FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 2, 2007

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

WASHINGTON—The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, an independent, bipartisan federal agency advising the Administration and Congress, has elected Michael Cromartie as chair to succeed Felice D. Gaer, who has served in this capacity since 2006. Preeta D. Bansal and Richard D. Land were elected Vice Chairs. The officers will serve for one year effective July 1.

Cromartie is Vice President of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, where he directs the Evangelicals in Civic Life program and the Media and Religion program. Cromartie, who has served previously as Chair and Vice Chair of the Commission, is also a Senior Advisor to The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life and a Senior Fellow with The Trinity Forum. President George W. Bush appointed him to the Commission.

“In his three years on the Commission, as well as throughout his professional life, Michael Cromartie has manifested a strong and continuing commitment to advancing the freedom of thought, conscience, and religion or belief. I am grateful he is willing to serve again and provide leadership to the Commission in the coming year,” Gaer said. “The challenges to these and related freedoms of expression and association are more virulent than ever,” said Gaer, “and the Commission will greatly benefit from the intensity, sincerity, and universality of focus that Michael Cromartie brings to the subject.”

Cromartie thanked Gaer for chairing the Commission over the past year, which included official Commission visits to Saudi Arabia and Turkey, and publication of reports and policy briefs on Russia, Bangladesh, and the implementation of Commission recommendations on treatment of asylum seekers in the U.S. Expedited Removal program. Through testimony to the Iraq Study Group, op-eds, and high-level meetings, the Commission directed public attention to the plight of Iraqi religious minorities. Gaer represented the Commission at official commemorations of the 25th anniversary of the UN Declaration on Religious Intolerance. Through the participation of Gaer and other Commissioners in meetings of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, and the publication of timely op-eds, the Commission emphasized the need to create mechanisms to counter growing anti-Semitism, Holocaust denial, and other religious intolerance worldwide. Gaer will continue to serve as a Commissioner.

“We all appreciated Felice Gaer’s leadership of the Commission, bringing her human rights expertise into the Commission’s analyses and actions. Her unique insights and leadership helped keep the Commission’s work front and center in the vital effort to end repression worldwide—and particularly to end severe violations of human rights targeted at religious minorities or in the name of religion,” Cromartie said.

Bansal is a lawyer whose career has spanned government service and private practice. A former Solicitor General of the State of New York, Bansal heads the appellate litigation group of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, a major Wall Street law firm. She also serves on the advisory boards of several leading human rights and civil rights organizations, including Human Rights Watch, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, and the National Women’s Law Center.

Land is president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission. He hosts three nationally syndicated radio programs:For Faith & Family,For Faith & Family’s Insight, andRichard Land Live!He is also Executive Editor ofFFV, a magazine covering traditional religious values, Christian ethics, and cultural trends, and is the author of several books, most recentlyThe Divided States of America?(2007).

Other members of the Commission are Donald H. Argue, Imam Talal Y. Eid, Leonard A. Leo, Elizabeth H. Prodromou, Nina Shea, and John V. Hanford III. As the State Department’s Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom, Hanford serves in anex-officio, non-voting capacity.

The Commission was created by the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 (IRFA) to monitor violations of the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion or belief abroad, as defined in IRFA and set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and related international instruments, and to give independent policy recommendations to the President, Secretary of State, and Congress. It is the first government commission in the world with the sole mission of reviewing and making policy recommendations on the facts and circumstances of violations of religious freedom globally. Its Executive Director is Joseph R. Crapa; the Deputy Directors are Tad Stahnke and David Dettoni.

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
June 30, 2007

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

WASHINGTON-The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom is concerned over the detention of five Muslim dissidents in Egypt, another indication of backsliding by the Egyptian government in human rights protections including the freedom of thought, conscience, and religion or belief.

Five members of an extended family belonging to the so-called Koranists were arrested in Egypt at the end of May. The Koranists are a small group that accepts only the Koran as its sole source of religious guidance and thus has been accused by the Egyptian government in the past of practicing beliefs deemed to deviate from Islamic law. The detainees include Abdellatif Muhammad Said, who has been working on a Web site promoting reformist views of Islam, and Amr Tharwat, an employee of a pro-democracy center headed by one of Egypt's most well-known human rights and political reform advocates, Saad Eddin Ibrahim. The government has not said under what charges the men are being held, although the Arabic language daily newspaper, Al-Masry al Youm, has said they face charges of "denigrating religions." The Commission has learned that the detainees have alleged ill-treatment or even torture by state security services.

