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July 14, 2016
USCIRF Chair Thomas J. Reese, S.J. testified on July 15, 2016 before the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission at a hearing titled "Blasphemy Laws and Censorship by States and Non-State Actors: Examining Global Threats to Freedom of Expression."
From the testimony:
“Blasphemy laws lie at the intersection of two crucially important freedoms – the freedoms of religion and expression, both of which are being challenged today. In addition, blasphemy laws often lead to instability and violence in countries around the world, with negative consequences for individuals, communities, and nations.”
Click here to read Chair Reese's full testimony.
Click here to watch the hearing.
July 09, 2019
On June 27, 2019, Vice Chair Nadine Maenza testified at a Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission hearing on violations of the right to freedom of religion of Christian communities around the world.Written Testimony
Hearing Webpage
August 20, 2013
January 15, 2015
May 06, 2013
FOR YOUR INFORMATIONMay 6, 2013
Beyond Boko Haram: Nigeria's History of Violence
By: Tiffany Lynch for the Council on Foreign Relations - Posted on May 6
For almost two years, stories about violence in Nigeria have focused almost exclusively on Boko Haram's attacks on churches and Christians; police stations and other government buildings; schools and politicians; and Muslim critics. Forgotten is Nigeria"s longer and more deadly history of religiously-related violence. Too much of the analysis of Boko Haram fails to take into account how Nigeria's history of Muslim-Christian violence directly contributes to the Boko Haram phenomenon.
Since 1999, more than fourteen thousand Nigerians in the Middle Belt and north have been killed, hundreds of thousands displaced, and thousands of churches, mosques, and other property destroyed in Muslim and Christian communal violence. However, lack of political will and jurisdictional disputes to prosecute perpetrators of the violence means that almost universally, those and responsible for violence remain free. In more than a decade, fewer than 200 individuals have been prosecuted for their involvement in sectarian violence, despite available video and photographic evidence. Rather than prosecute, federal and state officials have repeatedly formed commissions of inquiry to review the causes of the violence and make recommendations to prevent further violence. But these recommendations are rarely implemented.
This failure to prosecute has created a climate of impunity with dangerous consequences. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), where I serve as senior policy analyst, has drawn attention to this in our recently released Annual Report on Nigeria . USCIRF found that a lack of consequences for violence gives a green light for future depredations. An incident sparking Muslim-Christian violence can trigger retaliatory ricochet riots in other areas.
Pour the gasoline of Boko Haram attacks onto this already burning fire and the consequences of religiously-related violence become even more dangerous. Boko Haram is using this culture of impunity as a recruitment tool -- young Muslim men, angered by the government's failure to address violence, respond to the call of Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau call to attack Christians in "retaliation.” They are joining Boko Haram to attacks churches and individual Christians. In fact, many of Boko Haram's most deadly and prominent church service attacks in 2012 occurred in cities with problematic Muslim-Christian relations and histories of sectarian violence: Bauchi, Jos, and Kaduna.
Policy recommendations to tackle Boko Haram have focused on addressing political and economic marginalization in the north and ending abuses by security forces. Yet, the U.S. and Nigerian governments should focus on ending impunity and addressing Nigeria"s problem of Muslim-Christian violence. Boko Haram is feeding off of and fueling Nigeria"s history of religious related violence, adding momentum to an already vicious cycle. The United States needs to press its ally to do more, so this cycle is interrupted and perpetrators are brought to justice.
Tiffany Lynch is a Senior Policy Analyst at the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. The views expressed are her own and may or may not reflect the views of the Commission.
To reach USCIRF please send an email to media@uscirf.gov or contact the Commission at (202) 786-0613.
January 23, 2020
The full report may be found here. Saudi Arabia has taken some limited steps toward greater religious freedom in 2019 while continuing to restrict it in other ways. On a positive note, Saudi Arabia eased religious restrictions on women’s mobility in 2019 and allowed Saudi women for the first time to report births, marriages, and divorces. It also began issuing tourist visas and relaxed religious restrictions on dress for women visitors to the Kingdom. Yet at the same time, the government has conducted mass executions of Shi’a Muslims. It continued to detain several religious prisoners of conscience and severely mistreat activists who peacefully protested religious guardianship laws, and in official communications it described feminism as a form of radical extremism.
November 26, 2018
The full report may be found here.
Summary of Findings
This follow-on contracted study reviews 22 middle and high school textbooks published by the Saudi government for the 2017-2018 academic year, including the 12 high school books previously reviewed by USCIRF in its May 2018 Special Report. The books number more than 3,000 pages and primarily focus on religious subjects. For comparison, the study also includes two middle school texts on social and national studies.
