Religious freedom across the globe has been sharply curtailed over the last year, a U.S. watchdog agency concluded Monday.
The
U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom,
or USCIRF, said that authoritarian governments throughout the world are
jailing prisoners of conscience — most often Christians and Muslims —
for practicing their religious beliefs, while there is also an increase
in bigotry against Jews and Muslims in Europe.
There is "no shortage of attendant suffering worldwide," the
independent government agency said, adding that it is fueled in part by
the hundreds of thousands of migrants trying to flee their homelands,
often because they have been persecuted for religious reasons.
"The incarceration of prisoners of conscience — people whom
governments hold for reasons including those related to religion —
remains astonishingly widespread, occurring in country after country,
and underscores the impact of the laws and policies that led to their
imprisonment," the report said.
It said the instances of religious intolerance "are crises in their
own right which cry out for continued action on the part of the
international community, including the United States."
The 2016 report said that religious freedom "deserves a seat at the
table when nations discuss humanitarian, security and other pressing
issues. The United States and other countries must fully accord this
right the respect it deserves and redouble their efforts to defend this
pivotal liberty worldwide."
Hot spots of religious suffering
The commission singled out some countries for particular abuses
against religious minorities. The report cited China, where Christians
have been imprisoned for refusing to remove crosses atop churches; Iran,
where religious minorities have been sentenced to death for "enmity
against God"; and North Korea, where thousands of religious believers
have been imprisoned in labor camps.
The commission said more people in Pakistan are on death row or
serving life sentences for blasphemy than in any other country in the
world, while Saudi Arabia sentenced a Saudi poet and artist to death for
alleged apostasy for advocating atheism, although the sentence was
later cut to eight years in prison and 800 lashes.
In Uzbekistan, a majority-Muslim country, the report said a human
rights activist has been imprisoned for supporting persecuted
independent Muslims. Vietnam controls nearly all religious activities.
The report denounced Islamic State jihadists for their "summary
executions, rape, sexual enslavement, abduction of children, destruction
of houses of worship and forced [religious] conversions."
It said the Syrian and Iraqi governments "can be characterized by
their near-incapacity to protect segments of their population" from
Islamic State terrorists.
The agency, which acts in an advisory role to President Barack Obama,
the U.S. Congress and the State Department, said nine nations should
retain their State Department designations as "countries of particular
concern" (or CPCs) for their “systematic, ongoing, and egregious
violations of religious freedom”: Myanmar, China, Eritrea, Iran, North
Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
The report recommended that eight more countries be added to that
list: Central African Republic, Egypt, Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan, Syria,
Tajikistan and Vietnam.
In addition, 10 countries have been placed on a “Tier 2” watch list.
These countries “do not rise to the statutory level that would mandate a
CPC designation but require close monitoring due to the nature and
extent of violations of religious freedom engaged in or tolerated by
governments.”
The list includes Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Cuba, India, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Laos, Malaysia, Russia and Turkey.
Prof
Wale Oke, the Chief Medical Director (CMD) of Lagos State University
Teaching Hospital (LASUTH has called on men to stop competing with their
babies to suck the wives’ breast.
