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July 24, 2018
Jul 24, 2018
This op-ed originally appeared in Religion News Service on July 24, 2018.
By Gayle Manchin and Johnnie Moore
(RNS) - This week, as hundreds of religious leaders, nonprofit heads and government officials gather in Washington for the State Department's first-ever ministerial on religious freedom, an election about to take place in Pakistan shows why the cause of religious freedom is as important as it has ever been in modern history.
For Pakistan’s Christians and minority Ahmadi Muslims, the run-up to Wednesday’s (July 25) vote has been terrifying. New hard-line Islamist political parties, such as the Allah-o-Akbar Tehreek and the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan, have risen, focusing on denigrating the Ahmadis.
Last November, the TLP organized a violent protest that called for Ahmadi Muslims to be removed from high positions in Pakistani society, and demanded that a list be created of all Ahmadi Muslims working in the government. Ahmadis have long been subject to targeted killings, bomb attacks and vigilante violence, and the prospect of being publicly identified cast an even darker shadow over the community’s future
This kind of harassment is not isolated to extremist political parties. Earlier this month, Imran Khan, the celebrated cricketer and the establishment Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party’s candidate for prime minister, announced his support for controversial blasphemy laws, which have long been used to target and punish religious minorities. Khan’s hard-line approach has further marginalized religious minority communities.
Meanwhile, on July 4, the Islamabad High Court ruled that citizens must declare their faith when applying for any government-issued identification, a necessity for government employment. By stating that all citizens “have a right to know the religious beliefs of civil servants,” the IHC has laid the path for extremist groups to physically target and eliminate anyone who doesn’t fall in line with the political establishment’s ideology.
The Federal Minister for Information appealed the court’s decision, but when Pakistan’s most popular leaders and highest courts signal that certain religious communities are second-class citizens, the damage has already been done.
Take, for example, an attack on the 100-year-old historic Ahmadi mosque in Sialkot in May. Though the Ahmadi community was granted permission to make renovations, a mob attacked the mosque and the historical residence of the faith’s founder under the eye of the municipal authorities. The mob was allegedly led by Hafiz Hamid Raza, who is affiliated with Khan’s PTI.
Despite widespread international condemnation, a resolution in Pakistan’s Sindh province condemning the attack was rejected by legislators. The participation of a political leader in the attack on the mosque and the subsequent refusal to denounce such acts by a provincial assembly affirm that the Pakistani state is itself a major part of the problem.
As a consequence of the increasing discrimination, incitement and violence targeting Ahmadis, the community has decided to boycott the elections entirely out of fear that its members may be attacked.
Similar examples could be drawn from Pakistan’s Christian community, whose citizens have been frequently, unjustly imprisoned without proper due process and whose churches have been regularly attacked by extremists to the neglect of the nation’s security forces.
The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, on which we both serve, has also been monitoring alarming efforts within Pakistan’s military establishment to encourage politicians to stoke interreligious hate and violence in order to gain campaign funding and electoral support from religiously intolerant voters.
Pakistan’s decline has been consistent and entirely predictable. Every year since 2002, USCIRF has recommended to the State Department that Pakistan be designated a “country of particular concern” due to “ongoing, systematic, and egregious violations of religious freedom.”
The international community and the U.S. government must put unrelenting pressure on whoever wins Wednesday’s election to immediately stop the harassment of the country’s religious minorities. The State Department should work collaboratively with its European partners, including the European Union and United Kingdom, to put Pakistan on notice that its failure to address these concerns will impact aid and trade.
Without sustained pressure from the U.S. and international community, the already dwindling population of religious minorities in Pakistan will soon face an existential threat.
The shame of our world’s record on religious freedom is that the story of any of a dozen minority groups could be told just by changing the names and country in this article. In a dozen more, the situation has so degraded that the persecuted minorities would like nothing more than to be in the situation of the Christians and Ahmadis in Pakistan today.
The success of this week’s ministerial will be determined not by the quality of sentiments shared by those present but by the strategic change made because of it. All eyes will be on Pakistan as the first of many places in which much must be done, fast.
(The Rev. Johnnie Moore, as a commissioner, and Gayle C. Manchin, as a vice chair, serve on the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom. The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily represent those of Religion News Service.)
October 27, 2016
Oct 27, 2016
FOR YOUR INFORMATION
October 27, 2016 | By Thomas J. Reese, S.J. and Daniel Mark
The following op-ed appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer on October 27, 2016
Abdul Shakoor is a member of the Ahmadiyya community in Pakistan. Mahvash Sabet and Fariba Kamalabadi are leaders of the Baha'i community in Iran. Patriarch Abune Antonios headed the Orthodox Church in Eritrea.
These brave people share one tragic circumstance: They have been detained by their own governments, the culmination of a harsh denial of their religious freedom, a freedom that is enshrined in international human rights standards and laws.
Because they cannot speak for themselves, we must speak for these religious prisoners of conscience and for countless others who have been silenced. We do so as chair and vice chairman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF). And we do so today, on International Religious Freedom Day, which marks the enactment on Oct. 27, 1998, of the International Religious Freedom Act.
