FOR YOUR INFORMATION 

April 2, 2015 | By Katrina Lantos Swett, M. Zuhdi Jasser and Hannah Rosenthal

The following op-ed appeared in U.S. News and World Report on April 2, 2015.

The targeting and murder of four Jews in the Hyper Cacher kosher supermarket during January’s terrorist attacks in Paris highlighted a somber fact: Seventy years after the Holocaust, anti-Semitism is again growing more virulent in Europe. From Toulouse to Paris, London to Berlin, Brussels to Copenhagen, Jews are being harassed, assaulted and even killed.

A just-released study confirms that this is hardly a recent phenomenon. According to Pew Research Center, by 2013, Jews were harassed in 34 of 45 European countries, and anti-Semitic harassment worldwide had reached a seven-year high.

Today’s anti-Semitism differs from that of the 1930s. There is no single counterpart to Hitler. There is no one European government or leader fueling most of today’s anti-Jewish acts. Nonetheless, Europe’s leading heads of state acknowledge that Jew-hatred is spreading. Jews are seeing their religious freedom violated, their grave sites vandalized, their synagogues desecrated, and Jewish lives lost.

Who are committing these acts? While some are nativists, neo-Nazis and skinheads, many others are religious extremists radicalized by those who distort Islam to fit their intolerant agendas. All are deeply hostile to pluralism and democratic liberties.

How will Europeans ultimately respond? Will they simply watch the threat grow? Or will they take the lead, confront the danger and stand with their Jewish neighbors?

The Hyper Cacher murders underscore the problem in France, home to Europe’s largest Jewish community. During one week last July, eight synagogues were attacked, a kosher supermarket and pharmacy trashed and looted, and mobs were yelling “death to Jews.” The annual number of anti-Semitic incidents is seven times as high as in the 1990s. Last year alone, the number of violent anti-Jewish acts doubled. The problem is serious enough to prompt Serge Cwajgenbaum, the secretary-general of the European Jewish Congress, to explain that the Hyper Cacher victims would be buried in Jerusalem so no one would desecrate their graves.

In the U.K., the Jewish Community Security Trust reported more than 1,100 anti-Jewish incidents last year, 81 of which were violent assaults. These incidents ranged from the desecration of Jewish cemeteries to graffiti on Jewish homes to attacks on Jewish schoolchildren to assaults on Jews entering or leaving synagogues. The number of incidents had doubled from 2013, and was the highest figure since the trust began monitoring anti-Semitism in 1984.

Some say that hatred of the state of Israel, not the Jews of Europe, is behind this upsurge. Yet the cry of many haters is “death to all Jews.” Make no mistake. Acts of terror perpetrated against Jewish schoolchildren in Europe have no conceivable connection to Israel’s policies in the Middle East. Anti-Zionism often is a cloak for anti-Semitism which comes through when people deploy words designed to delegitimize Israel, demonize its people and hold it to standards far above other countries.

Yet we’d be mistaken to attribute the most virulent expressions of European anti-Semitism to Middle East sources alone. To be sure, history has shown that Muslim societies in centuries past were not immune to anti-Semitism. However, beginning nearly a century ago, Europe’s modern totalitarian ideologies like fascism combined with like-minded nationalist strivings and politicized Islam in the Middle East to produce an even more potent anti-Semitism.

From promoting belief in blood libels to peddling the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, the notorious anti-Semitic forgery describing a Jewish plot for world domination, extremists acting in Islam’s name are mimicking millennia of European anti-Semitism. Moreover, according to some polls, nearly one in four Europeans holds anti-Jewish attitudes. Most have no Middle Eastern or Muslim background but deep roots in Europe’s soil. Given this history, Europe has a special responsibility to combat the return of this ancient scourge.

What can be done? Governments must protect lives and religious freedom by increasing security in Jewish neighborhoods and religious sites. There are signs that this is happening. France has deployed 10,000 troops and other security personnel for that purpose. However, considering the depth of these problems, this security must be extended for the foreseeable future.

Second, there are cases where Muslim communities are protecting Jews, and vice versa, against the haters, including the recent protective encirclement of a Danish synagogue by Danish Muslims. Such examples of humanity, decency and good citizenship must be highlighted to encourage emulation.

Finally, people must understand how much of Europe’s tradition of monolithic culture and ideology – from yesterday’s monolithic state religion to today’s monolithic state secularism – breeds attitudes that view today’s most pious adherents to Judaism, Islam, Christianity and other beliefs as the “other” who are deemed appropriate targets for exclusion. Today’s Europe must reflect greater pluralism and inclusion.

It is time for people of all beliefs and nationalities to stand together against anti-Semitism and all forms of intolerance and hatred.

