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July 30, 2014 | By Katrina Lantos Swett and M. Zuhdi Jasser

The following op-ed appeared on RNS on July 29, 2014.  This op-ed also appeared in the Washington Post.

While last month marked the 25th anniversary of China’s silencing freedom in Tiananmen Square, this month China has been cementing this grim legacy — particularly regarding religious freedom.

From repressing Muslims to bulldozing churches and tearing down crosses, Chinese officials have been denying the internationally guaranteed right to believe or not believe. The simple proposition that individuals have the right to live out their beliefs openly and peacefully, without fear or intimidation, clearly frightens Chinese authorities, as evidenced by their repressive persecution of numerous faith communities.

During the just-concluded month of Ramadan, China denied Uighur Muslim students, teachers, professors and government employees the freedom to fast and fulfill related duties. With Ramadan coinciding this year with the commemoration of the Communist Party’s founding, Chinese authorities used the occasion to identify fasting Muslims, particularly in Xinjiang province. Those defying the ban have been subject to threats, detention and arrests.

In recent years, officials have shut down religious sites; conducted raids on independent schools, leading to multiple injuries and even deaths; confiscated religious literature; restricted private study of the Quran; monitored the sermons of imams and forced them to undergo political training; restricted Muslim dress and religious expression; banned children from being brought to mosques; and arbitrarily deemed religious gatherings and activities “illegal.”

In neighboring Tibet, religious freedom conditions for Buddhists are deteriorating. Since May 2011, more than 130 Buddhists, including at least 61 monks, nuns and former nuns, have immolated themselves. Their desperate protests are tied directly to Beijing’s brutal repression of Tibetan religious practice and culture.

Beijing also continues its relentless 15-year campaign to obliterate the Falun Gong, maintaining an extrajudicial security apparatus, the 6-10 Office, to further that aim. There have been reports of deaths in custody, the use of psychiatric experiments and the harvesting of organs.

And China continues to persecute Christians.

Catholic and Protestant groups refusing to register with the government face arrests, fines and the shuttering of their churches. China’s government has issued a chilling directive to “eradicate” unregistered Protestant churches over the next decade. In January and March, officials seized 20 members, including the pastor, of the Holy Love Fellowship, an unregistered home church in Beijing, detaining them in space set aside for violent criminals.

Since January, China’s Christians have confronted an ominous new threat to worship and practice — governmental targeting of registered churches and their leaders. In Zhejiang province, where Christianity has grown dramatically, the government has targeted more than 100 churches, demolishing dozens, forcing others to make major alterations and removing steeples and crosses. In April, authorities bulldozed the Sanjiang Church, which housed a congregation numbering in the thousands.

There are signs that this latest persecution of Christians may not be limited to Zhejiang province. On July 4, Pastor Zhang Shaojie of the Nanle County Christian Church, a fast-growing registered church in Henan province, was convicted on trumped-up criminal charges and sentenced to 12 years in prison. Church members have been harassed and prevented from holding services.

The 12-year prison sentence of a pastor marks a chilling turn for the worse in an already bleak scene. China’s appalling religious freedom record underscores the obvious: Little has changed since Beijing shamed itself before the world 25 years ago, massacring its own people for the “crime” of demanding their rights.

China’s leaders undoubtedly believe — as did their predecessors — that repression and fear will solidify their control and bring security. They are mistaken. By denying the bedrock freedoms of conscience and religion, China risks more restiveness and instability.

If China is to assume a truly honored place among the community of nations, its leaders must reject the dark ways of repression and embrace the light of liberty for all.

Katrina Lantos Swett serves as chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. M. Zuhdi Jasser serves as a USCIRF commissioner

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

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 29, 2014 | USCIRF

Washington, D.C. – The U.S. Department of State yesterday released its 2013 Annual Report on International Religious Freedom and made designations of “countries of particular concern” (CPCs) for particularly severe violations of religious freedom.  The White House also announced their nominee for the position of Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom, Rabbi David Saperstein.