In addition to creating an international religious freedom office in the State Department, the Religious Freedom Act established USCIRF as an independent, bipartisan federal body to monitor religious freedom abuses abroad and provide policy recommendations to the president, secretary of state, and Congress.
Nearly two decades later, standing for religious freedom worldwide is as important as ever. While more than 80 percent of the world's population claims some religious affiliation, billions live under governments that perpetrate or tolerate serious abuses against freedom of religion or belief.
Abdul Shakoor is among them. In December, Pakistan's government charged the 80-year-old optician with propagating his Ahmadi Muslim faith - a crime under the Pakistani penal code - and stirring up "religious hatred" and "sectarianism" - a crime under the 1997 Anti-Terrorism Act. Falsely accused of selling to an undercover police officer an Ahmadiyya commentary on the Qur'an and other publications, Shakoor received in January concurrent sentences of five years and three years in prison.
Mahvash Sabet and Fariba Kamalabadi are also serving prison time for their faith. They, along with five others, are known as the Baha'i Seven, the incarcerated leaders of Iran's Baha'i religious minority, which the Iranian government relentlessly persecutes. Arrested in 2008, both were given 20-year sentences on false charges of espionage, propaganda against the "Islamic Republic," and establishment of an illegal administration.
Patriarch Abune Antonios has been detained since 2007, after government officials deposed him as head of the Eritrean Orthodox Church, the nation's largest religious community. His "crimes" included his call for the release of prisoners of conscience and his refusal to excommunicate 3,000 parishioners who opposed Eritrea's brutal dictatorship. Patriarch Antonios is being held incommunicado and is reportedly being denied medical treatment for severe diabetes.
The plight of these prisoners highlights the abysmal status of religious freedom in the countries that persecute them.
Pakistan deploys its blasphemy laws to convict and imprison people, primarily members of religious minorities, from Ahmadiyya Muslims to Christians, while failing to protect them from attacks from violent religious extremists.
Iran's religious minorities, from Baha'is to Christians and Sunni Muslims, regularly face imprisonment and other abuse.
Eritrea's government has been called the North Korea of Africa due to its vigorous assault on the rights of its people, including the right to religious freedom.
The plight of these religious prisoners and the status of religious freedom in their countries are deplorable.
For the sake of these and other prisoners of conscience we dare not be silent. We call for their immediate release, and we ask free people everywhere to urge Pakistan, Iran, and Eritrea to release every religious prisoner of conscience they hold.
We also urge the State Department to adhere to the Religious Freedom Act's mandate to compile a comprehensive list of religious prisoners, which would better enable State to advocate for the release of specific prisoners held by nations across the globe.
Furthermore, we strongly recommend that the State Department follow USCIRF's long-standing recommendation to designate Pakistan a country of particular concern (CPC), marking it as one of the world's worst abusers of religious freedom. And we recommend that State continue designating Iran and Eritrea as CPCs for their abysmal religious freedom records.
As we mark International Religious Freedom Day, let us stand for the freedom of all people to practice their religion alone and in groups, in public and in private, and let the United States and the international community hold governments accountable for the protection of this inalienable human right.
Father Thomas J. Reese, S.J., (treesesj@ncronline.org) is chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (www.uscirf.gov). Daniel Mark (dmark@uscirf.gov) serves as vice chairman and is an assistant professor of political science and Navy ROTC battalion professor at Villanova University.
July 08, 2013
Jul 8, 2013
FOR YOUR INFORMATIONJuly 8, 2013 | By Katrina Lantos Swett
The following appeared in Eurasia Review on July 4th, 2013.
Last Saturday, on June 29, I was honored to speak in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania to the Ahmadiyya Muslim American Community's 65th Annual Convention.
For the past several years, the Ahmadiyya have chosen Harrisburg for their convention, just days before America's July 4 celebration.
Two hours east of Harrisburg is Philadelphia, where our Declaration of Independence was signed on that date. Less than an hour south is Gettysburg, where 150 years ago, in the days leading up to July 4, a crucial Civil War battle was raging.
Philadelphia is where America, through its Declaration, proclaimed that people are born equal and free. Gettysburg is where the nation, through an otherwise terrible war, began to turn those words more fully into deeds, leading to a new birth of freedom upon the abolition of slavery. And last Saturday, Harrisburg was where we reaffirmed America's declaration that freedom -- including freedom of religion or belief -- is not just for Americans, but for everyone, including Ahmadiyya Muslims and others.
Founded in India in 1889, the Ahmadiyya community is known for its respect for tolerance and freedom. Claiming tens of millions of adherents worldwide, its members have lived in our country for nearly a century. Following 9/11, America's Ahmadiyya community literally gave its blood for our nation, eventually donating over 25,000 live-saving units in memory of those who fell that day.
While in many ways, Ahmadiyya precepts mirror our values, these values continue to come under harsh assault globally.
Nearly three-fourths of the world's people live in nations where freedom of religion and related human rights are under brutal siege. That includes millions of Ahmadiyya members.
For nearly four decades, the constitution of Pakistan has deemed all Ahmadiyya "non- Muslims.”
