Releasing the State Department’s 2021 Report on International Religious Freedom, Mr. Blinken cited Saudi Arabia, China, Pakistan and Afghanistan as different nations with non secular freedom restrictions.
Releasing the State Department’s 2021 Report on International Religious Freedom, Mr. Blinken cited Saudi Arabia, China, Pakistan and Afghanistan as different nations with non secular freedom restrictions.
India has seen a rise in assaults on folks (resulting from non secular intolerance) and locations of worship, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated on Thursday.
“…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,” Mr. Blinken stated, as he launched the State Department’s 2021 Report on International Religious Freedom (IRF).
The secretary additionally cited Vietnam and Nigeria as examples of nations the place non secular expression was being curtailed.
The report, which incorporates assessments of the state of spiritual freedom in nations in 2021, is compiled by the Department’s IRF division, led by the IRF Ambassador, Rashad Hussain.
The doc is distinct from the IRF report launched by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF). In April, the Commission had really helpful to the State Department, for the third 12 months in a row, that India be categorised as a ‘Country of Particular Concern (CPC)‘, the class of nations with the worst data on non secular freedom. The State Department, which releases its CPC checklist in the direction of the top of the calendar 12 months, nevertheless, just isn’t sure by USCIRF suggestions and has not, within the final three years, categorized India as a CPC.
“As the Secretary stated, in India, some officials are ignoring or even supporting rising attacks on people and places of worship,”Rashad HussainInternational Religious Freedom Ambassador
“As the Secretary stated, in India, some officials are ignoring or even supporting rising attacks on people and places of worship,” Mr. Hussain stated on Thursday.
In one other set of examples of nations with non secular freedom restrictions, Mr. Blinken cited U.S. ally Saudi Arabia, in addition to China, Pakistan and Afghanistan (the place the Taliban have taken cost, following the U.S.’s chaotic exit in August final 12 months).
“China continues its genocide and repression of predominantly Muslim Uyghurs and other religious minority groups,” the Secretary stated. “Since April 2017, more than 1 million Uyghurs ethnic Kazakhs, Kyrgyz and others have been detained in internment camps in Xinjiang,” he stated.
In Pakistan, Mr. Blinken stated, not less than 16 people had been accused of blasphemy, or sentenced to loss of life by courts in 2021.
‘Vital foreign policy priority’
Religious freedom isn’t just a basic proper however a “vital foreign policy priority”, Mr. Blinken stated on Thursday. In April, through the U.S.-India “2+2” joint press convention of defence and overseas ministers in Washington DC, Mr. Blinken had stated the U.S. was monitoring “recent concerning developments” with regard to human rights in India.
On Thursday, Mr. Bliken cited Morocco, Timor Leste, Taiwan and Iraq as examples of nations the place progress had been made on non secular freedom. He stated some nations weren’t respecting the “basic rights” of residents – together with by utilizing apostasy and blasphemy legal guidelines and curbing non secular expression – similar to by limiting non secular apparel.
“Attacks on members of religious minority communities, including killings, assaults, and intimidation, occurred throughout the year. These included incidents of ‘cow vigilantism’ against non-Hindus based on allegations of cow slaughter or trade in beef,” the India nation report stated.
The India section additionally highlights anti-conversion legal guidelines within the nation, noting that 28 states have these legal guidelines and arrests have been made underneath them. It additionally notes that a number of State governments introduced plans to introduce anti-conversion legal guidelines. However, some State-level courts had dismissed prices , the report notes, introduced in opposition to people allegedly changing others for the needs of marriage.
“Police arrested non-Hindus for making comments in the media or on social media that were considered offensive to Hindus or Hinduism,” the State Department famous.
“Suspected terrorists targeted and killed civilians and migrants from the Hindu and Sikh minorities, including Hindu migrant laborers from Bihar,” in Jammu and Kashmir, the report says, including that as per stories, this induced in depth worry within the Hindu and Sikh communities , resulting in an exodus of migrants from the world.
Incidents of lynching of Muslims in Tripura, Rajasthan, and Jammu and Kashmir final 12 months are additionally talked about within the report.
The doc goes into the Foreign Contributions Regulations Act, which is being utilized by the federal government to constrain the functioning of Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), in response to the NGOs. The authorities, the report says, claims that the Act is used to strengthen oversight and accountability of overseas NGOs.
In a dialogue of the February 2020 Delhi riots, following the passage of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC), the report stated:
“During the year, Delhi courts acquitted some of those arrested on charges related to the protests and convicted one Hindu participant. Various courts criticized the Delhi police for inadequate investigation of the protests. Politicians made inflammatory public remarks or social media posts about religious minorities.”
Source: www.thehindu.com
