DAVID ADAMS reports on the findings of the latest US State Department report into religious freedom around the world…
Non-state actors such as the so-called Islamic State and Boko Haram ranked among the worst abusers of religious freedoms around the world in 2015, according to the latest International Religious Freedom Report released in the US this week.
The report, which was released by the US State Department on 10th August and contains an assessment of freedom of religion or belief in 199 nations outside the US, said IS, which it refers to by the name Da’esh, pursued a “brutal strategy” which constituted genocide against vulnerable groups including Yezidis, Christians, Shiite Muslims.
FREE TO CHOOSE?: The reported quoted research showing the number of countries requiring some sort of registration for religions has increased significantly over the last two decades to nearly 90 per cent. PICTURE: Rita Mezzela/www.freeimages.com
“There is…no more egregious form of discrimination than separating out the followers of one religion from another – whether in a village, on a bus, in a classroom – with the intent of murdering or enslaving the members of a particular group.”
– Antony J Blinken, Deputy Secretary of State
The group, the report said, was “responsible for barbarous acts, including killings, torture, enslavement and trafficking, rape and other sexual abuse against religious and ethnic minorities and Sunnis in areas under its control”. In areas not under its control, the report said the group was behind suicide bombings and vehicle-borne improvised explosive device attacks against Shia Muslims.
Boko Haram, meanwhile, which the report noted had pledged allegiance to IS in an audiotaped message in March 2015, “continued to launch indiscriminate, violent attacks targeting both Christians and Muslims who spoke out against or opposed their violent ideology” and had claimed responsibility for scores of attacks on churches and mosques, “often killing worshippers during religious services or immediately afterward”.’
Antony J Blinken, Deputy Secretary of State, said in a press briefing this week that while it used to be the case that the annual reports focused almost exclusively on the actions of states, “we’ve also seen certain non-state actors – including terrorist organisations like Da’esh, al-Qaida, al-Shabaab, Boko Haram – posing a major threat to religious freedom”.
“There is, after all, no more egregious form of discrimination than separating out the followers of one religion from another – whether in a village, on a bus, in a classroom – with the intent of murdering or enslaving the members of a particular group.”
He said while it was important to name the crimes of such groups, “our goal is to stop them”.
Non state actors aside, the report found that around the world, governments “continued to tighten their regulatory grip on religious groups, and particularly on minority religious groups and religions which are viewed as not traditional to that specific country”.
It quoted research showing that the number of countries requiring some sort of registration for religions has increased significantly over the last two decades to nearly 90 per cent with some of the regimes in place “clearly discriminatory” in the way it regulated religion.
The report said the research, conducted by Roger Finke and Dane Mataic of Penn State University in the US, also showed that the percentage of countries that required submission of religious doctrine for approval prior to registration increased from 13 to 18 per cent during their period of research; that the percentage of countries that required a minimum number of religious community members increased from 17 to 32 per cent, and that the percentage of countries that sometimes denied registration increased from 22 to 27 per cent.
The researchers, the report said, found a “strong link” between increasing registration requirements and an overall deterioration in the status of religious freedom in many countries.
“They also found that members of minority religions, or religions that are new to a country, are disproportionately discriminated against by this increasing regulation of the religious space.”
David N Saperstein, US ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom, highlighted at the press briefing what he said was the “chilling, sometimes deadly effect of blasphemy and apostasy laws in many places of the world, as well as laws that purport to protect religious sentiments from defamation”.
“Roughly a quarter of the world’s countries have blasphemy laws, and more than one in 10 have laws or policies penalising apostasy, and the existence of these laws has been used by governments in too many cases to intimidate, repress religious minorities, and governments have too often failed to take appropriate steps to prevent societal violence sparked by accusations of blasphemy and apostasy,” he said.
“And when these claims turn out to be blatantly false accusations made to pursue other agendas, governments will often fail to act to hold perpetrators accountable. These government failures weaken trust in the rule of law, creating an atmosphere of impunity for those who would resort to violence or make false claims of blasphemy.”
Among countries singled out for attention in the report’s executive summary are Syria where it says reports reveal the government has “targeted towns and neighborhoods in various parts of the country for siege, mortar shelling, and aerial bombardment on the basis of the religious affiliation of residents” as well as reports it had targeted places of worship, causing damage and destruction to numerous churches and mosques.
“Roughly a quarter of the world’s countries have blasphemy laws, and more than one in 10 have laws or policies penalising apostasy, and the existence of these laws has been used by governments in too many cases to intimidate, repress religious minorities, and governments have too often failed to take appropriate steps to prevent societal violence sparked by accusations of blasphemy and apostasy.”
– David N Saperstein, US ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom
In Iran, the report notes that at least 20 people were executed on charges of “enmity towards God” while others remain in custody awaiting a decision on when their death sentences will be implemented. It cites figures from the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center which show at least 380 religious practitioners remained in prison at the end of 2015 including 26 Christian converts and 250 Sunni Muslims.
“Christians, particularly evangelicals and converts, continued to experience disproportionate levels of arrests and high levels of harassment and surveillance, according to reports from exiled Christians.”
In China, it says authorities in Zhejiang province have ordered the “demolition of several state-sanctioned Protestant and Catholic churches and the removal of over 1,500 crosses as part of a government campaign targeting so-called “illegal” structures” while lawyers and religious leaders protesting the campaign have faced detention and arrest.
And in North Korea, it says the exercise of religious freedom “continues to be nearly non-existent”.
Among positive developments last year was the appointment by the European Commission of two new coordinators for combating anti-Semitism and anti-Muslim hatred, an incident in Kenya in December last year in which Muslims shielded Christian passengers from al-Shabaab militants, and a peaceful march of Christians and Muslims in the Central African Republic’s capital of Bangui during a visit last November by Pope Francis.
~ www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/irf/religiousfreedom/index.htm#wrapper
