May 3, 2013
Max Fisher
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom has issued a report
highlighting those it calls the worst violators of religious freedom in
the world. Among them are many Asian and Middle Eastern governments,
although some Western European countries are also included.
The report from the bipartisan advisory body divides violators into
three categories. Fifteen “tier 1″ nations, marked red on the above map,
have committed “particularly severe” violations that are “systemic,
ongoing and egregious.” That includes all the countries you’d expect, as
well as a few worsening problem areas, such as Egypt and Nigeria. The
“tier 2″ countries are said to be “on the threshold” of meeting tier 1
status and include states that might have serious problems but, often,
are at least making an effort to address them. A small third category of
nations under “monitoring” for violations includes, among other states,
some in Western Europe.
The report isn’t just about documenting abuses: The tier 1 countries can
be officially designated as “countries of particular concern” by the
U.S. State Department, at which point the president is legally required
to follow up with some sort of action, recommended by the report. It
might suggest, for example, engaging with Burmese civil society groups
to promote tolerance or working with Pakistani lawmakers to improve
legislation.
As the report itself notes, though, “in practice, the flexibility
provided in IRFA has been underutilized. Generally, no new Presidential
actions pursuant to CPC designations have been levied, with the State
Department instead relying on pre-existing sanctions.” In other words,
the red countries are usually already under some kind of trade
restriction or sanction, which the president can use to say that he’s
already meeting the commission’s requirements. In some cases, the
president uses a waiver to avoid punishing countries that are important
to U.S. foreign policy, such as Saudi Arabia and Uzbekistan.
The tier 1 countries are typically cited for state-sponsored or
state-enforced religious discrimination, such as China’s suppression of
Tibetan Buddhists or Iran’s “prolonged detention, torture, and
executions based primarily or entirely upon the religion of the accuse.”
In the case of some countries, such as Egypt, the sins were those of
omission: “In many cases, the government failed or was slow to protect
religious minorities from violence. This violence and the failure to
convict those responsible continued to foster a climate of impunity.”
The report explains, in excruciating detail, the larger trends and worst
incidents that motivated its categorizations. In Burma, for example, it
finds, “In the past year, over 1,000 Rohingya [Muslims] have been
killed, their villages and religious structures destroyed, and women
raped during attacks.” It also notes: “It is almost impossible for
Muslims to obtain building permits for either mosques or schools and
unlicensed venues are regularly closed or destroyed. The government has,
in recent years, ordered the destructions of mosques, religious
centers, and schools.”
Tier 2 countries are cited for less systemic but still serious
violations, or for systemic refusals to improve religious freedoms.
Russia, for example, is cited for exploiting “anti-extremism” laws to
restrict groups, such as Jehovah’s Witness and some Muslim groups, that
do not have any record of advocating or using violence. The report
praises India for curtailing large-scale communal violence against
religious minorities, but chides Indian officials for refusing to
further investigate past incidents.
The third category of countries being “monitored” also lists, somewhat
vaguely, “Western Europe.” The section explaining its inclusion, though,
overwhelmingly focuses on three countries: France, Belgium and the
Netherlands, all of which are cited for “increasing restrictions on, and
efforts to restrict, various forms of religious expression.” In
practice, this often seems to mean the religious expression of Muslims.
Laws against traditional Muslim clothing or circumcision, for example,
or over-broad hate speech laws are “creating a growing atmosphere of
intimidation against certain forms of religious activity in Western
Europe. These restrictions also seriously limit social integration and
educational and employment opportunities for the individuals affected.”
The report also discusses a trend in Japan it calls “kidnapping and
forced religious de-conversion.” Although Japan is not included in any
of the watch-list categories, and this section praises the Japanese
government in general for its religious freedom, the trend is about as
alarming as its name implies:
Over the past several decades, thousands of individuals belonging to the Unification Church, the Jehovah’s Witnesses, and other new religious movements (NRMs) have been kidnapped by their families in an effort to force them to renounce their chosen beliefs. In some extreme cases, as with Unification Church member Toro Goto, individuals were confined against their will for a decade or more. Those abducted describe psychological harassment and physical abuse by both family members and “professional deprogrammers.” Police and judicial authorities have neither investigated nor indicted those responsible for these acts, often citing lack of evidence.
Some readers, particularly those from countries highlighted in the map
above, may wonder why the report includes nothing on the United States,
which has seen some local and state-level movements to expel or suppress
mosques or other forms of public worship by Muslims. And it’s a fair
question. Alas, the commission exists to make recommendations to the
U.S. State Department, which of course does not have oversight over the
United States. Still, fairly or not, U.S. representatives who seek to
promote religious freedom abroad risk having their advice deflected
because some Tennessee officials tried to block
construction of a mosque. If nothing else, it’s a reminder that
religious freedom is an ongoing process as well as a state of being.
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