For more than a quarter century, its government has barred them from calling their worship centers "mosques,” publicly uttering the traditional Islamic greeting or quoting from the Qur'an, and displaying Islam"s basic affirmation. Ahmadiyya are prohibited from sharing their beliefs with others or disseminating their material. They are restricted from building houses of worship and holding public gatherings. And since they must register as non-Muslims to vote, Ahmadiyyas effectively are disenfranchised.
Coupled with Pakistan"s blasphemy laws, these statutes have helped foster a climate of intimidation and violence against Ahmadiyya members.
In Indonesia, since June 2008, the government has restricted Ahmadiyya activity to private worship and prohibited members from sharing their faith. In parts of East and West Java and elsewhere, extremist religious groups press local officials to close places of worship or ban Ahmadiyya activity altogether.
In Saudi Arabia, Ahmadiyya members have been deported for their beliefs. In Egypt, they have been charged under its blasphemy laws. In Kazakhstan, the government"s application of its Religion Law has denied their legal legitimacy.
The same societies that violate the religious freedom of Ahmadiyya abuse the rights of others. As USCIRF has documented, where Ahmadiyya suffer, Hindus and Christians, Sikhs and Baha"is, Shi"a and other Muslims, often are persecuted as well.
In order to protect the rights of all, including the Ahmadiyya, and foster peaceful, stable societies, Washington needs to make religious freedom a key foreign policy priority.
The U.S. government also should confront nations which single out the Ahmadiyya for persecution. For example, it should press Pakistan to amend its constitution and rescind all anti-Ahmadiyya laws. It should urge Indonesia to overturn its 2008 decree and all provincial bans against Ahmadiyya religious practice. It should press both governments to investigate acts of violence thoroughly and prosecute perpetrators vigorously. And until Pakistan proves itself serious about reform, USCIRF believes that it qualifies as a "country of particular concern.”
Today, we honor our founding Declaration. We remember that freedoms are not privileges for rulers to bestow or withhold, but unalienable rights ordained by a just and merciful Creator, which no person or government can abuse without surrendering moral authority and legitimacy.
*Katrina Lantos Swett is the Chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF).
To interview a USCIRF Commissioner please contact USCIRF at (202) 523-3258 or media@uscirf.gov.
August 12, 2013
Aug 12, 2013
For Your Information
August 12, 2013 | By Robert P. George
The following op-ed appeared in Foreign Policy on August 9, 2013:
On Sunday, August 11, Pakistan will celebrate National Minorities Day, giving recently-elected Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif his first formal opportunity to recognize the value of religious minority communities to the nation.
Created in 2011, this day is a bittersweet irony for Pakistan.
On the one hand, it recalls the inclusive and tolerant vision of the past: of Quaid-e-Azam Mohammed Ali Jinnah, Pakistan's founder, whose speech to the nation on August 11, 1947 included these words:
"You are free. You are free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your mosques or any other places of worship...You may belong to any religion or caste or creed - that has nothing to do with the business of the state."
On the other hand, it highlights the stark realities of the present: how Pakistan has betrayed Jinnah's vision by failing to fulfill his words with concrete actions that protect religious minorities from harm. Indeed, Islamabad has done little to stem a rising tide of violence against members of Pakistan's Ahmadi, Christian, Hindu, Shi'a, and Sikh communities.
Last month, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) released the findings from its Pakistan Religious Violence Project . Tracking publicly reported attacks against religious communities over the past 18 months, the project collected alarming data that catalogued the human toll of Pakistan's intolerance and hatred. During that time period, there were more than 200 incidents of sectarian violence that led to 1,800 casualties, including more than 700 deaths.
Many of those killed or injured were Shi'a citizens, with some of the most lethal assaults taking place during Shi'a holy months and pilgrimages. During the year-and-a-half period covered by the study, there were 77 attacks against the Shi'a, 54 against Ahmadis, 37 against Christians, 16 against Hindus, and 3 against Sikhs.
Since the publication of USCIRF's report, the death toll has continued to rise. On July 27, at least 57 people were killed and more than 150 woundedby bombs targeting a market frequented by Shi'a in northwestern Pakistan.
To his credit, Sharif raised concerns about the plight of religious minorities in his maiden speech to Pakistan's National Assemblyand tasked his government to crack down on militants targeting the Shi'a. Hopefully his comments reflect a realization that the time for mere talk and symbolism has passed and that resolute action is needed to ensure that the perpetrators of violence against religious communities are arrested, prosecuted, and jailed along with the violent extremist groups that have spurred the bloodshed.
Moreover, police officers must be held accountable for thwarting justice when they turn a blind eye to attacks or refuse to file police reports when the victims are religious minorities.
With luck, Sharif's comments also intimate that the government will reconsider its enforcement of blasphemy and anti-Ahmadi laws which violate international human rights standards and encourage extremist attacks on perceived transgressors. Just recently, a Christian man, Sajjad Masih, was found guilty of denigrating the Prophet Mohammedand sentenced to life imprisonment, despite the accuser recanting. He joins nearly 40 others who either are on death row or serving life sentences for allegedly blasphemous activity.
