The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) is<\/p>\n
recommending that the U.S State Department include Nigeria and six other
\ncountries to its list of 10 nations that engage in the worst violations of
\nreligious rights.<\/p>\n
USCIRF wants Nigeria, Central African Republic, Egypt, Iraq, Pakistan,
\nSyria, and Vietnam be designated as CPCs [Countries of Particular
\nConcern].<\/p>\n
However, \u201cnon-state actors such as Da\u2019esh [also known as ISIS or the
\nIslamic State] and Boko Haram continued to rank amongst the most egregious
\nabusers of religious freedom in the world,\u201d according to the International
\nReligious Freedom Report for 2015 released by the State Department.<\/p>\n
\u201cDa\u2019esh continued to pursue a brutal strategy of what Secretary [John]
\nKerry judged to constitute genocide against Yezidis, Christians, Shia, and
\nother vulnerable groups in the territory it controlled, and was
\nresponsible for barbarous acts, including killings, torture, enslavement
\nand trafficking, rape and other sexual abuse against religious and ethnic
\nminorities and Sunnis in areas under its control,\u201d according to the
\nreport.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn areas not under Da\u2019esh control, the group continued suicide bombings
\nand vehicle-borne improvised explosive device attacks against Shia
\nMuslims,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n
Under the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 (IRFA), the
\ndepartment issues a yearly report describing the state of religious
\nfreedom in each foreign country, and designating countries with egregious
\nreligious freedom violations as CPCs.<\/p>\n
\u201cEarlier this year, the Department designated 10 nations as CPCs under
\nIRFA: Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan,
\nTajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan,\u201d USCIRF noted in an August 12
\nstatement.<\/p>\n
\u201cUSCIRF agrees with these designations,\u201d and recommends that the State
\nDepartment take further action designating the seven additional countries
\nas CPCs as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cPakistan\u2019s government, for example, clearly meets IRFA\u2019s CPC standard,
\nbut has never been so designated,\u201d USCIRF pointed out.<\/p>\n
The State Dept. report details a number of religious freedom violations in
\nAfghanistan, Mauritania, Pakistan, Sudan, and Saudi Arabia, including the
\nbrutal torture and murder of a woman in Kabul, Afghanistan who was falsely
\naccused of burning the Koran and other mob killings for supposed apostasy
\nfrom Islam.<\/p>\n
Non-violent methods of religious discrimination were prevalent as well,
\naccording to the report.<\/p>\n
\u201cAround the world, governments continued to tighten their regulatory grip
\non religious groups, and particularly on minority religious groups and
\nreligions which are viewed as not traditional to that specific country,\u201d
\naccording to the State Department.<\/p>\n
\u201cResearchers Roger Finke and Dane Mataic of Penn State University found
\nthat the number of countries that require some sort of registration has
\nincreased significantly over the last two decades, to nearly 90 percent of
\nall countries.<\/p>\n
\u201cFinke and Mataic assess that, while some of these countries regulate
\nreligion in what appears to be a non-discriminatory way, many of the
\nmeasures used to regulate religion, or to decide what is a valid and
\nrecognized religion and what is not, are clearly discriminatory,\u201d said the
\nreport.<\/p>\n
Angola, Azerbaijan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, China, North Korea, Eritrea,
\nBrunei, Burma, Vietnam, Central African Republic, Hungary, Bahrain,
\nUkraine, and Russia were found to have continued or increased religious
\nregulations.<\/p>\n
Some of these countries\u2014such as Iran, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and
\nBrunei\u2014have regulations that favor either Sunni or Shi\u2019a Islam and often
\nviolently punish those with other beliefs, the report stated.<\/p>\n
Steps toward peace between Islam and other religions were made in several
\ncountries, it added.<\/p>\n
In Kenya, a group of Muslims reportedly shielded Christians who were being
\nattacked on a bus; in the Central African Republic, Christians and Muslims
\npeacefully marched together during Pope Francis\u2019 visit to the country,
\nleading to the demolition of barriers between Christian and Muslim
\nneighborhoods; and the United Arab Emirates reportedly allowed a second
\nCatholic church and the first Hindu temple to be built in the country.<\/p>\n
The report also highlighted a Canadian court that ruled that the federal
\ngovernment could not require persons to remove \u201creligiously based
\nclothing\u201d from their faces to take the citizenship oath.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) is recommending that the U.S State Department include Nigeria and six other countries to its list of 10 nations that engage in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":52263,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-52262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n