On Saturday (Jan. 16), our nation will observe National Religious Freedom Day. This day commemorates the Virginia General Assembly’s adoption of Thomas Jefferson’s Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom back in 1786.

As Jefferson’s statute proclaimed, religious freedom is among the “natural rights of mankind.” Yet to this day, billions of people abroad routinely are denied this liberty. From forbidding the construction of places of worship to perpetrating mass torture and murder, abusers continue to operate with impunity.

For both humanitarian and practical reasons, the United States must stand with the persecuted and weave the concern to protect religious freedom more tightly into U.S. foreign policy.

To these ends, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom has recommended that the State Department designate as “countries of particular concern,” or CPCs, those nations the commission has found to be the world’s most severe abusers. Although meant to be an annual designation, the State Department last designated CPCs in July 2014. So we urge swift action.

Among State Department-designated CPC nations, China and North Korea exemplify secular tyrannies that suppress religious groups across the board. Others, like Iran and Saudi Arabia, enthrone one religion or religious interpretation while often brutalizing those embracing alternatives, from dissenting Muslims to Christians to Baha’is.

Pakistan is an example of an electoral democracy that both perpetrates and tolerates religious freedom violations. More Pakistanis are on death row or serving life sentences for blasphemy than anywhere else. The government’s enforcement of blasphemy statutes, in turn, emboldens extremists to assault perceived transgressors. From the Pakistani Taliban to individual vigilantes, these attackers victimize religious minorities, from Shia to Christians, Hindus to Ahmadis, with impunity and rarely are brought to justice.

Pakistan is one of several nations experiencing a dramatic rise in violent religious extremist groups committing mass violence based on religion. In some of these countries, such behavior meets the legal criteria for genocide.

Among the most horrifying examples are in Syria and Iraq, where the so-called Islamic State has unleashed waves of terror against Yazidis, Christians, and Shia, as well as Sunnis who oppose its extremist views. In Syria, other extremist groups replicate those horrors.

Yazidis and Christians have borne the brunt of the Islamic State’s depredations and for a chilling reason. The summary executions, rape, sexual enslavement, abducted children, destroyed houses of worship, and forced conversions all are part of a systematic effort to erase their presence from the Middle East.

Beyond the Middle East, Buddhist extremists in Burma have ferociously assaulted Rohingya Muslims, a religious and ethnic minority that has long suffered discrimination and persecution.

In the Central African Republic, an explosion in strife between Christian and Muslim militias has destroyed nearly every mosque in the country.

And in Nigeria, Boko Haram continues to attack both Christians and many Muslims who oppose them. From mass murders at churches and mosques to mass kidnappings of children from schools, Boko Haram has cut a wide path of terror across vast swaths of Nigeria.

We should care deeply about this surge in religious freedom abuses and other human rights violations for humanitarian reasons and because of the tremendous instability these abuses unleash.

But there is still another reason to prioritize religious freedom. In 2014, the Latin Rite archbishop of Baghdad said: “I do not think Europe will be calm. This … does not stop at territorial boundaries.”  His words proved tragically prophetic, as the same forces of violent religious extremism plaguing his own country struck a kosher supermarket and a satirical magazine in Paris a year ago. The supermarket victims were murdered simply because they were Jews and the victims of the assault on the newspaper were killed because their attackers considered them as blasphemers deserving punishment.

Thus, standing for the persecuted is not just a moral imperative; it is a practical necessity for any country seeking to enhance stability and protect its security and that of its citizens.

As we celebrate National Religious Freedom Day, let us honor our own heritage by reaffirming religious freedom as a vital component in our relations with the rest of the world.

(Robert P. George is chairman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. Thomas J. Reese is a USCIRF commissioner.)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

January 7, 2016

WASHINGTON, D.C. – One year later, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) solemnly remembers the 17 victims of the January 7 and 9, 2015 attacks on the offices of Charlie Hebdo magazine and the Hyper Cacher kosher supermarket in Paris. 

“These attacks were egregious assaults on the freedom of religion or belief.  The victims at Charlie Hebdo were killed because their attackers deemed them blasphemers, and those at the Hyper Cacher market were killed because they were Jews,” said USCIRF Chairman Robert P. George.

