USCIRF: Religious liberty threatened in Afghanistan, Iraq
- May 1, 2006 - comment
Threats to religious liberty have mounted in both Afghanistan and Iraq, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom said in its annual report released May 3.
The commission recommended to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice the retention of Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Vietnam as “countries of particular concern,” a category reserved for governments that have “engaged in or tolerated systemic and egregious violations of religious freedom.” The panel repeated its call from last May for Pakistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan to be designated as CPCs. Rice declined to include those three countries on the CPC list when the State Department made its report in November.
The USCIRF made Afghanistan the only addition to a “watch list” otherwise repeated from last year: Bangladesh, Belarus, Cuba, Egypt, Indonesia and Nigeria. The panel also said it is scrutinizing religious freedom in India, Russia and Sri Lanka.
The USCIRF acknowledged the situation for religious liberty in Afghanistan is improved over the conditions that existed under the Taliban, an extremist Islamic regime deposed by the United States-led military action after the 2001 terrorist attacks. The problems for religious expression, however, have increased in the last year, according to the panel. The new constitution is flawed regarding individual rights, and the judiciary is headed by a Supreme Court chief justice who does not support freedom of religion and speech, as well as the equality of the sexes.
Iraq, which is still seeking to establish a constitution and government after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein’s regime, has been plagued in the last year by escalating violence between Sunni and Shi’a Muslims, as well as religiously motivated attacks on various groups by insurgents and Islamic militants, the USCIRF reported.
“The commission has concluded that because the United States has been so directly involved in Iraq’s political reconstruction, it has a special obligation to act vigorously, together with the Iraqi leadership, to identify and to promptly remedy the systemic flaws which continue to undermine the protection of universal human rights in Iraq,” said commissioner Richard Land, the ERLC’s president.
Land, who is in his fourth year as a USCIRF member, provided the following assessment of religious persecution globally: “In general, it’s getting worse, but it would be a lot worse if it weren’t for the efforts of the United States government. I would have to say the most profound truth that I‘ve come away [with] from my service so far on the commission is that most countries in the world would give [this issue] little if any attention if it were not for the insistence of the government of the United States that they take this issue seriously and they take this issue seriously in relation to their own citizens.”
The USCIRF’s 2006 report may be obtained online at www.uscirf.gov .
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