Interestingly, Masih's sentencing occurred on the eve of the fourth anniversary of attacks against Christians in Punjab in the village of Gojra -- where Masih is from-- in which eight were killed, 18 were injured, two churches and at least 75 houses were burned, and not a single perpetrator was brought to justice.
Pakistan's surreal inversion of justice, in which some are punished for alleged words and beliefs while others commit literal acts of violence against them with impunity and without consequence, must end. Sharif's government must prove it is serious about ending this dual attack on its most vulnerable citizens. One simple step it can take immediately is to reopen the Federal Ministry of Interfaith Harmony and reaffirm its mission of promoting respect for members of all religious communities, particularly religious minorities. In the meantime, USCIRF will keep monitoring the situation and the Sharif government to determine whether it should continue recommending that the United States designate Pakistan a "country of particular concern," marking it as among the world's most egregious violators of freedom of religion or belief.
Sixty-six years ago, Pakistan's founding father laid a dream of equality and freedom before his nation. It is time for Pakistan's government to honor that dream not merely by repeating its words, but enacting it through deeds.
Robert P. George is the Chairman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF).
August 11, 2015
Aug 11, 2015
FOR YOUR INFORMATIONAugust 11, 2015 | Katrina Lantos Swett and Mary Ann Glendon
The following op-ed appeared in Foreign Policy on August 10, 2015
As their nation celebrates National Minorities Day on Tuesday, August 11, many Pakistanis will recall these memorable words:
“You are free. You are free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your mosques or any other places of worship….You may belong to any religion or caste or creed. That has nothing to do with the business of the state.”
On August 11, 1947, Pakistan’s founding father, Muhammed Ali Jinnah, proclaimed that message of acceptance of religious minorities in a historic speech to his country.
Sixty-one years later, in November 2008, Pakistan witnessed another historic event — a Christian being sworn in to its cabinet.
On that day, the new official eloquently echoed that message:
“I decided to become Federal Minister for Minority Affairs to advocate the cause of the oppressed and the marginalized communities of Pakistan. I have devoted my life to struggle for human equality, social justice, religious freedom, and to uplift and empower the religious minority communities of Pakistan.”
Less than three years later, in March 2011, the man who delivered those words was assassinated.
Shahbaz Bhatti’s murder shocked and grieved commissioners and staff members on the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), on which we now serve, for he was a true friend and a force for liberty. His murder followed a similar atrocity just two months earlier, when another Pakistani government official, Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer, a Muslim, met the same fate.
Both men had defended a vision of a tolerant, multicultural society. Both had opposed Pakistan’s blasphemy law as a stark betrayal of that vision. Both paid the ultimate price for their courage.
So what happened? How did the vision atrophy?
A partial answer may be found in a USCIRF-sponsored study issued the following November.
Titled “Connecting the Dots: Education and Religious Discrimination in Pakistan,” the study examined Pakistan’s public school and madrassa systems, and included interviews with teachers and students. The goal was to explore linkages between the portrayal of religious minorities, biases against these minorities, and subsequent acts of discrimination or violence.
The study found that school textbooks either failed to mention Pakistan’s religious minorities or referred to them in derogatory ways.
Hindus and Christians were depicted in especially negative terms, with inaccurate and offensive references. Teachers had little understanding of religious minorities, expressed extremely negative views of Ahmadis, Christians, and Jews especially, and transmitted such biases to their students.
While USCIRF is updating the study and will release the findings later this year, the conclusion thus far is clear: Pakistan’s educational system has been part of the problem and not the solution, conveying the message that religious minorities are second-class human beings.
The results are tragically evident, as extremists target Shi’a Muslim processions, pilgrimages, and gathering places, launch vigilante and terrorist attacks against Christians, commit drive-by shootings against Ahmadis, compel Hindus to flee the country due to violence and forced conversions, and target dissenting Muslims.
In March of this year, we led the first-ever Commissioner-level USCIRF visit to Pakistan. We met with high-level officials including national security adviser Sartaj Aziz, the minister of interior, the religious affairs minister, and the attorney general, as well as madrassa leaders and religious minority members.
We saw how Pakistan remains a nation with serious challenges impacting religious freedom, including Pakistan’s blasphemy law and related statutes. We heard how they encourage acts of violence against the religious “other,” be they Christians, Hindus, or Muslims.
These issues, among others, underscore why we continue to call on the U.S. State Department to designate Pakistan a Country of Particular Concern, marking it as one of the world’s worst religious freedom violators.
To be sure, there are faint glimmers of hope on the horizon.
Punjab’s government announced earlier this year that it was reviewing blasphemy cases. The national government finally is talking of reforming Pakistan’s blasphemy law to add penalties for false accusations. And late last month, Pakistan’s Supreme Court in Lahore issued a stay of execution for Aasia Bibi and indicated that the full bench in Islamabad should hear her appeal.
We see opportunity for engagement with Pakistan. USCIRF has recommended that Washington initiate a bilateral engagement on religious freedom and tolerance. The United States also can direct its security assistance funds to help protect minority worship sites and other places where minorities congregate.
But such assistance will be for naught unless Pakistan takes action on its own.
