US state of department releases the 2021 Report on International Religious Freedom

Shafaq News / The annual Report to Congress on International Religious Freedom – the International Religious Freedom Report – for 2021, has been released on Friday.

The report describes the status of religious freedom in every country, and covers government policies violating religious belief and practices of groups, religious denominations and individuals, and U.S. policies to "promote religious freedom around the world".

The United States Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, said, "This year’s report includes several countries where we see notable progress, thanks to the work of governments, civil society organizations, and citizens. For example, last year the Kingdom of Morocco launched an initiative to renovate Jewish heritage sites like synagogues and cemeteries, and to include Jewish history in the Moroccan public school curriculum."

According to the report, in Taiwan, authorities are making it easier to report employers who refuse to give their workers a weekly rest day in order to attend religious services.

In Timor-Leste, the new president, Ramos-Horta, recently pledged to defend the rights of all citizens regardless of religious background.

And in Iraq, national leaders welcomed Pope Francis for the first ever papal visit to the country, where he conducted Christian and interfaith ceremonies in Baghdad, in Mosul, and in the Iraqi Kurdish region.

"One local leader from the city of Nasiriyah, Sheikh Haider al-Dubaisi, later reflected on the Pope’s visit, and he said, and I quote, "He came even though he could barely walk. He sent a message not only to Iraqis, but to the whole world, that Islam and other religions can sit together peacefully."

Sitting together peacefully. Ultimately, this report is about spreading that kind of progress to more parts of the world.

He added, "Unfortunately, the report also shows that we have more work to do. In many parts of the world, governments are failing to respect their citizens’ basic rights. Some governments continue to use blasphemy and apostacy laws, which banned defamation and renunciation of religion, to police the language of religious minorities. Others curtail expressions of religious belief like restrictions on religious attire."

"To highlight a few examples, in March, based on extensive legal review of the evidence, I made the determination that Burma’s military committed genocide and crimes against humanity with the intent to destroy predominantly Muslim Rohingya in 2017 – intent that was evidenced by, among other things, attacks on mosques, the use of religious and ethnic slurs, the desecration of Korans, among, again, many other actions."

"In Eritrea, only four religious groups are permitted to practice their faith freely, while members of other religious minority groups have been detained, arrested, forced to renounce their faith as a precondition for their release", he indicated.

As for Saudi Arabia, Blinken pointed out, "we recognize the important recent moves to increase interfaith dialogue and religious tolerance. However, publicly practicing any faith other than Islam remains illegal, and the government continues to discriminate against members of religious minority communities."

"China continues its genocide and repression of predominately Muslim Uyghurs and other religious minority groups. Since April 2017, more than 1 million Uyghurs, ethnic Kazakhs, Kyrgyz and others have been detained in internment camps in Xinjiang. The PRC continues to harass adherents of other religions that it deems out of line with Chinese Community Party doctrine, including by destroying Buddhist, Christian, Islamic, and Taoist houses of worship and by erecting barriers to employment and housing for Christians, Muslims, Tibetan Buddhists, and Falun Gong practitioners."

"In Afghanistan, conditions for religious freedom have deteriorated dramatically under the Taliban, particularly as they crack down on the basic rights of women and girls to get an education, to work, to engage in society, often under the banner of religion. Meanwhile, ISIS-K is conducting increasingly violent attacks against religious minorities, particularly Shia Hazaras."

He noted, "In Pakistan, at least 16 individuals accused of blasphemy were sentenced to death by Pakistani courts in 2021, though none of these sentences has yet to be carried out."

"For example, in India, the world’s largest democracy and home to a great diversity of faiths, we’ve seen rising attacks on people and places of worship; in Vietnam, where authorities harass members of unregistered religious communities; in Nigeria, where several state governments are using antidefamation and blasphemy laws to punish people for expressing their beliefs."

He concluded, "The United States will continue to stand up for religious freedom around the world. We’ll keep working alongside other governments, multilateral organizations, civil society to do so, including next month at the United Kingdom’s Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom."