FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Dec. 5, 2007

Contact:
Judith Ingram, Communications Director,
(202) 523-3240, ext. 127

WASHINGTON—The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom is concerned by recent actions taken by the Malaysian government, directed against the Hindu minority, curtailing their human rights including the freedom of thought, conscience, and religion, and several other religious freedom concerns. Two weeks ago, police used tear gas and water cannons against peaceful demonstrations by an estimated 10,000 members of the ethnic Indian Hindu minority. Authorities sought to prevent the protests, locking down roads and parks in Kuala Lumpur and arresting suspected organizers. Over 700 protesters were gassed, beaten, and detained after taking refuge in the Batu Cave Temple in Kuala Lumpur. Police used similar violent tactics last month against demonstrators for electoral reform, including using tear gas against those seeking refuge at Kuala Lumpur’s Jamek mosque.

The demonstrations last week were organized to bring attention to the economic, social, and religious discrimination against the Indian minority in Malaysia, including the demolition and destruction of Hindu temples and shrines. Attempts by lawyers and activists to stop the destruction of temples have met with little success. In late October, authorities demolished the 100-year-old Maha Mariamman Hindu Temple and reportedly assaulted its Chief Priest. Just this week, the Sri Periyachi Amman Temple in Tambak Paya Village, Malacca was demolished by local authorities, despite having received a ‘stay order’ from state officials.

“Continued discrimination against members of the ethnic Indian Hindu minority, including the destruction of sacred places and images, only fuels religious unrest and intolerance,” said Commission Chair Michael Cromartie. “The Commission urges the U.S. government to raise the destruction of Hindu temples with Malaysian authorities and insist that immediate measures be taken to protect sacred sites and prevent further destruction.”

Police arrested three of the demonstration organizers: P. Waytha Moorthy, his brother and another associate. The three men were later charged in court with allegedly making seditious comments, which carries a maximum penalty of three years in prison. A local court judge dismissed the charges against them on a technicality, but new charges may be filed at any time. In addition, Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi threatened to employ the Internal Security Act (ISA) to prevent future demonstrations by Indian Hindus, a law that allows detention without trial for an extended period.

“We urge the U.S. government to raise the cases of the demonstration’s organizers and seek promises that no charges will be filed against them, including detentions under the ISA,” said Cromartie. “Malaysia should ensure that internationally protected rights to peaceful assembly, expression, and freedom of thought, conscience, and religion are protected.”

Demolitions of Hindu temples and shrines have increased markedly over the past several years, spurred by religious and political competition in the countryside and battles over eminent domain in the cities. Most demolitions have purportedly occurred due to the extension of expressways and other development projects in and around Kuala Lumpur. Mosques and some Christian churches either have received compensation or successfully diverted these projects, but Muslim politicians have ordered the destruction of Hindu statues and shrines on private property in the countryside, including the shrines erected by former migrant workers on land now owned by Muslims and by Hindus whose statues were visible from a busy highway.

Temple destructions are only one of the issues facing Malaysia’s religious minorities that the Commission is concerned about. With the support of many politicians, Malaysia’s sharia courts have expanded their jurisdiction in recent years, threatening secular Malaysia’s civil courts and the country’s commitment to religious pluralism. Because the Federal Constitution deems that all Malays are Muslim, the sharia courts have weighed in on a number of high-profile cases involving conversion, marriage, divorce, child custody, and burial rights of non-Muslims. In one prominent case from earlier this year, Malaysian authorities ordered a woman who was born to Indian Muslim parents but raised as a Hindu by her grandparents to spend 180 days in a “rehabilitation center” for the purpose of “re-embracing” her Islamic faith. Because she married a Hindu man, her child was also seized and custody given to her Muslim parents. In another prominent case, a Christian convert from Islam, Lina Joy, sought to change the religious status on her identification card in order to marry her Roman Catholic fiancé. After a nine year legal battle, her case reached Malaysia’s Supreme Court last June. The Court denied Lina Joy’s request, deciding that Malays cannot convert from Islam, at least not until the Federal Constitution is changed.

“Article 11 of Malaysia’s Federal Constitution protects every person’s right to profess, practice and propagate his religion, and should be applied to everyone,” said Cromartie. Malaysia’s government should be encouraged to protect fully the rights and freedoms of all its religious minorities. The rights of one religious group should not trump the most basic of all individual human rights, the right to follow one’s own conscience.”

Malaysia is a multi-ethnic and multi-religious society. An estimated 58% of the population are Muslim, 22.9 percent are Buddhist, 11.1 percent are Christian, 6.3 percent are Hindu and 2.6 percent practice Confucianism, Taoism, and other traditional Chinese religions.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom was created by the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 to monitor the status of freedom of thought, conscience, and religion or belief abroad, as defined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and related international instruments, and to give independent policy recommendations to the President, the Secretary of State and the Congress.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Dec. 1, 2007

Contact:
Judith Ingram, Communications Director,
(202) 523-3240, ext. 127

WASHINGTON-The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, a bipartisan, independent federal body, condemns the Sudanese government's arrest, detention, conviction and sentencing of a teacher whose elementary-school class at a British international school in Khartoum reportedly named a teddy bear "Mohammed." The teacher should be released immediately and given safe passage out of the country.

According to media reports, in September British citizen Gillian Gibbons allowed her class of seven-year-olds to select a name for a stuffed toy, a teddy bear, as part of a lesson about animals. The name chosen by the children, "Mohammed," is a popular name in Sudan, as elsewhere in the Muslim world.