"The U.S. government should promptly raise at the highest levels of the Egyptian government the arrests of the five Koranist members, who may be subject to ill-treatment," said Felice D. Gaer, chair of the Commission.

The five are in State Security Services detention, which has a long and well-documented record of poor treatment of detainees. Serious problems of discrimination, intolerance, and other human rights violations against members of religious minorities, as well as non-conforming Muslims, remain widespread in Egypt. Earlier this year, a court in Alexandria convicted and sentenced Abdel Karim Suleiman, an Internet blogger, to four years in prison: three years for insulting Islam and inciting sectarian strife and one year for criticizing Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

The Commission is also concerned over a case nearing its conclusion in an appeal being heard by Egypt's Supreme Administrative Court, which is expected to rule on July 1. The appeal is by 45 Coptic Christians who want to receive official recognition of their return to Christianity on their national identity cards. In April, a lower court turned down their request.

The Commission has recommended that the U.S. government urge the Egyptian government to remove de facto responsibility for religious affairs from the State Security Services, and to repeal Article 98(f) in the Penal Code which criminalizes insulting Islam, Christianity, and Judaism. In addition, the U.S. government should call on the Egyptian government to ensure that every Egyptian is protected against discrimination by modifying the national identity card either to omit mention of religious affiliation or to make such mention option. The full list of Commission recommendations regarding freedom of religion in Egypt can be found in the 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
June 29, 2007

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

WASHINGTON-The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) today sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff welcoming the Department's commitment to formally respond to USCIRF's Report on Asylum Seekers in Expedited Removal.

The full text of the letter follows.

June 29, 2007

Dear Secretary Chertoff:

Thank you for meeting with my fellow Commissioners and myself last month. As with our previous meeting, your understanding of the Commission's concerns regarding asylum seekers in the expedited removal process was particularly appreciated.

I particularly welcomed your commitment that the Department of Homeland Security will formally respond to our Report on Asylum Seekers in Expedited Removal. The Commission looks forward to receiving this response, and hopes that it will provide the basis for an ongoing dialogue on the Commission's recommendations between ourselves and the Department.

The Commission and I were pleased to hear more about the positive changes implemented by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). We understand that you are still reviewing the recommendation to allow asylum officers to grant asylum at the credible fear stage. We encourage you to make this policy change, as recommended and justified in the Commission's 2005 Report.

In the context of follow-up to theReport, Assistant Secretary Myers' efforts to reach out to the Commission merit a word of appreciation. The Commission welcomes the efforts that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is making to review national parole criteria and to train detention center personnel on cultural awareness and asylee population issues. We look forward to meeting with Assistant Secretary Myers again to continue the discussion on parole review. Allow me to reiterate the Commission's recommendation that detention standards be developed that are appropriate to the asylum seeker population, including the opening of other facilities based on the Broward County model.

We were pleased that Customs and Border Protection (CBP) sent a representative to the meeting. We noted that quality assurance steps have been taken to monitor inspections and urge the agency to consider the further steps outlined in the Report, including the broader use of videotape.

As you know, the situation of Iraqi refugees has been an ongoing concern to the Commission. We applaud your recent decision to allow duress waivers to the material support bar to admission, so that refugee and asylum applicants forced to provide material support to terrorist organizations are no longer barred from the United States for such support solely as a result of such coerced actions. We hope this will be the first of the changes on material support issues that arise during the processing of Iraqi refugees. The Commission urges the Department to clarify that material support will not be a bar to individuals that provided support to groups opposed to the regime of Saddam Hussein.

Finally, the Commission and I look forward to working with you, CBP, ICE, and USCIS in the future. We consider it essential for the Department to ensure that American values in favor of refugee protection are reflected in the treatment that asylum seekers receive.

Sincerely,

Felice D. Gaer

Chair

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.