Pakistan must break the vicious cycles of impunity and lawlessness by arresting, prosecuting, and jailing all perpetrators of violence against religious communities and their advocates. It must hold police officers accountable for turning a blind eye to attacks or refusing to file police reports when the victims are members of religious minorities. And while we applaud the ruling of Pakistan’s Supreme Court last year to create a special police force to protect religious minorities, as well as a national commission on minorities, Pakistan must implement it sooner rather than later.
Pakistan also must engage in educational reform by uprooting the intolerance in schools and textbooks. And it must repeal or dramatically reform its blasphemy and anti-Ahmadi laws.
On National Minorities Day, let Pakistan’s government, from Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on down, rededicate itself fully to religious freedom and the value of tolerance articulated at its founding.
To interview a USCIRF Commissioner, please contact USCIRF at media@uscirf.gov or 202-786-0615.
November 16, 2017
Nov 16, 2017
The following originally op-ed appeared in The Hill on November 16, 2017
By former USCIRF Commissioners Daniel Mark and Sandra Jolley
People love lists. And when those lists are in the news, people generally want to be on them: The Top Ten. Who’s Who. Best Dressed.
But no one wants to be on our lists.
That is because our job, as members of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), is to list the countries responsible for perpetrating or tolerating the world’s worst violations of religious freedom.
These lists, mandated by Congress, are the centerpiece of our annual recommendations for promoting religious freedom abroad through U.S. foreign policy. From there, our lists go to the State Department, which must determine whether to adopt our recommendations for designating the world’s worst violators as “countries of particular concern” (CPCs).
Thanks to new legislation, the designation of CPCs by the State Department — which did not occur every year and which has not happened since October 2016 — is expected in November. And we, as chairman and vice chairwoman of USCIRF, very much hope that the Trump administration’s list of CPCs will look a lot like ours.
Unfortunately, the State Department designations, which were required by law no later than Nov. 13, still have not been made. Failing to designate CPCs tells the violators of religious freedom around the world that the United States is looking away. The State Department should make such designations without delay.
In our annual report, released in April, USCIRF recommended that 16 countries be designated CPCs: Burma, Central African Republic, China, Eritrea, Iran, Nigeria, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.
Unfortunately, since that time, there has been plenty more bad news to confirm the judgments on our list: Russia’s Supreme Court outlawed the Jehovah’s Witnesses, wiping out the legal existence of an entire religion; Rohingya Muslims are fleeing Burma in the hundreds of thousands as that country’s military leaders conduct what United Nations officials have described as ethnic cleansing; and Pakistan continues its persecution of the Ahmadiyya community, particularly through the use and abuse of blasphemy laws (including death sentences) that have no place in the 21st century.
Meanwhile, USCIRF commends the Trump administration’s nomination of Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback as ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom. If confirmed before the CPC designations are made, Gov. Brownback’s first priority should be to see all 16 countries designated as CPCs by the State Department.
For now, let us look at just three.
Russia: This year is the first time USCIRF ever recommended that Russia be designated as a CPC — one of the worst of the worst when it comes to religious freedom violations. We did not come to this conclusion lightly, and Russian actions since have only reinforced our position.
In outlawing the Jehovah’s Witnesses, Russia absurdly claimed that this pacifist, non-political group was a threat under Russia’s anti-extremism laws. The Witnesses can no longer proselytize, their organization’s property is subject to seizure, they face sanction for gathering to worship, and they now occupy a category of “extremists” with neo-Nazis and jihadists.
Another target of Russia’s attacks is Scientologists. After the Supreme Court ruling against the Witnesses, Russia’s Federal Security Bureau arrested, detained and interrogated five Scientologist leaders in St. Petersburg: Anastasiya Terentyeva, Sakhib Aliev, Ivan Matsytski, Galina Shurinova, and Konstantia Esaulkova. Alleging crimes related to “commercial activity,” these arrests make it clear the Supreme Court ruling against the Witnesses simply cleared the way for more harassment of minority groups.
Moreover, Russia has the dubious distinction of being a country that not only oppresses its religious minorities — it also exports such oppression, as is evidenced by the treatment
of religious minorities in Russian-occupied Ukraine and Crimea.
Burma: Burma’s Rohingya Muslim population has been called the most persecuted religious minority in the world. Now that truth is being underlined — in ink throughout the world’s headlines and in blood on the earth, as more than half a million have fled for their lives. They flee burned villages and slaughtered families. They flee barefoot over barbed wire and landmines. Now is surely not the time for the U.S. to reverse its longstanding designation of Burma as a CPC.
Pakistan: A U.S. ally in counterterrorism yet also a supporter of extremism in many forms, Pakistan is a conundrum for U.S. policymakers. On religious freedom grounds, however, the issue is clear: Pakistan is among the world’s worst violators. Its blasphemy and anti-Ahmadiyya laws are indefensible, and, through acts of commission and omission, the government deserves blame for the virulence and violence against the Ahmadiyya community throughout Pakistani society.
And the Ahmadis are but one notable example of religious persecution in Pakistan. For years, the State Department has declined to take up our recommendation, but we believe that the new Trump administration will take a principled stand and finally designate Pakistan a CPC.
Also thanks, to new legislation, USCIRF recommended this year for the first time three non-state actors for designation as “entities of particular concern” (EPCs): the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in Iraq and Syria; the Taliban in Afghanistan; and al-Shabaab in Somalia.
