Russia, China, Myanmar recommended for State Department list of religious freedom violators
RNS A religious freedom watchdog is urging the State Department to name four additional countries to its list of the worst religious liberty offenders. In its 2021 annual report, released on Wednesday, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom said India, Russia, Syria and Vietnam should be considered “countries of particular concern.” Those nations have been […]
Essay: Nigeria’s blasphemy laws are the religious freedom crisis no one is talking about
Rev FREDERICK A DAVIE and Rev TONY PERKINS, of the US Commission for International Religious Freedom, says Nigeria’s blasphemy laws “cannot stand” if the country’s commitment to religious freedom is to be realised…
US group appeals for Pakistani woman jailed on blasphemy
Islamabad, PakistanAP The US religious watchdog appealed on Friday for the rights of a Pakistani woman from the country’s minority Ahmadis who has been jailed on blasphemy charges, declaring her a prisoner of conscience and urging Prime Minister Imran Khan’s government to immediately set her free. The statement by the US Commission on International Religious […]
US State Department adds Nigeria to list of most serious religious freedom violators
RNS The US State Department has added Nigeria to its list of countries deemed to have the most egregious violations of religious freedom. Sam Brownback, the department’s ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom, told reporters in a Tuesday telephone briefing that the African country was designated as a “country of particular concern” because of an increasing number of […]
Essay: It’s time to end ‘name and shame’ religious freedom policy
In an article first published on Religion News Service, PETER HENNE, an associate professor at the University of Vermont, says it’s time for the US to adapt a different approach to tackling the issue of religious freedom around the world…
Thousands rally in Pakistan in support of killer of American
Islamabad, PakistanAP Thousands of radical Islamists rallied on Friday in north-western Pakistan in support of a man who earlier this week walked into a courtroom in the city of Peshawar and gunned down a US citizen on trial for blasphemy. The American, Tahir Naseem, died of his wounds before he could be taken to hospital […]
US religious freedom commissioner Nury Turkel on Uighurs and his new post
AP Nury Turkel, co-founder of the Uyghur Human Rights Project and former president of the Uyghur American Association, was appointed to the US Commission on International Religious Freedom late last month. Born in the Xinjang province of China, he is a leading human rights advocate on behalf of fellow Uighurs, a Muslim ethnic minority group […]
Uighur activists celebrate religious freedom agency’s first Uighur commissioner
RNS House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has appointed prominent Uighur American attorney and activist Nury Turkel to the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, an independent religious freedom watchdog agency funded by Congress. Turkel’s appointment has been celebrated widely by Uighur rights activists, who say the move is a clear signal to the Chinese Government that […]
List India as top religious freedom violator, says US watchdog group
RNS India, which recently passed legislation that experts say is detrimental to Muslims, should be placed on the US Government’s list of most egregious religious freedom violators, a watchdog agency says in its new report. The Citizenship Amendment Act, passed in December by the Parliament in majority-Hindu India, violates religious freedom especially for Muslims, said the […]
US religious freedom agency reauthorised with Trump’s signature
Washington DC, USRNS The independent religious freedom watchdog whose future was in question in recent months has been reauthorized as part of an ominbus bill US President Donald Trump signed Friday. The US Commission on International Religious Freedom received funding of $US3.5 million annually for the next three years after members of Congress included revised […]