TWH – Earlier this year, the U.S. Government’s Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) released its annual report. The USCIRF is charged specifically with the mission “To advance international freedom of religion or belief, by independently assessing and unflinchingly confronting threats to this fundamental right.”
The report highlights the countries and entities that, in USCIRF’s view, merit specific designations that identify nations where religious freedoms are under serious attack and highlights the worst violators for policymakers.
“Countries of particular concern” or CPC is the strongest of those designations and identifies countries that engages in or tolerates “particularly severe” egregious violations of religious freedom.
These violations include (A) torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment; (B) prolonged detention without charges; (C) causing the disappearance of persons by the abduction or clandestine detention of those persons; or (D) other flagrant denial of the right to life, liberty, or the security of persons.
Ten countries were redesignated in the report as meeting these criteria: Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said earlier this year in June that, “Respect for religious freedom isn’t only one of the deepest held values and a fundamental right.” Blinken added, “It’s also, from my perspective, a vital foreign policy priority.”
He continued with, “China continues its genocide and repression of predominately Muslim Uyghurs and other religious minority groups.”
Blinken also noted that Saudi Arabia makes illegal the practice of any faith besides Islam; Pakistan sentences people to death for blasphemy; and Eritrea demands arrested members of its religious minorities to renounce their faith prior to their release.
Five new countries were added: Afghanistan, India, Nigeria, Syria, and Vietnam.
Regarding Afghanistan, the report noted the takeover of the Taliban after the U.S. and Western withdrawal in August 2021, and the strict interpretation of Sunni Islam that places practitioners of other faiths in grave danger. The oppression of women, the treatment of Jews and Christians, Baha’is, and Ahmadiyya Muslims were among those experiencing serious persecution, with some groups entering hiding.
India was highlighted for the rise of a Hindu-nationalist agenda that “negatively affect Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Dalits, and other religious minorities.” The report noted that national state and local governments have demonized the act of conversion to other faiths and have enacted public notice requirements that have resulted in violence against those in interfaith marriages as well as door-to-door inspection of residences to identify individuals who have converted from Hinduism.
Despite Nigeria’s constitutional protections of religious freedom, the report noted that Nigerian citizens continued to face blasphemy charges and convictions, violence, and attacks during religious ceremonies. The report singled out Kano State in the north specifically noting that the region has a religious police force called the Hisbah Board.
The report said that the Hisbah board “arrested and charged five men suspected of engaging in homosexual activity. Individuals convicted of sodomy under Kano’s Shari’a Criminal Code may be sentenced to caning of 100 lashes and one year in prison if unmarried or with stoning to death (rajm) if married or previously married.”
The report noted that Syria was added because of multiple threats to religious freedom including the rise of President Bashar al-Assad’s Sunni minority dominance and authoritarian regime. Also noted within the report was that the armed forces and militant Islamists stripped religious minorities, such as Yazidis, of their autonomy and forced them religious jurisdiction.
The report did note that the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria continued to foster religious diversity and “openly support pluralism and collaboration among religious and ethnic groups.” But that these successes remained under threat.
Image via CC BY-SA 3.0
Finally, Vietnam was added for the government’s continued enforcement of a 2018 Law on Belief and Religion. The law states that “1. Everyone has the right to freedom of belief and religion, to follow or not to follow a religion. 2. Everyone has the right to manifest his/her belief or religion; to practice belief or religious rites; to participate in festivals; to study and practice religious tenets and canon laws.”
However, the law also requires that all Buddhist monks be approved by the government-endorsed Buddhist organization, Vietnam Buddhist Sangha. Other religious groups face surveillance to protect the public order and national interest, and religious groups may be subject to “public criticism, forced renunciation of faith, detention, interrogation, torture, and imprisonment.”
Four countries were placed on a lesser designation called the “Special Watch List” (SWL). The USCIRF recommended that three countries remain on the SWL: Algeria, Cuba, and Nicaragua. The Commission recommended the addition of nine new countries to SWL: Azerbaijan, CAR, Egypt, Indonesia, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Turkey, and Uzbekistan.
As an additional note, the Commission recommended that seven nonstate actors be redesignated as “entities of particular concern” (EPC): al-Shabaab, Boko Haram, the Houthis, Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS), Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP) (also referred to as ISIS-West Africa), and Jamaat Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin (JNIM).
As part of its mission, the USCIRF conducts a series of panels throughout the year covering issues of religious freedom in many of these countries. The Wild Hunt will follow and report on these.
The U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Consular Affairs is not explicitly informed about travel to these regions nor do they issue an advisory as a result of this report. However, they do note local laws and special circumstances about each nation and faith-based travelers.
U.S. citizens are advised to visit the Bureau of Consular Affairs’ advice for faith-based travel that include a variety of activities “from pilgrimages to service projects, from missionary work to faith-based tours”. Other nations have similar sites at their department of state or equivalent ministry.
Members of minority religions are regularly advised to be aware of local laws and customs. There are, for example, countries where Witchcraft is a punishable offense: Gambia, India, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, Saudia Arabia, Tanzania, and Uganda.
Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom, Rashad Hussain, also attended the release of the report in June saying, “Our greatest hope is that together we can unite our efforts to ensure respect for freedom of religion or belief for all people around the globe, and we continue to stand in solidarity with all people seeking to exercise their beliefs. “
The Wild Hunt is not responsible for links to external content.
To join a conversation on this post:
Visit our The Wild Hunt subreddit! Point your favorite browser to https://www.reddit.com/r/The_Wild_Hunt_News/, then click “JOIN”. Make sure to click the bell, too, to be notified of new articles posted to our subreddit.