The administration does not need to make its designations of EPCs in November, but there is no time to waste. We look forward to working with the White House and the State Department on identifying EPCs and the tools to use against them.
For now, the administration can make a strong start in advancing international religious freedom by naming those 16 countries as countries of particular concern.
Daniel Mark and Sandra Jolley are, respectively, the chairman and vice chairwoman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.
June 03, 2015
Jun 3, 2015
FOR YOUR INFORMATIONJune 3, 2015 | Katrina Lantos Swett and Mary Ann Glendon
The following op-ed appeared in The National Interest on June 3, 2015
A court in Afghanistan recently sentenced eleven police officers to one-year jail terms for failing to stop a mob in March from lynching Farkhunda, a Kabul woman falsely accused of burning a Quran. Four men earlier had been convicted of and sentenced to death for her murder. If such justice is possible even in Afghanistan, hardly a bastion of protection for religious freedom and other human rights, why not in neighboring Pakistan? Why is there rarely any accountability in Pakistan for killing people accused of blasphemy? Why are law enforcement officials not held responsible for failing to apprehend the killers? And what, if anything, can the United States and the world community do about it?
We visited Pakistan in March as members of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF). There we met with high-level officials including National Security Adviser Sartaj Aziz, the Minister of Interior Secretary, the Minister for Religious Affairs, and the Attorney General, as well as madrassa leaders and religious minorities. We repeatedly saw how, in a number of ways, Pakistan’s blasphemy law and related statutes remain a serious and growing problem, how religious minorities bear the brunt of it, and how the greatest casualty is Pakistan’s founding heritage of respect for religious freedom and diversity.
The blasphemy law on its face flatly violates both freedom of religion and freedom of expression. Worse still, Pakistan vigorously applies this law. Nearly forty Pakistanis are on death row or serving life sentences for blasphemy, a statistic unmatched anywhere in the world. Moreover, the weight of this law falls disproportionately on members of religious minority communities, such as Christians, Hindus, Sikhs, and Ahmadis. For the Ahmadis, this law’s enforcement is on top of other prohibitions which severely restrict them from practicing their faith. In addition, enforcement of such laws emboldens religious extremist groups and their sympathizers to assault these minorities—as seen most recently when terrorists slaughtered Ismaili Muslims on a bus. And finally, Pakistan’s zealous enforcement of these laws is in contrast to the pronounced lack of zeal bringing to justice those responsible for such attacks.
Notably, when it comes to countering the violence, a strong Pakistani Supreme Court ruling in 2014 recognized that the state must do more. This far-ranging decision, which quoted the Quran and Alexis de Tocqueville, mandated the creation of a special police force to protect religious minorities and a national commission on minorities. However, this police force has yet to be created and the religious minority commission remains buried within the Ministry for Religious Affairs with no access to Pakistan’s prime minister.
Since returning home, we have reflected on the fact that Pakistan, like the United States, is a multi-ethnic and multi-religious nation. And as Pakistan’s prime minister has stated publicly, this diversity can be a strength if the nation treats minorities as citizens with equal rights. But the devastating attack by extremists on two churches in Lahore on the day we departed underscores our greatest concerns.
Consequently, we remain convinced that the State Department should designate Pakistan a “country of particular concern” for its continued record of failure in protecting religious freedom. Such a designation would elevate the discussion between Washington and Islamabad by signaling serious concern about current conditions.
But the United States can also lend a hand, and we see opportunities for constructive engagement that empowers those working to protect Pakistan’s religious diversity and combat extremism. For instance, creating a new avenue for U.S.-Pakistani engagement would strengthen Pakistani institutions that seek to help religious minorities. Also, as USCIRF has recommended, the United States could direct its security assistance funds to help protect minority worship sites. And reforming Pakistan’s blasphemy law is both essential and possible, especially given the Punjab provincial government’s hopeful step to review twenty percent of the 262 cases of alleged blasphemous behavior.
The United States can help move Pakistan forward, but we needn’t do it alone: we can work with international partners to raise concerns in various settings and encourage Pakistan’s government to invite the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief to visit Pakistan. Pakistan is a beautiful but complicated and, increasingly, dangerous country. With help from the United States and the world community, Pakistan must reverse its slide away from tolerance, and protect religious diversity and freedom.
Katrina Lantos Swett is Chair of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF). Mary Ann Glendon is a USCIRF Commissioner.
August 22, 2013
Aug 22, 2013
FOR YOUR INFORMATIONAugust 21, 2013 | By Robert P. George and Katrina Lantos Swett
The following op-ed appeared in The Washington Post on August 21, 2013.
Although religious freedom is a pivotal human right, critical to national security and global stability, key provisions of the landmark International Religious Freedom Act are being neglected years after its passage. A number of studies demonstrates the link between freedom of religion and societal well-being, while its absence correlates closely with instability and violent religious extremism, including terrorism. Many governments, including those topping the U.S. foreign policy and security agendas, perpetrate or tolerate acts of religious repression, such as arbitrary detention, torture and murder.
