Religious freedom fee calls on Blinken to admonish China, Nicaragua, others

Religious oppression in Afghanistan, China, Nigeria, Nicaragua and Sri Lanka — amongst dozens of different nations — took middle stage Monday because the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom launched its 2023 Annual Report, which referred to as on the State Department to acknowledge these human rights violations publicly.

The Taliban’s repression of Shia Muslims and members of non-Muslim faiths, plus “disastrous, sweeping and repressive policies” in opposition to girls and women in Afghanistan, means Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken ought to designate Afghanistan as a rustic of explicit concern on its annual watch listing of human rights violators.

The division has labeled the Taliban as an entity of explicit concern, a time period it applies to teams resembling Al-Shabaab, Boko Haram, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the Houthis and ISIS-Sahel.

The State Department’s press workplace didn’t instantly reply to a request for touch upon the USCIRF report.

In China, the Communist Party’s genocide in opposition to Uyghur Muslims and crackdowns on Tibetan Buddhists and unbiased Christian church buildings, Falun Gong practitioners and the Church of Almighty God drew explicit consideration from the unbiased fee.

Nigeria, probably the most populous nation in Africa, continues to face Muslim-Christian strife, with Christians usually the targets of Boko Haram and different teams. Former Rep. Frank Wolf is a member of the fee and mentioned Mr. Blinken ought to return Nigeria to the CPC listing and appoint a particular envoy to watch the spiritual freedom scenario there.

“Nigeria is the most dangerous country in the world for Christians,” mentioned Mr. Wolf, who was a Republican congressman from Virginia.

Nicaragua also needs to be designated a rustic of explicit concern, the fee mentioned. The Ortega regime there “has sharply increased its persecution of the Catholic Church,” the report mentioned, “by imprisoning clergy, shuttering church-affiliated organizations and prohibiting Catholic rituals.”

Mr. Wolf mentioned, “They’ve been targeting the clergy. They imprisoned Bishop [Rolando] Alvarez. They even kicked out Mother Teresa’s group, the Missionaries of Charity.”

According to USCIRF Commissioner Stephen Schneck, spiritual liberty in Sri Lanka has “taken a horrible turn,” resulting in a name for Mr. Blinken to position the Indian Ocean nation on the State Department’s particular watch listing of non secular freedom violators.

“In particular, we see the situation for Hindus and for Muslims in Sri Lanka to be growing increasingly precarious,” Mr. Schneck mentioned, including, “We’re seeing the imprisonment and harassment of religious leaders of really all non-Buddhist religious leaders in the country.”

Iran was additionally referred to as out for its intensifying repression of ladies protesting the regime’s strict guidelines on sporting the hijab, or head scarf, in public. Demonstrations swept the nation, which is dominated by Islamic mullahs, after the loss of life in custody of Mahsa Amini in September. The regime additionally harassed members of the Yarsan religion, a Kurdish-based sect, in addition to Sunni Muslims and Christians.

Cuba’s spiritual freedom scenario additionally deteriorated in 2022, USCIRF mentioned, noting persecution of unregistered spiritual teams — and people conducting “unsanctioned religious activity” — elevated final 12 months. Two Protestant pastors had been exiled, whereas the Rev. David Pantaleon, a Catholic priest and head of the Cuban department of the Society of Jesus, had his residence allow renewal declined after he advocated for political prisoners and the Jesuits’ “critical position toward the regime,” the panel reported.

“Every country named in USCIRF’s 2023 Annual Report is watching to see how the United States will respond to those [gross] violations of human rights,” mentioned Nury Turkel, USCIRF chairman, who spoke together with the opposite fee members throughout a video briefing Monday morning.

According to Rabbi Abraham Cooper, the panel’s vice chairman, “The scope and scale of the violations this report documents are nothing less than disheartening. But for us at USCIRF, they drive and inspire a determination to unflinchingly advocate for the essential right of religious freedom for every person in every corner of the globe.”

A USCIRF commissioner mentioned the group can also be involved about efforts to regulate what folks say about faith by the authorized course of.

Commissioner David Curry informed the briefing, “Governments around the world are maintaining laws, which are based on religion, which are coercive in nature. Blasphemy laws are primarily the ones that jump to mind.”