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WASHINGTON (BP) — The Taliban’s return to manage of Afghanistan headlined the examples of spiritual freedom deteriorating in a number of international locations final yr, the U.S. Fee on Worldwide Spiritual Freedom (USCIRF) stated in its annual report issued April 25.
For the primary time in additional than twenty years, USCIRF – a bipartisan panel established by federal legislation in 1998 – really helpful Afghanistan’s inclusion on an inventory of the world’s most egregious violators of the correct to imagine and apply religion. The fee final urged the U.S. State Division to designate Afghanistan as a “nation of specific concern” (CPC) in 2001, shortly earlier than the Taliban was faraway from energy.
Spiritual freedom situations in Afghanistan “went into an instantaneous and disastrous downward spiral following the total U.S. withdrawal in August 2021 and the instant takeover by the Taliban,” USCIRF Chair Nadine Maenza stated throughout a web based information convention. “[T]he Taliban’s return to energy has had an instantaneous, chilling affect on non secular freedom and on the broader human rights atmosphere.”
Afghanistan is one in every of 15 international locations USCIRF really helpful to the State Division in its 2022 report for CPC designation. CPCs are governments the State Division determines are responsible of “systematic, ongoing [and] egregious violations” of spiritual liberty. USCIRF additionally known as for the State Division to position 12 international locations on its Particular Watch Listing (SWL), a class reserved for governments that meet two of the three standards of the “systematic, ongoing [and] egregious” customary.
The Southern Baptist Ethics & Spiritual Liberty Fee (ERLC) welcomed USCIRF’s newest report.
“This annual report from USCIRF is a useful useful resource that gives thorough documentation on the state of spiritual freedom at dwelling and overseas,” stated Hannah Daniel, coverage affiliate for the ERLC.
“Advocating for non secular freedom – for all individuals in every single place – is an integral element of the work of the ERLC, and this report is a helpful useful resource in advancing this work,” she informed Baptist Press in written feedback. “We’re deeply dedicated to championing the reason for non secular freedom around the globe and advocating on behalf of those that are oppressed for his or her religion.”
The fee’s report, which was primarily based on situations in 2021, really helpful CPC designation not just for Afghanistan however for Burma (Myanmar), China, Eritrea, India, Iran, Nigeria, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Vietnam. Afghanistan, India, Nigeria, Syria and Vietnam weren’t on the CPC record introduced in November 2021 by the State Division.
USCIRF known as on the State Division to maintain Algeria, Cuba and Nicaragua on its SWL record. It urged 9 international locations be added to the record: Azerbaijan, Central African Republic (CAR), Egypt, Indonesia, Iraq; Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Turkey, and Uzbekistan.
The fee additionally really helpful six terrorist organizations for redesignation as “entities of specific concern” (EPCs), which is for non-government actors. They’re Al-Shabaab in Somalia, Boko Haram in Nigeria, Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham in Syria, the Houthis in Yemen, Islamic State within the Higher Sahara, Islamic State in West Africa Province, and Jamaat Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin, additionally in West Africa.
In its report, USCIRF stated the Taliban’s “brutal utility of its extremist interpretation of Sunni Islam” has resulted in non secular minorities in Afghanistan going through “harassment, detention and even demise on account of their religion or beliefs.”
“The one recognized Jew and most Hindus and Sikhs fled the nation,” in line with the report. “Christian converts, Baha’is and Ahmadiyya Muslims practiced their religion in hiding on account of concern of reprisal and threats from the Taliban. Years of progress towards extra equitable entry to training and illustration of girls and ladies disappeared.”
Three African international locations – CAR, Nigeria and Sudan – “have given [USCIRF] trigger for alarm primarily based on shifting circumstances in 2021,” Maenza stated on the information convention.
CAR, which was faraway from USCIRF’s SWL suggestions in 2021, dedicated “egregious and ongoing violations of spiritual freedom, together with focused abductions, torture and killings of Muslims” final yr, she informed reporters. The deteriorating situations prompted USCIRF to suggest CAR’s return to the SWL record this yr.
Nigeria has turn into a “hotbed of persecution, significantly within the north,” Maenza stated. Christians and Muslims have been the targets of assaults by each authorities and non-government actors. After designating Nigeria as a CPC in 2020, the State Division eliminated Africa’s most populous nation from the record final yr.
USCIRF is “deeply involved in regards to the potential for backsliding in Sudan,” Maenza stated. The fee eliminated Sudan from CPC advice due to its “dramatic non secular freedom enchancment since 2019,” however the October 2021 navy takeover “now threatens lots of these developments,” she stated.
Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., stated in a press release that USCIRF’s advice of Afghanistan and Nigeria as CPCs “is an enormous step ahead to carry their governments accountable for his or her persecution of individuals of religion. We should proceed to name out persecution the place we see it.”
USCIRF’s annual report “is a method we’re capable of shine gentle on non secular liberty abuses and maintain different nations accountable,” he stated.
Although the report covers 2021 situations, USCIRF additionally addressed Russia’s February invasion of and persevering with assaults on Ukraine in the course of the information convention.
“USCIRF is anxious that [Russia] will develop its non secular freedom abuses as seen in occupied Crimea and Donbas,” stated commissioner Khizr Khan. “Russia has intentionally shelled homes of worship which have been sheltering civilians. We strongly condemn that abuse, violation of human rights, violation of spiritual freedom … and we hope that these atrocities will stop very quickly.”
In its report, USCIRF recommended the U.S. authorities for varied actions taken throughout 2021, together with:
- The State Division’s designation of Russia as a CPC for the primary time.
- The State Division’s dedication underneath each the Trump and Biden administrations that China is responsible of genocide in its remedy of the Uyghurs, a primarily Muslim group, and different ethnic minorities in western China.
- Enactment of the Uyghur Pressured Labor Prevention Act, which bans the importation of products made by compelled labor in China.
- The State Division’s declaration the navy in Burma (Myanmar) has dedicated genocide in opposition to the predominantly Muslim Rohingya individuals.
- The Biden administration’s nomination – and Senate affirmation – of Rashad Hussain as ambassador at massive for worldwide non secular freedom and Deborah Lipstadt as particular envoy to watch and fight anti-Semitism.
USCIRF – which is made up of 9 commissioners chosen by the president and congressional leaders – tracks the standing of spiritual liberty worldwide and points stories to Congress, the president and the State Division. Congress and President Clinton established USCIRF in 1998 with the enactment of the Worldwide Spiritual Freedom Act.
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