Protecting Religious Freedom

Protecting religious freedom

Published: Sunday, Oct. 2, 2011 12:00 a.m. MDT

Deseret News editorial

 http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700183932/Editorial-Protecting-religious-freedom.html?pg=2

With recent reports documenting a rise in restrictions on religious beliefs and practices around the world, it seems like an especially bad time to eliminate the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom — an independent, bi-partisan body created in 1998 to advise the president and Congress. Yet that's exactly what Congress is alarmingly close to doing. A bill to reauthorize the commission is stalled in the Senate because one senator has put an anonymous hold on it that, under the Senate's rules, prevents further action. If the legislation isn't taken up, the commission will be forced to close its doors on Nov. 18.

This would be tragic.

Research indicates a strong link between a lack of religious freedom and the incubation of religious terrorism, which thrives in environments where closed religious orthodoxy dominates. However, when believers, whether of the majority or minority faith, are allowed to organize, express their views and participate politically, violence and extremism have been shown to dissipate.

More importantly, religious freedom is a fundamental human right. It is enshrined as our first freedom in the Bill of Rights and has been acknowledged as a universal human right in the U.N.'s Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international documents. Standing up for religious freedom is a moral imperative.

The world, however, is facing a humanitarian crisis as millions of people are tortured, raped, or imprisoned because of their religious beliefs. The United States cannot stand silent as Christians, Muslims, Buddhists and other adherents around the world are systematically discriminated against and even killed for their beliefs.

A strong Commission on International Religious Freedom can play a vital role in this regard. In the case of Sudan, for example, the commission recommended that then-President George W. Bush appoint a special envoy to Sudan, which he did: former Sen. John Danforth, who brokered a peace deal that ended a civil war.

Wikileaks hounded?

Wikileaks hounded?

 http://en.rsf.org/wikileaks-hounded-04-12-2010,38958.html

Statement by Reporters Without  Borders

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Reporters Without Borders condemns the blocking, cyber-attacks and political pressure being directed at cablegate.wikileaks.org, the website dedicated to the US diplomatic cables. The organization is also concerned by some of the extreme comments made by American authorities concerning WikiLeaks and its founder Julian Assange.

Earlier this week, after the publishing several hundred of the 250.000 cables it says it has in its possession, WikiLeaks had to move its site from its servers in Sweden to servers in the United States controlled by online retailer Amazon. Amazon quickly came under pressure to stop hosting WikiLeaks from the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and its chairman, Sen. Joe Lieberman, in particular.

After being ousted from Amazon, WikiLeaks found a refuge for part of its content with the French Internet company OVH. But French digital economy minister Eric Besson today said the French government was looking at ways to ban hosting of the site. WikiLeaks was also recently dropped by its domain name provider EveryDNS. Meanwhile, several countries well known for for their disregard of freedom of expression and information, including Thailand and China, have blocked access to cablegate.wikileaks.org.

This is the first time we have seen an attempt at the international community level to censor a website dedicated to the principle of transparency. We are shocked to find countries such as France and the United States suddenly bringing their policies on freedom of expression into line with those of China. We point out that in France and the United States, it is up to the courts, not politicians, to decide whether or not a website should be closed

Release of the 2010 International Religious Freedom Report

Release of the 2010 International Religious Freedom Report

http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2010/11/151081.htm

Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of State

Washington, DC

November 17, 2010

Video: http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid1705667530?bctid=678942946001

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SECRETARY CLINTON: Good afternoon. It’s my pleasure to join you today for the release of the State Department’s Annual Report on International Religious Freedom. Every year, the State Department prepares a comprehensive review of the status of religious freedom in countries and territories around the world. We do this because we believe that religious freedom is both a fundamental human right and an essential element to any stable, peaceful, thriving society.

This is not only the American view; it is the view of nations and people around the world. It is enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, it is protected by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and it is guaranteed by the laws and constitutions of many nations, including our own, where religious freedom is the first freedom listed in our Bill of Rights.
Because we believe in religious freedom and because we are committed to the right of all people everywhere to live according to their beliefs without government interference and with government protection, we are troubled by what we see happening in many, many places. Religious freedom is under threat from authoritarian regimes that abuse their own citizens. It is under threat from violent extremist groups that exploit and inflame sectarian tensions. It is under threat from the quiet but persistent harm caused by intolerance and mistrust which can leave minority religious groups vulnerable and marginalized.

