NEWS STORY: Annual Report Finds Abuses in Religious Freedom

c. 2003 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ The U.S. State Department issued its fifth annual report on international religious freedom Thursday (Dec. 18), rebuking China and North Korea among authoritarian regimes and countries such as Saudi Arabia and Sudan that are hostile toward minority religions. “Though international law supports it and though millions of religious […]

c. 2003 Religion News Service

WASHINGTON _ The U.S. State Department issued its fifth annual report on international religious freedom Thursday (Dec. 18), rebuking China and North Korea among authoritarian regimes and countries such as Saudi Arabia and Sudan that are hostile toward minority religions.

“Though international law supports it and though millions of religious believers around the world desire it, religious freedom all too often remains fragile, neglected and violated,” said John Hanford, ambassador at large for international religious freedom, at a news briefing.


“Many religious believers find themselves forced to worship secretly instead of confidently, or to hold their sacred beliefs in fear and under threat rather than peace and security.”

A total of six countries were cited for “totalitarian and authoritarian attempts to control religious belief or practice”: Burma, China, Cuba, Laos, North Korea and Vietnam.

“Genuine religious freedom does not exist” in North Korea, the report said. “Reports of executions, torture and imprisonment of religious persons in the country continued to emerge.”

The other five countries were cited for restricting religious practice, monitoring religious activities or harassing believers.

Local authorities in some areas of China are involved in “a selective crackdown of unregistered churches, temples and mosques,” it noted.

In the area of state hostility toward minority religions, the report mentioned Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

The report described Saudi Arabia as a place where religious freedom is nonexistent: “The government continued to enforce a strictly conservative version of Sunni Islam and suppress the public practice of other interpretations of Islam and non-Muslim religions.”


Sudan relegates non-Muslims “to de facto second-class citizenship,” it said.

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The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, an independent federal agency, said these findings show why the State Department should designate Saudi Arabia, Turkmenistan and Vietnam as “countries of particular concern” that have “systematic, ongoing and egregious” religious freedom violations. Burma, China, Iran, Iraq, North Korea and Sudan currently have that designation.

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Other categories of religious freedom abuses included in the annual report are those where the state neglected problems related to discrimination or persecution of minority religions; where discriminatory laws or governmental policies put certain religions at a disadvantage; and where certain minority religions are wrongfully associated with dangerous “cults” or “sects.”

Hanford cited the small African country of Eritrea as an example of a state with discriminatory legislation, where more than 300 Pentecostal and evangelical Christians in that country are currently imprisoned because their churches have not been sanctioned by the government.

The report’s executive summary also cited a “disturbing increase” in anti-Semitism in Europe.

“European governments, we feel, are beginning to take this problem seriously _ not that they weren’t before, but I think with renewed emphasis,” said Hanford.

He said the department is also concerned about anti-Semitism in Turkey, where two synagogues were bombed in mid-November.

Kazakhstan, which recently started an interfaith dialogue, was cited for “significant improvement” on religious freedom. Laos, which was also criticized for overall restrictions of religious practice, was commended for decreasing the number of arrests of religious leaders, and allowing some long-closed churches to reopen.


Asked at the briefing about France’s proposed prohibition of Muslim head scarves in public schools, Hanford said it is a matter of concern.

“This fits with an approach we’ve taken with a number of countries that restrict head scarves, where we have felt that where people are wearing these with no provocation, simply as a manifestation of their own heartfelt beliefs, that we don’t see where this causes division among peoples,” he said.

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