Ms. Gibbons was arrested Nov. 25 and sentenced on Nov. 28 to 15 days in prison and deportation for allegedly insulting religion by giving the name of the Prophet of Islam to a stuffed animal. Angry mobs, armed with knives and clubs, marched Friday in Khartoum's streets demanding that the teacher be put to death.

Commission Chair Michael Cromartie stated that the Sudanese authorities' prosecution of Ms. Gibbons "illustrates the arbitrary nature of laws ostensibly designed to protect religion from insult or defamation. Any personal grudge or political vendetta can provide the pretext for spurious accusations of blasphemy, apostasy, or insulting religion."

Such charges have been used in Sudan and elsewhere to restrict peaceful discussion of the appropriate role of religion in state and society, to prevent criticism of specific political figures or political parties, or to curb dissent from prevailing views and beliefs. The speed with which the defendant was found guilty also suggests that she was not permitted to mount a proper defense, in flagrant disregard of due process of law. The prosecution of Ms. Gibbons also appears to contravene Sudan's own Interim Constitution, provisions in the Comprehensive Peace Agreement enjoining tolerance and the protection of the rights of non-Muslims, and international human rights treaties to which Sudan is a party. These include the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, particularly Article 14, which states that everyone charged with a criminal offense is entitled to "adequate time and facilities for the preparation of his defense and to communicate with counsel of his own choosing...."

This case underlines the danger to freedom of expression and other individual rights of the international campaign to protect Islam or other religions from "defamation." In March of this year, the United Nations Human Rights Council passed a resolution calling on United Nations member states to take measures to halt so-called "defamation of religion," and a similar resolution currently is working its way through the UN General Assembly. In Sudan and other countries which criminalize "insulting" religion, the practical effect is all too often the miscarriage of justice such as the case in question. Defamation of religion laws clearly violate guarantees of international treaties, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which Sudan has ratified. These human rights instruments guarantee to everyone the right to freedom of expression, as well as freedom of thought, conscience, and religion or belief. Moreover, the Sudanese laws appear to subordinate individual rights in the name of protecting religion.

The Commission has made a number of recommendations on U.S. policy toward Sudan, including that the U.S. government urge Sudan's Government of National Unity to end official accusations of blasphemy, apostasy, "offending Islam," or similar charges used to stifle debate or restrict the right to freedom of expression. For a full description of the Commission's views on Sudan, including a comprehensive set of recommendations for U.S. policy, please see the Sudan chapter in the Commission's most recent  Annual Report .

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom was created by the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 to monitor the status of freedom of thought, conscience, and religion or belief abroad, as defined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and related international instruments, and to give independent policy recommendations to the President, the Secretary of State and the Congress.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Nov. 29, 2007

Contact:
Judith Ingram, Communications Director,
(202) 523-3240

WASHINGTON-The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom is gravely concerned by this week's decision of the Vietnamese Appeals Court to keep human rights defenders and religious freedom advocates Nguyen Van Dai and Le Thi Cong Nhan behind bars and calls for their immediate and unconditional release. A Commission delegation was permitted to meet with the two lawyers in prison during its visit to Vietnam last month.

The Appeals Court on Monday reduced Dai's sentence from five to four years and Cong Nhan's sentence from four to three years. The reduced sentences mean that Dai and Cong Nhan will be eligible for amnesty sooner than they would be under the original sentences, though any releases are likely to be followed by "house arrest" sentences of four and three years respectively.

Both lawyers were sentenced under Article 88 of the Vietnamese Criminal Code for "conducting propaganda against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam." The charges were applied because of their peaceful exercise of the universally guaranteed rights to freedom of expression, association, and freedom of thought, conscience and religion or belief. The alleged crimes included sending information abroad to human rights organizations, reportedly about the status of respect for these fundamental freedoms.

"The Commission is convinced that these two courageous young people should not be in prison. The Appeals Court verdict confirms that the Vietnamese government does not respect the internationally guaranteed rights available to individuals motivated by their religion or conscience to express views about freedom and reform, rights that are protected by international human rights law and Vietnam's own Constitution," said Michael Cromartie, Chair of the Commission, who led the delegation to Vietnam.

The two rights defenders had been jailed since March at the Cau Dien Commune temporary detention facility outside Hanoi. During the prison visit, Commissioners learned that Dai and Cong Nhan were unable to receive needed medicines and requested religious materials. The Commission arranged for them to receive religious materials and prison authorities are now allowing needed medicine for Dai. During the visit, the Commission appealed for their unconditional release and was informed that an appeal was going to be heard.

Since the USCIRF delegation's return from Vietnam, the Commission has continued to press Vietnamese officials for the release of Dai and Cong Nhan.

"We are disappointed by the Appeals Court decision because we believed this was an opportunity for Vietnam's legal system to show its commitment to uphold international human rights obligations, including fair trial obligations, particularly since Vietnam was recently elected to a seat on the UN Security Council," Cromartie said.

Vietnam's implementation of its international human rights obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights has been criticized by the UN Human Rights Committee as incompatible with the obligations of the convention. The result is that people in Vietnam who express views and write about human rights and democracy-and the freedoms required to fulfill them-have been arrested arbitrarily and sentenced to jail terms.

"We will continue to seek the immediate and unconditional release of both Nguyen Van Dai and Le Thi Cong Nhan, and call for the release of all Vietnamese human rights defenders who have been jailed under similar circumstances," Cromartie said. "We believe their peaceful monitoring of and advocacy for political reform, religious freedom, and other human rights strengthens rather than threatens the Vietnamese state."

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom was created by the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 to monitor the status of freedom of thought, conscience, and religion or belief abroad, as defined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and related international instruments, and to give independent policy recommendations to the President, the Secretary of State and the Congress.