 To interview a USCIRF Commissioner, please contact USCIRF at [email protected] or 202-786-0613.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

March 18, 2015 | USCIRF

Washington, D.C. – As the Iranian government prepares to respond on March 19 to recommendations made during the UN Human Rights Council’s (UNHRC) Universal Periodic Review (UPR), the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) calls attention to deteriorating conditions for freedom of religion and belief in Iran.  

“Since assuming office in 2013, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has not delivered on his promises to improve conditions for religious minority communities,” said USCIRF Chair Katrina Lantos Swett. “In fact, the Iranian government has imprisoned more than 350 people, including 150 Sunni Muslims, 100 Baha’is, 90 Christians, and at least a dozen Sufi Muslims, for their beliefs. The number of Christians imprisoned has nearly doubled over the past year. The United States and international community should call for the release of all prisoners of conscience in Iran, including: Saeed Abedini, a Christian pastor and U.S. citizen; Ayatollah Mohammed Kazemeini Boroujerdi, a Shi’a Muslim cleric; and Mahvash Sabet, a Baha’i leader held since 2008.  These brave people, among many others, are suffering solely for exercising their fundamental right to freedom of conscience or belief.”

The recent report of the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran, Ahmed Shaheed, concluded that conditions for human rights, including religious freedom, have declined since President Rouhani took office.  In addition, a report by UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon found that religious minority communities “continue to face persecution, including arrest and imprisonment, the denial of economic opportunities, expulsion from educational institutions, deprivation of the right to work, and closure of businesses and the destruction of religious sites, such as cemeteries and prayer centers.”

As part of the UPR process, governments made 291 recommendations to the Iranian government for human rights improvements, with 26 focused on freedom of religion or belief, particularly the plight of religious minorities. On Thursday, March 19 Iran will specify which of the recommendations it will accept.  In the past, Iran has accepted very few UPR recommendations related to religious freedom and has implemented ever fewer.  

Since 1999, USCIRF has recommended and the State Department has designated Iran as a “country of particular concern” (CPC) under the 1998 International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA) for the Iranian government’s systematic, ongoing, egregious violations of religious freedom.

See USCIRF’s work on Iran here. See more on prisoners of conscience in Iran and worldwide who are part of the Defending Freedoms Project here.  The Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, in conjunction with USCIRF and Amnesty International USA, created this initiative.  

To interview a USCIRF Commissioner, please contact USCIRF at [email protected] or 202-786-0613

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

March 17, 2015

WASHINGTON, D.C. — On Sunday, March 15, the day an official U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) delegation to Pakistan departed the country, Pakistani Taliban terrorists attacked two churches in Lahore during worship services.  At least 15 people were killed and over 80 wounded.  The funerals will be held today.  The attack follows other assaults on Shi’a mosques and meeting places.

“We mourn with those grieving at funerals today.  These horrific attacks sought to kill as many Christians as possible, occurring during Sunday services at two Lahore churches,” said USCIRF Chair Katrina Lantos Swett.  “During our visit we learned about government efforts to fight the Pakistani Taliban, and yet these attacks continue to unfold without adequate response.  Prime Minister Sharif and his government need to respond decisively and ensure worship sites are secured and perpetrators arrested and prosecuted.  Just weeks earlier a Shi’a mosque was attacked in the capital Islamabad.  It is important to recognize that these terrorist groups are equal opportunity murderers and minority Muslims as well as Christians have been victims of their vicious attacks.”

Commissioner Mary Ann Glendon said, “From our meetings with Pakistani officials, we don’t discount Pakistan’s many challenges.  Yet Pakistan’s own Supreme Court has recognized the need for stronger actions, calling for a special police force to protect minority worship sites and a new commission on religious minorities.  No such force has been created and the commission, buried within the Ministry for Religious Affairs, has no direct access to the Prime Minister.  Creating such a security force and bringing the minority commission into the cabinet could help improve the situation while also fulfilling Pakistan’s highest court’s ruling.”

USCIRF Chair Katrina Lantos Swett and Commissioner Mary Ann Glendon visited Islamabad on March 12-15 to meet with Pakistani officials, civil society, and religious communities.  It was the first Commissioner-level visit to Pakistan in USCIRF’s history.  There are reports that Christian protestors killed two bystanders believed to be involved in the attack.  USCIRF has monitored religious freedom conditions in Pakistan for many years and repeatedly has recommended that the State Department designate it as a “country of particular concern” for the government’s perpetration and toleration of severe religious freedom violations.  The Pakistan chapter of USCIRF’s 2014 Annual report details these violations. 

To interview a USCIRF Commissioner, please contact USCIRF at [email protected] or 202-786-0613.