005 USCIRF study, analyzes how constitutions of countries belonging to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) treat issues of human rights and religious freedom. Specifically, it compiles and analyzes the constitutional provisions currently in place regarding the relationship between religion and the state, freedom of religion or belief, and related human rights. The study focuses on 46 countries with majority Muslim populations and 10 other countries that, while not majority Muslim, are OIC members. The study finds that these countries, stretching from Europe to Africa through the Middle East and into Asia, encompass a variety of constitutional arrangements addressing the role of Islam and the scope of religious freedom and other related human rights.

To read the full report (with or without appendices), a two-page summary of the report, and a summary of the international standards for constitutional religious freedom protections (in English or Arabic), please click here.

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