The International Religious Freedom Act provides vital tools, including identifying and sanctioning the world's worst violators. But over many years and different administrations, the executive branch has not employed them fully or in a timely manner. With a key deadline for action arriving this month, it is time to confront this unwise failure to act.
When the act was passed in 1998, it made the promotion of religious freedom an official U.S. foreign policy priority and established at the State Department an ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom. The legislation also created a bipartisan and independent U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom , on which we serve, to monitor this right worldwide and make policy recommendations to Congress, the secretary of state and the president.
Congress gave the legislation real teeth through a groundbreaking enforcement mechanism: requiring annual administration review and designation of "countries of particular concern,” defined as those governments engaging in or allowing "systematic, ongoing, egregious” violations.
While the law provides the administration with flexibility in how it will pressure those countries, the review and designation process is not discretionary. The law requires it. Whatever one's view of appropriate sanctions for violators, there can be little disagreement on the imperative of bearing witness to abuses.
Unfortunately, neither Republican nor Democratic administrations have consistently designated countries that clearly meet the standard for offenders. The Bush administration issued several designations in its first term but let the process fall off track in its second. The Obama administration issued designations only once during its first term, in August 2011.
The result? Violators such as Egypt, Pakistan and Vietnam are escaping the accountability that the International Religious Freedom Act is meant to provide.
Even those nations currently designated as "countries of particular concern” could escape accountability if there are no designations this month; under the law, countries remain designated until removed, but any corresponding penalties expire after two years. Without new designations, sanctions attached in 2011 to Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea and Sudan will expire this month. And while those countries are subject to sanctions under other U.S. laws, allowing the International Religious Freedom Act's sanctions authority to expire would send the disturbing message that the United States won"t implement its own law on religious freedom.
To be sure, the Obama administration has taken some positive steps. It created a State Department working group on religion and foreign policy and this month established a new faith-based office , both tasked with religious engagement.
Also this month, Secretary of State John Kerry announced a U.S. Strategy on Religious Leader and Faith Community Engagement . As our commission has recommended, promoting religious freedom is among the three key objectives of this engagement.
Engagement should be part of any strategy for the promotion of religious freedom. But what will move gross offenders to stop persecuting individuals if not the credible threat of consequences? By letting the process of designating offenders atrophy, the United States surrenders its leverage while creating a chilling precedent for other rights. If this process is allowed to wither, what will happen to similarly designed programs such as the tiered system of the Trafficking in Persons Report, which was modeled on this approach?
The process of designating countries of particular concern works when deployed as intended - that is, not as a single bludgeon but as a targeted tool. When diplomacy is combined with the prospect or reality of such designations and attendant sanctions or other specific diplomatic and related actions, repressive governments - including Vietnam and Turkmenistan - have made meaningful changes. Moreover, countries often consider such a designation a stigma and blow to their world standing. Because a designation of concern is rightly perceived as an important factor in a country's relationships with the United States, it can create political will for reform where none otherwise would exist.
For the sake of freedom and security, it is time to apply the International Religious Freedom Act fully and the country designation process decisively. Congress has the right and the duty to press the executive branch to do so.
Robert P. George is chairman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. Katrina Lantos Swett is a vice chairwoman of the commission.
To interview a USCIRF Commissioner, please contact Kalinda Stephenson at 202-786-0613 or kstephenson@uscirf.gov.
September 28, 2015
Sep 28, 2015
FOR YOUR INFORMATION
September 28, 2015 | Daniel I. Mark and Katrina Lantos Swett
The following op-ed appeared in The Philadelphia Inquirer on September 27, 2015
Washington hosted two dramatically different dignitaries last week - Pope Francis and Chinese President Xi Jinping. Both had meetings with President Obama, and the pope became the first pontiff to address a joint meeting of Congress.
These two leaders are on exactly opposite paths: Pope Francis is a stalwart champion of human rights and witness for religious freedom while President Xi heads a regime that is one of the world's most notorious violators of human rights, including religious freedom.
Pope Francis embodies religious freedom's universal message and promise, as cited in Article 18 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights:
"Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance."
In contrast, President Xi symbolizes a world in which more than 75 percent of people live in countries that perpetrate or tolerate serious violations of this liberty.
Despite this global crisis for religious freedom, people who cherish this right are found across the globe. Now, people around the world must speak for the persecuted with one powerful, united voice.
Last weekend in New York, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) took its latest step in promoting that aim, bringing together like-minded people from nearly 50 countries for an unprecedented meeting. Cosponsored by the International Panel of Parliamentarians for Freedom of Religion or Belief (IPP), the gathering included more than 100 parliamentarians as well as diplomats and civil society and religious leaders. They met next to the United Nations, where the General Assembly is now in its 70th annual session.
Since its launch last November, the IPP has focused on threats to religious freedom from both governments and nonstate actors. Some governments, including China's and North Korea's, are secular tyrannies that suppress religious groups across the board. Other countries, such as Iran and Sudan, elevate a single religion or religious interpretation while persecuting those who embrace alternatives.