“USCIRF welcomes the release of the State Department’s annual international religious freedom report and the designations of CPCs,” said USCIRF Chair Katrina Lantos Swett. “We commend the State Department for designating CPCs at the same time it issues the annual report on international religious freedom.  Making yearly CPC designations in conjunction with the issuance of the annual International Religious Freedom report  will help ensure that offending governments understand that the United States is deeply concerned about protecting this fundamental human right and that they may face consequences for engaging in religious persecution.” 

“USCIRF also welcomes the expansion of the CPC list to include Turkmenistan, a country USCIRF has recommended for designation since 2004,” said Lantos Swett.  “However, there were disappointing omissions on the CPC list, such as Pakistan.  Pakistan represents the worst situation in the world for religious freedom for countries not currently designated by the U.S. government as CPCs.  The State Department’s own report documents numerous violations in Pakistan, and yesterday’s mob attack on an Ahmadi home which resulted in three deaths demonstrates that Pakistan clearly meets the CPC threshold.”

The 2014 USCIRF Annual Report recommended the re-designation of eight countries as CPCs – Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Uzbekistan.  USCIRF also called for the designation of eight additional countries that the Commission concluded met the CPC threshold. Along with Turkmenistan, these countries are:  Egypt, Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan, Syria, Tajikistan, and Vietnam.

Finally, USCIRF applauds the nomination of a new Ambassador for Religious Freedom. “With the challenges to religious freedom increasing worldwide, we warmly welcome the nomination of Rabbi David Saperstein as the Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom,” said Lantos Swett. “He is knowledgeable and passionate about these issues, and served as USCIRF’s first Chair after the Commission was established.  We look forward to working closely with Rabbi Saperstein and deepening our cooperation with the State Department’s Office of International Religious Freedom.”

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

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Washington, D.C. – The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) joins the U.S. State Department in condemning in the strongest terms the actions of the terrorist group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).  These actions include the recent ultimatum the group issued against Christians in Mosul demanding that they either convert, leave, pay a tax, or face death.  The Christian community has lived in Mosul for more than 1,700 years, with an estimated 30,000 living there before the ISIL offensive. 

“ISIL’s persecution of Mosul’s Christian communities, as well as the Shi’a and Yazidi communities and any Sunnis who reject ISIL’s extremist ideology, is deeply troubling and repugnant,” said USCIRF’s Chair Katrina Lantos Swett.

After ISIL overtook Mosul on June 10th, more than half a million people fled.  Those who remained have experienced killings, rape, torture, and kidnappings.  Women have been beaten when venturing outside their homes or viewed as dressing inappropriately, and Shi’a shrines and Christian churches have been destroyed.

“ISIL’s depravity has been evident from the beginning.  Among the atrocities it has committed, ISIL murdered 12 dissenting Sunni clerics, kidnapped Christian priests and nuns, killed scores of civilians, destroyed ancient houses of worship, and marked non-Sunni houses and businesses for destruction.  And now it has issued this shocking ultimatum,” said Lantos Swett.

“ISIL’s actions represent the total rejection of one of the most important, internationally recognized human rights – namely the right of freedom of religion, conscience and belief.  It is vital that the United States and other like-minded governments act to defend this fundamental freedom against the onslaught of those who seek to impose their dark vision of total religious repression on the peaceful Christian, Yazidi, and Muslim communities of Iraq and Syria,” Lantos Swett added.

USCIRF also is concerned about the overall religious freedom situation throughout Iraq.  USCIRF’s 2014 Annual Report detailed significant violations of religious freedom including the government’s increasing sectarian actions and failure to stem egregious and mounting violence which non-state actors have committed against Iraqi civilians, including attacks targeting religious pilgrims and worshippers, religious sites, leaders, and individuals for their actual or assumed religious identity.

For more information on religious freedom condition in Iraq see USCIRF’s 2014 Annual Report.

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