During the past year, al-Qaida issued calls for further violence against religious minorities in the Middle East. Sufi, Shia, and Ahmadiyya holy sites in Pakistan have been attacked. So was a Syriac Catholic church in Baghdad just a few weeks ago. We received reports from China of government harassment of Tibetan Buddhists, house church Christians, and Uighur Muslims. And several European countries have placed harsh restrictions on religious expression.

Obama Skips Golden Temple Visit

Obama Skips Golden Temple Visit

President Caves in to Domestic Political Ignorance
over His Religious Identity Rather Than Standing for Religious Freedom

www.religionandpolicy.org

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Alexandria, VA (October 20, 2010) - THE INSTITUTE on Religion and Public Policy is deeply disappointed President Barack Obama has decided to opt out of an expected visit to the Sikh Golden Temple, one of India's holiest shrines, out of fear that wearing the requisite headgear might make him look like a Muslim.

"The Obama Administration has an abysmal record on international religious freedom issues. This could have been an unique and historic opportunity for the president to stand in the holiest shrine of an often-discriminated religious minority and to speak for the rights of all minorities around the globe," commented THE INSTITUTE's Founder and Chairman of the Board, Joseph K. Grieboski.

Obama was to visit the sprawling golden complex in Amritsar, "but the plan appears to have foundered on the thorny question of how Mr. Obama would cover his head, as Sikh tradition requires, while visiting the temple," wrote the New York Times.
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Sikhs are often mistaken as Muslims, and since 9/11 they have been the unintentional targets of anti-Muslim violence in the United States.

"By turning down a visit to the Golden Temple, President Obama disappoints not only the global Sikh community, but also every religious minority in the world who saw his visit as a demonstrable sign of support for their rights," continued Mr. Grieboski. "Instead of standing for religious freedom and against religious intolerance, President Obama has caved in to an ignorant minority in the United States who hide behind a conspiracy theory that he is a Muslim."

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THE INSTITUTE on Religion and Public Policy

500 N Washington Street
Alexandria, VA 22314

703.888.1700 (p)
703.888.1704 (f)

www.religionandpolicy.org

Contact:
 Sarah Channing Grieboski
Director of Communications
sarah@religionandpolicy.org

The Terry Jones saga shows the strength of anti-Americanism

Sunday Telegraph

The Terry Jones saga shows the strength of anti-Americanism

The 'pastor' who threatened to burn the Koran shows how eager Europe is to believe the worst of America, argues Janet Daley.

 Anti-Americanism has a new pin-up. “Pastor” Terry Jones, whose congregation may number as many as 50 on a good week, is holding the world in thrall with his on-again, off-again Koran-burning stunt. In spite of his idiotic proposal having been condemned by everyone in US public life, including the President, Sarah Palin, the secretaries of state and defence, the Pentagon, and the spokesmen of every respectable religious group, this wacko fantasist would have been capable (we were told) of destroying any prospect of peace between the West and the Islamic world. 

 

Mercifully, after what may have been a persuasive visit from a gaggle of FBI men, the “pastor” decided to cancel his grotesque commemoration of September 11. But presumably if his face-saving story of receiving an assurance that the Ground Zero mosque was to be moved is definitively trounced, he could choose once again to push us to the brink of global Armageddon.

Hello? Has anyone noticed how utterly ridiculous this is? One publicity-crazed loony threatens to commit an irresponsibly offensive act, to the virtually universal disgust of his own countrymen and the populations of America’s allies, and that’s it: the annihilation of any chance of bridge-building or conciliation between Muslim countries and the Western nations.

That this absurdity became the immediately accepted received wisdom suggests that the world (and not just the Muslim parts of it) must be very eager indeed to find a plausible excuse for casting America as a cartoon country whose heartland is dominated by bigoted know-nothings. Never mind that this is the same America which, only two years ago, was being hailed by ecstatic European liberals for having elected a black president, whose father and stepfather had been Muslims. I remember saying at the time that the victory of Barack Obama would provide only the most fleeting respite from the dominant anti-American mythology which is so essential to European self-regard.