These state actors abuse religious freedom in many ways, including by imprisoning people due to their beliefs and actions. In China, for example, Ilham Tohti, a respected Uighur Muslim scholar, is serving a life sentence for alleged "separatism." Iran holds hundreds of religious prisoners, from Baha'is to Christians, from Sufis and Sunnis to Shiite reformers and clerics.
At least one electoral democracy is also a major abuser of religious freedom. Pakistan, which a USCIRF delegation visited for the first time in March, has more people on death row or serving life sentences for blasphemy than any other country. Pakistan's blasphemy law not only violates freedom of religion but also emboldens nonstate actors, including extremist religious groups, to assault and murder perceived transgressors.
In addition, over the last year, nonstate religious actors have fueled some of the worst humanitarian crises of our time. In both Iraq and Syria, ISIS and other violent religious groups have kidnapped and enslaved Yazidi and Christian women and girls, beheaded or crucified men and boys, driven families from their homes, and uprooted 2,000-year-old faith communities that are now threatened with extinction.
In Nigeria, Boko Haram has perpetrated mass killings at churches and mass kidnappings of children.
In Burma, Buddhist extremists have assaulted Rohingya Muslims.
In the Central African Republic, fighting between Christians and Muslims has destroyed nearly all the country's mosques.
And these conflicts have forced millions of people to flee for their lives.
The IPP has written over the last nine months to the heads of state of Myanmar, Pakistan, and Indonesia, to the Sudanese foreign minister, and to the North Korean ambassador to the United Nations. Citing international pressure, Pakistan's government introduced reforms to its blasphemy law; Sudan released two jailed Christian pastors; and the North Koreans invited Brazilian members of IPP to Pyongyang to discuss religious freedom concerns.
Last weekend, the IPP's 100 parliamentarians signed the New York Resolution on Freedom of Religion or Belief.
We applaud them for standing for Pope Francis' way of freedom, not President Xi's path of repression.
To interview a USCIRF Commissioner, please contact USCIRF at media@uscirf.gov or at 202-786-0615.
December 03, 2013
Dec 3, 2013
FOR YOUR INFORMATIONDecember 2, 2013 | By Robert P. George
The following op-ed appeared in the Providence Journal on November 30, 2013.
Washington - As the nation celebrates Thanksgiving, Jewish Americans are also commemorating Hanukkah, the eight-day Feast of Dedication.
Interestingly, this year these holidays overlap. Much more importantly, however, Thanksgiving and Hanukkah share a common theme: religious freedom. Thanksgiving reminds us of the Pilgrims' arduous and risky journey to the New World to practice their religion in accordance with their consciences. Hanukkah celebrates ancient Israel's Maccabees who, by defeating the foreign despot Antiochus, gained the freedom to practice their religion as they rededicated their Temple.
Yet another commemoration harkens to this freedom. On Monday, Hanukkah's fifth full day, America will mark the 250th anniversary of the dedication of its oldest temple, Touro Synagogue, in Newport.
Decades later, in 1790, George Washington addressed to its congregants his historic letter on freedom of conscience. Writing that all Americans, Jews no less than Christians, "possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship,” Washington reaffirmed that the U.S. government "gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance.”
True to Washington's words and the spirit of Thanksgiving and Hanukkah, America has been a refuge throughout its history for people fleeing religious persecution.
Unfortunately, such persecution continues today across the world. Religious-freedom abuses affect an alarming range of people: Rohingya Muslims in Burma; Buddhists, Uighur Muslims, Protestant house church members, Falun Gong and others in China; Coptic Christians in Egypt and other Christians elsewhere in the Middle East; Baha'is and Jews in Iran; Ahmadis, Christians and Hindus in Pakistan; and Muslims of minority sects in Muslim-majority nations such as Saudi Arabia and Uzbekistan and non-Muslim nations such as Russia.
Indeed, according to a Pew study, 75 percent of the world's people live in countries which perpetrate or tolerate serious violations, ranging from restrictions on worship to the commission of torture and murder.
In 1998, in response to such violations, Congress passed, and President Clinton signed into law, the International Religious Freedom Act. The law created a new international religious freedom office in the State Department, headed by an ambassador-at-large. The law also created the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.
USCIRF was founded as an independent, bipartisan federal body to monitor freedom of religion abroad and make policy recommendations to the president, secretary of state and Congress. One of USCIRF"s key responsibilities is to recommend to the State Department nations that should be designated as "countries of particular concern,” marking them as the world's worst religious-freedom abusers, as well as actions that should be taken given this designation.
This year, USCIRF recommended that eight nations be re-designated: Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Uzbekistan. We found that seven other states deserved the same status: Egypt, Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Vietnam.
In our work, we are aided by the fact that this fundamental right is not only a foundational part of America's heritage, but is enshrined in international law and covenants, including Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which proclaims the following:
"Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.”
As USCIRF's chairman, I am committed, along with my colleagues and commission staff, to do all I can to make religious freedom a central issue in the foreign policy of our nation - one that cannot be pushed aside or ignored. It is my hope that during this holiday season, we will gain a renewed appreciation for this bedrock freedom and the importance of proclaiming it to the world.
Robert P. George is Chairman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF).
To interview a USCIRF Commissioner, please contact USCIRF at 202-786-0613 or media@uscirf.gov.