Intolerant content is scattered throughout many of the books. This intolerance is reflected in the commentary and interpretations offered by the textbooks. Whereas the middle school curriculum and books generally dwell on developing “right” belief, the high school books focus on inculcating appropriate responses by society and the individual to those with “wrong” beliefs. They teach that those who worship differently from the Saudi state-sanctioned interpretation of Islam are polytheists who will go to hell regardless of their good deeds. Shi’a and Sufi veneration of the gravesites of prophets is dismissed as “heresy” while criticism of Islam is deemed “apostasy,” for which the textbook endorses the death penalty. The textbooks caution students to avoid friendship with members of other religions. They also encourage both violent and non-violent jihad against non-believers. Finally, the passages espouse the death penalty for women who have an affair, and for gay men. The textbooks examined in this study are more intolerant than the six religious books from 2012–2014 reviewed in a previous internal analysis by USCIRF. They are even more intolerant than the 2011–2012 textbooks studied by the International Center for Religion and Diplomacy (ICRD), which identified many troubling passages. The 2017–2018 books are more akin to Saudi textbooks from the early years of the previous decade before the Saudi government promised to reform its curricula.
May 17, 2018
Click here to view the report Study Revealed Numerous Passages in Saudi Textbooks Advocating Intolerance and Violence.Summary
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) had an independent contractor review 12 Saudi high school textbooks for the current 2017-2018 academic school year. The books, numbering more than 2,000 pages and focusing only on religious subjects, are much more intolerant than the six religious books from 2012-2014 that were reviewed by USCIRF. Based on the books reviewed, it appears that they are even more intolerant than the 2011-2012 textbooks studied by the International Center for Religion and Diplomacy (ICRD), which identified many intolerant passages. The 2017-2018 books are more akin to Saudi textbooks from the early years of the previous decade before the Saudi government promised to reform its curricula. The issues found in the books implicated religious freedom and other human rights.
December 06, 2019
The full report may be found here.
For 20 years, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has monitored and evaluated religious freedom conditions in Nigeria. This year also marks 20 years since Nigeria’s return to democracy and the adoption of the 1999 Constitution, which outlines the federal system of government and the hybrid application of religious, customary, and civil laws. The Constitution provides that states shall have High Courts, and may also have Shari’ah and Customary courts of appeal where required. During the same time period, 12 northern Nigerian states have also re-integrated Islamic criminal law in various ways. While the Shari’ah laws are based on long-standing practices, receive widespread support from Muslims, and apply only to Muslims, state enforcement of religious laws presents serious challenges to fully respecting freedom of religion or belief.
June 03, 2013
...that particularly severe religious freedom violations are increasingly perpetrated by non-state actors in failing or failed states?One of the greatest emerging threats to freedom of religion or belief comes not from the actions of governments but from non-state actors. Non-state actors vary greatly and include individuals, mobs, vigilante groups, anti-government insurgents, militant organizations, and U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs) and/or are members of the al-Qaeda terrorist network. They differ significantly in ideology, purpose, end goals, and level of international and domestic recognition, and generally are motivated by a violent religious ideology to impose their religious beliefs on local populations and harshly punish those who do not abide by their religious edicts.
In Sub-Saharan Africa, violent religious extremist groups operate in failed and poorly governed states to both impose their extremist ideologies on vulnerable populations and challenge central authorities. From 2008 to 2012, al-Shabaab, a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization allied with al-Qaeda, controlled central and southern Somalia, a failed state for more than 20 years. A March 2012 coup d’état led to a breakdown of government in northern Mali, leaving it vulnerable to religious extremist groups operating in the region including: al-Qaeda in the Lands of the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), Ansar al-Din (Defenders of the Faith), and the Movement for the Unity and Jihad in West Africa (MUJWA). Both al-Shabaab and the three terrorist groups in Mali implemented hudood punishments on those accused of crimes or deviation from accepted behaviors, and desecrated historic Sufi shrines in their war against the Sufi interpretation of Islam. Boko Haram operates throughout northern Nigeria and has targeted churches, individual Christians, government institutions and leaders, and schools in what it states are efforts to “cleanse” Nigeria of “morally corrupt” influences and implement “pure” Shari’ah law to resolve the ills facing northern Nigerian Muslims.
Violence from non-state actors often also arises in countries where the government exhibits hostility towards particular religious communities, either religious minorities or dissenting members of the religious majority. When discriminatory government laws or policies signal that certain groups are disfavored, non-state actors feel empowered to carry out violent attacks with little fear of reprisal. This is the case in Pakistan where mobs attack those deemed in violation of the country’s blasphemy laws. As they fight the Karzai government in Afghanistan, the Taliban continues to commit gross religious freedom violations. In 2012, the Taliban executed 11 women for their advocacy work; in August they beheaded 15 men and two women for dancing at a party and bombed a mosque in Nangahar province killing 19; and in October, a Taliban suicide bombing killed at least 42 at a mosque during Eid.
In countries where these organizations operate, central and local government authorities often lack the capacity to stop the groups and need international assistance. To date, governments largely have responded to these groups with military action, with little attention to addressing political, societal, or economic policies that drive conflict and allow such groups to gain a foothold in society. Ultimately, when violent non-state actors remain unchallenged, or are not successfully challenged, they pose not only a threat to human rights, but also to the stability of the government in the country and regional security.