List Afghanistan as religious liberty violator, report urges US State Department
United StatesRNS The US Commission on International Religious Freedom recommended that Afghanistan be added to the State Department’s list of worst religious freedom violators, citing the changes that resulted when the Taliban took control of the country last year. The federal panel said in its annual report released on Monday that the regime change has […]
ESSAY: REFORMING USCIRF TO DEATH
KRISTINA ARRIAGA, a commissioner of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) from 2016 to 2019, argues for Congress to restore USCIRF to the “apolitical, independent and disruptive agency its architects designed it to be”…
ESSAY: IN CAMEROON, RELIGIOUS FREEDOM CAN’T BE SEPARATED FROM POLITICS
US political scientist and Baptist minister R DREW SMITH, in an article first published on Religion News Service, calls for a re-evaluation of the criteria used within international religious freedom circles for assessing and advancing freedom around the world…
Asia Bibi happy to be in Canada but ‘very tired’ after blasphemy ordeal, says friend
Winnipeg, CanadaRNS When he heard that Asia Bibi – the Pakistani Christian woman acquitted of blasphemy – was on her way to Canada, Nadeem Bhatti could hardly believe it. “We had been told three or four times she was going to be leaving, but it never turned out,” said Bhatti, a friend of the family […]
US religious freedom report on India rejected as ‘Hinduphobia’
RNS Political leaders in India have rejected a critical report by a US government religious freedom commission, while an American Hindu group called it “Hinduphobia.” The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, an independent, bipartisan panel, released a special report earlier this month alleging the fate of religious minorities has deteriorated under the Hindu […]