The January 2015 attacks occurred against the backdrop of a sharp increase in reports of violent anti-Semitic incidents in France, the home of Europe’s largest Jewish community, and other European countries in 2014.  Following these attacks, there also has been a spike in reports of incidents of intolerance against Muslims – both European Muslims and Muslim refugees and migrants. 

“As we mourn the victims of the more recent horrific terrorist attacks in Paris, we also remember those who were murdered one year ago.  We remember these victims, condemn the attackers, and call on all Europeans of good will to unite against both the violent extremism and anti-Semitism that motivated these attacks and the backlash that has occurred in their wake against Muslims living or seeking refuge in Europe,” said Chairman George. “Ensuring religious freedom for all is a necessary predicate to secure and stable societies and an important bulwark against violent religious extremism.”

For more information, please see these USCIRF op-eds:  An Unsafe Place for Jews and Nations Must Repeal Blasphemy Laws.

To interview a USCIRF Commissioner, please contact USCIRF at [email protected] or 202-786-0615.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

January 5, 2016

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) condemns the execution on January 2 of a prominent Shi’a cleric in Saudi Arabia. Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, a vocal government critic and an activist for democratic reforms in the Kingdom, was a staunch advocate of equal rights for the Shi’a Muslim population in Saudi Arabia.  Sheikh al-Nimr, whose case USCIRF has reported on in recent years, was among the 47 men executed that day.

“Sheik al-Nimr’s execution blatantly disregards the right to dissent and the right to religious freedom of Shi’a Muslims in the country and, as our State Department has noted and events tragically have documented, contributes to sectarian discord both within Saudi Arabia and in the region," said Robert P. George, Chairman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF).  “It is long past due for the government of Saudi Arabia to honor international standards of justice and ensure the religious freedom and equal protection rights of everyone in the Kingdom, including its Shi’a Muslim citizens.”

The Saudi Arabian government’s execution of these 47 men was the largest mass execution in one day in the Kingdom since 1980.  Four Saudi Shi’a men were among those executed, including Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr.  He was sentenced to death in October 2014 by a Specialized Criminal Court, a non-Shari’ah court that tries terrorism related crimes, although this court also has tried human rights activists.  Saudi officials often cite security concerns to justify cracking down on religious minorities and Muslim dissidents.

“Sheikh al-Nimr’s trial and his execution raise serious due process and religious freedom concerns.  He was convicted and sentenced to death by the Specialized Criminal Court on a range of vague and questionable charges, including inciting sectarian strife and disobeying the government.  These charges do not meet the standard for capital punishment required under international human rights law. This Court, created in 2008 to try terrorism cases, has been used increasingly to prosecute peaceful dissidents in proceedings that violate the right to a fair trial,” said George.

Sheikh Al-Nimr had a wide following in Saudi Arabia among Shi’a Muslims, especially in the Eastern Province where most of the country’s Shi’a population lives. For years, and as noted in USCIRF’s Annual Reports, he has been an outspoken critic of Saudi officials and government policies and advocated for greater rights for Shi’a Muslims. He had been arrested and jailed several times for his advocacy before his most recent arrest and conviction.

The Saudi government limits Shi’a Muslims’ right to practice their religion, and rarely grants permission to Shi’a citizens to build mosques. For many years, the government has detained and imprisoned Shi’a Muslims for participating in demonstrations or calling for reform; holding small religious gatherings in private homes; organizing religious events or celebrating religious holidays; and reading religious materials in private homes or husseiniyas (prayer halls). The Shi’a community also faces discrimination in education, employment, the military, political representation, and the judiciary.

USCIRF continues to recommend that Saudi Arabia be designated a “country of particular concern” (CPC).  The government privileges its own interpretation of Sunni Islam over all other interpretations and prohibits any non-Muslim public places of worship in the country. It continues to prosecute and imprison individuals for dissent, apostasy, blasphemy, and sorcery, and a new 2014 law classifies blasphemy and advocating atheism as terrorism.  These actions reflect the fact that the Saudi system of justice does not meet international standards of fairness and due process.

For more information, please see the Saudi Arabia chapter in USCIRF’s 2015 Annual report.

To interview a USCIRF Commissioner, please contact USCIRF at [email protected] or 202-786-0615.