US Designates Iran, China as Countries of Concern Over Religious Freedom

VOA
Reuters
WASHINGTON
December 02, 2022

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, right, participates in a World AIDS Day event in Washington, Dec. 2, 2022. The same day, he said the U.S. had designated China, Iran and Russia, among others, as countries of particular concern under the Religious Freedom Act.

 

The United States on Friday designated China, Iran and Russia, among others, as countries of particular concern under the Religious Freedom Act over severe violations, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said.

In a statement, Blinken said those designated as countries of particular concern, which also include North Korea and Myanmar, engaged in or tolerated severe violations of religious freedom.

Algeria, the Central African Republic, Comoros and Vietnam were placed on the watch list.

Religious freedom must be guaranteed for everyone, everywhere, all the time

THE HILL

BY SAM BROWNBACK AND GAYLE MANCHIN, 

OPINION CONTRIBUTORS  

04/06/21 

 
THE VIEWS EXPRESSED BY CONTRIBUTORS ARE THEIR OWN AND NOT THE VIEW OF THE HILL

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Merdan Ghappar was put in a prison camp in China for being a Muslim. Pastor Youcef was thrown in jail in Iran for following Jesus and helping others do the same. Twenty-five-year-old Ravinder Singh was killed in Pakistan for being a Sikh. And just last week in Indonesia, two terrorist suicide bombers targeted Roman Catholics as they were leaving Sunday morning mass.

What do they have in common? Religious persecution.

Pakistan, Myanmar In US “Religious Freedom Violators” List

Newsnext

Newsnext Bangladesh
by our correspondent in Dhaka
December 9, 2020

Pakistan and Myanmar are among those listed for “religious freedom violators,” while neighbouring India’s status has been downgraded.

On Pakistan, it noted the condition has deteriorated with blasphemy and anti-Ahmedia laws have forced minority faiths to convert to Islam.

“The systematic enforcement of blasphemy and anti-Ahmadia laws, and authorities’ failure to address forced conversions of religious minorities — including Hindus, Christians, and Sikhs — to Islam, severely restricted freedom of religion or belief,” added the 2020 report noting that religious freedom conditions across Pakistan had continued to trend negatively.

US Lifts Sudan From List of Nations That Violate Religious Freedoms

albawaba
Published December 23rd, 2019

Sudanese Christian woman prays during a Sunday service (AFP)

Highlights

During Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok's first visit to the White House earlier this month, the US announced that the countries would upgrade their diplomatic relations by exchanging ambassadors for the first time in over two decades.

The United States dropped Sudan from its list of nations that severely violate religious freedoms, signalling increased support for Sudan's transitional government. 


The US State Department said it had upgraded Sudan to a special watch list for religious freedom, citing "significant steps taken by the civilian-led transitional government".

Sudan's joint military-civilian body was established in August after a popular uprising ousted former authoritarian president Omar al-Bashir. The State Department praised the new government for its efforts "to address the previous regime's systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom".

The forces against religious freedom are ascendant. The Trump administration mounts a defense.

The Washington Post
By Hugh Hewitt 

July 20 at 11:00 AM

8:55 – 9:10 am Keynote Address and Call to Action by Secretary Pompeo in the Loy Henderson 9:10 – 10:05 am Opening Plenary Session of the Ministerial in the Loy Henderson

State Dept. releases religious freedom report: A 'chilling array of abuses' committed in 2018

THE CHRISTIAN POST
By Samuel Smith,
CP Reporter
June 22, 2019

A woman walks among debris after fire destroyed shelters at a camp for internally displaced Rohingya Muslims in the western Rakhine State near Sittwe, Myanmar, on May 3, 2016. | (Photo: Reuters/Soe Zeya Tun/Files)

The U.S. State Department released its annual report on international religious freedom on Friday and announced that it will strengthen its office that oversees international religious freedom issues.

US Religious Freedoms Panel Calls For Vietnam Listing as 'Country of Particular Concern'

RADIO FREE ASIA

Reported by Richard Finney
2019-04-29

 

A young Muslim boy stands outside Hanoi's only mosque in a file photo.
AP

A U.S. bipartisan commission called on Monday for Vietnam to be placed on a State Department blacklist of the world’s worst abusers of religious freedoms, noting that the country’s removal from the list 13 years ago has not eased violations under one-party communist rule.

Although the State Department removed Vietnam from its list of Countries of Particular Concern (CPC) in 2006 amid improving diplomatic relations, “the government of Vietnam has continued to persecute religious individuals and organizations,” the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) said in an annual report.