Apr 12, 2013
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 12, 2013 | By USCIRF
WASHINGTON, DC - President Barack Obama on April 11, 2013 announced his intent to appoint Eric P. Schwartz to serve on the U.S. Commission for International Religious Freedom.
"USCIRF welcomes Eric Schwartz,” said USCIRF Chair Dr. Katrina Lantos Swett. "Given his remarkable depth of knowledge, experience, and commitment, I am confident that he will be a great asset to our Commission as we work to help advance the cherished right of freedom of religion or belief around the world.”
Eric P. Schwartz is Dean of the Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota, a position he has held since 2011. Prior to joining the Humphrey School, he spent 25 years in senior positions at the State Department, the National Security Council, the United Nations, and the U.S. Congress, and in the NGO community. From 2009 to 2011, he was U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees, and Migration. Mr. Schwartz also served as the United Nations Secretary General's Deputy Special Envoy for Tsunami Recovery from 2005 to 2007, and as Chief of Office in Geneva for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights from 2003 to 2004. From 1993 until 2001, he was on the staff of the National Security Council, and from 1986 to 1989, he served as Washington Director of the Asia division of Human Rights Watch. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society and the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas. Mr. Schwartz received a B.A. from Binghamton University, an M.P.A. from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University, and a J.D. from New York University School of Law.
Comprised of nine members, USCIRF is an independent, bipartisan U.S. federal government commission that monitors the universal right to freedom of religion or belief abroad and makes policy recommendations to the President, Secretary of State, and Congress. USCIRF Commissioners are appointed by the President and the leadership of both political parties in the Senate and House of Representatives.
To interview a USCIRF Commissioner please contact USCRIFat (202) 523-3258 or [email protected]
Apr 5, 2013
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 5, 2013| By USCIRF
WASHINGTON D.C. - The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) today expressed concern about the Egyptian government's continued application of blasphemy-like charges that are used to stifle dissent and limit the freedoms of religion and expression.
Bassem Youssef, a well-known Egyptian comedian and satirist, was questioned on Monday April 1, 2013 by Egypt's Public Prosecution office after being charged with "insulting Islam” on his popular television program. He also was charged with insulting the president and spreading false information aimed at threatening public order. On Wednesday, April 3, Egyptian comedian Ali Qandil was questioned after being charged with "insulting Islam,” based on a February appearance on Mr. Youssef's program. Both Youssef and Qandil posted bail and were released. These are just two of the most recent examples of a disturbing trend that affects all Egyptians.
"Unfortunately, the Egyptian government's use of blasphemy-like charges is nothing new,” said USCIRF Chair Katrina Lantos Swett. "However, these kinds of charges have increased significantly over the past two years and have chilled the dissenting views of not only Egyptian Muslims, but Christians and other minorities. In fact, during the democratic transition in Egypt, there has been a notable increase in ‘contempt of religion" cases that disproportionately affect Coptic Orthodox Christians.”
Article 98(f) of Egypt's Penal Code prohibits blasphemy of the "divine” religions - Judaism, Christianity, and Islam - and criminalizes "any use of religion to promote or advocate extremist ideologies...with a view toward stirring up sedition, disparaging or showing contempt for any divinely revealed religion, or prejudicing national unity and social harmony.” Furthermore, Article 44 in Egypt's new constitution prohibits "insult or abuse of all religious messengers and prophets.”
During a recent USCIRF visit to Egypt, government officials clearly stated their troubling view that there should be consequences, including criminal prosecution, for individuals who publicly make comments that may insult the religious feelings of others.
"Rather than limiting religious freedom and free expression, the Egyptian government should abolish ‘contempt of religion" laws, and direct this prosecutorial energy towards government-funded clerics, government officials, or individuals who incite violence against individuals from Muslim or non-Muslim minority communities. Provisions in both the Egyptian penal code and constitution fly in the face of international human rights standards, which protect the right to freedom of religion and expression. These provisions must change if Egypt ever will realize its hopes for a genuine democracy,” concluded Dr. Lantos Swett.
