U.S. State Secretary Rex Tillerson said ISIS is responsible for rape, kidnapping, enslavement and death of targeted religions and ethnicities. | Erik De Castro/Pool photo via AP

By DIAMOND NAGA SIU

08/15/2017 10:32 AM EDT

Updated 08/15/2017 12:23 PM EDT

ISIS is one of the biggest threats to religious freedom across the globe and is responsible for genocide, according to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who described the threat posed by the Islamic State in the State Departments annual religious freedom report.

ISIS is clearly responsible for genocide against Yazidis, Christians and Shia Muslims in areas it controlled, Tillerson wrote in the preface to the 2016 Annual Report on International Religious Freedom. ISIS is also responsible for crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing directed at these same groups, and in some cases against Sunni Muslims, Kurds and other minorities.

Story Continued Below

He added that the extremist group is responsible for rape, kidnapping, enslavement and death of targeted religions and ethnicities. Tillerson delivered remarks Tuesday to discuss the report and said the State Department will continue advocating for those seeking to live their lives according to their faith.

"Where religious freedom is not protected, instability, human rights abuses and violent extremism have a greater opportunity to take root," Tillerson said. "No one should have to live in fear, worship in fear or face discrimination for his or her beliefs."

He said the U.S. government plans to work with religious minority groups across the globe to "preserve cultural heritage" and to protect them from further attacks.

The report released Tuesday analyzes religious freedom in 199 foreign countries and describes what the U.S. is doing to support those rights. Last years report identified Afghanistan, Egypt, Indonesia, Mauritania, Nepal, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Sudan as countries that restrict religious freedom due to their anti-conversion, apostasy and blasphemy laws, and the status of religious freedom has not improved in these countries.

And there are 10 identified countries of particular concern: Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, which continued last years designations and followed the recommendations by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom in April.

The State Department did not, however, follow the commissions recommendation to add Central African Republic, Nigeria, Pakistan, Russia, Syria and Vietnam to its countries of particular concern. U.S. ambassadors in these countries all participated in events that worked to promote religious freedom in these countries.

Ambassador Michael Kozak of the State Department's Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor said new "countries of particular concern" categorizations will come within 90 days after this report, since the findings only serve to advise the executive branch. The U.S. was not included on the list, since he said the self-assessment was not constructive.

Though looking abroad, Kozak said the U.S. has helped advance religious freedom in multiple countries, such as loosening some restrictive religion laws in Vietnam and seeing an ebb of ISIS abroad though it is still not enough.

"There is a growing concern for a need to act. The genocidal acts of ISIS wakened the international threats that religious minorities are facing," Kozak said. "The first good news on the program is that ISIS is being defeated."

He said their findings exist as a "factual database" and are not used to pass judgments on other countries the information gathered is to help the U.S. figure out what strategic steps in foreign diplomacy it should take next.

The State Department began releasing the annual report after the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 was amended under President Bill Clinton to help better assess and protect freedom of religion as a foreign policy.

Missing out on the latest scoops? Sign up for POLITICO Playbook and get the latest news, every morning in your inbox.

Original post:

ISIS poses one of the biggest threats to religious freedom, State report says - Politico