To interview a USCIRF Commissioner, please contact USCRIF at (202) 523-3258 or [email protected]
Apr 1, 2013
FOR YOUR INFORMATION
By USCIRF Chair Katrina Lantos Swett
Even as we prepare to mark Holocaust Remembrance Day, European society's dark past of bigotry haunts our present
The following op-ed appeared in The Guardian on March 31, 2013.
As fellow Americans prepare to join their Jewish friends and neighbors in solemn commemoration of Yom Ha Shoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day , on 8 April, for many, the question that haunts us is this: has Europe fully transcended its past? If the past decade is any indicator, it has not. Despite much soul-searching following America's liberation of that continent, European antisemitism persists.
In Russia, which I visited on behalf of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) last October, I heard how xenophobia and intolerance, including antisemitism, fuel hate crimes by skinhead groups. In Belarus, the anti-Jewish utterances of President Lukashenko and the state media are coupled by a failure to identify or punish the vandals of Jewish cemeteries and other property. In Hungary, my parents' native country, the leader of its third largest party recently urged the government to create a list of Jews posing "a national security threat" - even as the government, including its parliament, condemned this statement.
Even in western Europe, where some of America's strongest historic allies reside, antisemitism also remains. Since 2000, anti-Jewish graffiti increasingly has appeared in Paris and Berlin, Madrid and Amsterdam, London and Rome, and synagogues have been vandalized or set ablaze in France and Sweden.
In Malmo, Sweden, physical attacks have fueled a Jewish exodus. A generation ago, Malmo was home to 2,000 Jews; today there are fewer than 700. In France, "unprecedented violence" took place last year, according to a recent report by the security unit of France's Jewish community (pdf) . There were 614 antisemitic incidents in 2012, compared to 389 in 2011. Earlier this February, a woman was arrested in Toulouse, France after trying to stab a student at the Ohr HaTorah Jewish day school where four Jews were shot and killed in March 2012.
Who are the perpetrators of these hateful acts? Some are neo-Nazis or members of skinhead groups. Others are religious extremists who distort the religion of Islam to advance their own intolerant agendas. Most are hostile to democracy and pluralism.
I am reminded of the recently unearthed statements of Egypt's President Morsi, depicting the Jewish people as "descendants of apes and pigs" whom Egyptian "children and grandchildren" must hate, "down to the last generation". As the daughter of Holocaust survivors, I found Morsi's comments evoked Europe's dark past from his Middle East locale.
Compounding the problem are four factors. First, European officials remain reluctant to identify the ideological or religious motivations of the perpetrators. Second, surveys show that negative attitudes towards Jews among Europe's population remain widespread. Third, these surveys confirm that some of this bias reveals itself through certain criticisms of the state of Israel: while no country is beyond reproach, when criticism includes language intended to delegitimize Israel, demonize its people, and apply to it standards to which no other state is held, we must call it antisemitism.
Finally, as USCIRF has documented , a number of European governments and political parties have added fuel to the fire by backing restrictions on vital religious practices. At least four countries - Iceland, Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland - ban kosher slaughter. Authorities and political forces in Norway and Germany also have tried to ban infant male circumcision. These restrictions affect Muslims, as well.
What helps drive them is a monolithic secular ideology, which, like the monolithic state religion it replaced, views serious practitioners of Judaism, Islam, and other belief systems as outsiders. It also suggests a striking indifference to Europe's past persecution of Judaism.
Fortunately, over the past decade, Europe's largest human rights body, the Organization on Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) , has taken firm stands against religious bigotry, including antisemitism. Humanitarian concerns demand nothing less.
Yet, there are other reasons to care. When Jews face trouble, so often do other minorities. And as the second world war taught a whole generation of Americans, the same forces targeting Jews often oppose freedom for all. The fight against antisemitism is a key element in freedom's battle against tyranny. It is a fight to preserve civilization and further human progress.
To paraphrase Eric Hoffer, an American author writing half a century ago , as it goes with the Jews, so will it go with all of us. We are all in this together. As we recall Europe's darkest days, let this be our response to antisemitism. The stakes are too high not to stand for tolerance and decency.
To interview a USCIRF Commissioner, please contact USCRIF at (202) 523-3258 or [email protected]