US commission: Russia a major violator of religious freedom – Crux: Covering all things Catholic

The State Department should add Russia to its list of the worst violators of religious freedom, a U.S. commission declared in its annual report.

TheU.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, founded to advise the federal government on the issue, comes out with its own list of shame each year, citing the most abusive countries in a lineupconsistently longer than the State Departments.

This year, the USCIRF report includedadissenting report from its vice chair criticizing the commission for failing to investigate Israel.

On Wednesday (April 26), USCIRF recommended that the U.S. should designateRussia as a country of particular concern,forwielding an anti-extremist law to violate the religious freedom of Muslims and other minorities.

Stacks of booklets distributed by Jehovahs Witnesses are seen during the court session on Dec. 16, 2010, in the Siberian town of Gorno-Altaysk, Russia. (Credit: Photo courtesy of Reuters/Alexandr Tyryshkin.)

Most recently, Russia bannedJehovahs Witnesses, labeling them extremist and ordering the state to seize their properties.

Theyre treating these people like theyre terrorists, said Tom Reese, a Jesuit priest who chairs USCIRF, referring to Russias treatment of the Witnesses. Theyre pacifists, they dont want to be involved in politics and they just want to be left alone. The Supreme Court has basically said theyre illegal.

Globally, the commission has concluded that the state of affairs for international religious freedom is worsening in both the depth and breadth of violations, Reese said.

USCIRFs list this year differs from its2016 list with the addition of Russia, but also the dropping of Egypt and Iraq, a move that may surprise some given continuing deadly attacks on Christians in those countries.

But Reese said that while violence against Christians in those nationsremains a horrificproblem, the commission wanted to highlight the concrete steps that both the Egyptian and Iraqi governments have taken to protect religious minorities.

On Egypt, for example, according to the report:

President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi consistently has made noteworthy public statements and gestures encouraging religious tolerance and moderation, has condemned sectarianattacks and assisted victims, and has urged reform of textbooks and religious discourse in society, an important shift in tone and rhetoric from his predecessors.

Still, Egypt and Iraq are on USCIRFs list of Tier 2 countries, which are consideredviolators of religious freedom, but not as problematic as the CPCs.

On the same day of the reports release,one commissioner, Arab-American and Democratic Party activist James Zogby, held a newsconference to discuss his dissent to the report, in which he criticizes the commissions refusal to investigate Israel.

Zogby, flanked by sympathetic Christians in a Lutheran church on Capitol Hill, said Israel discriminates against Muslims, Christians and non-Orthodox Jews but gets a free pass from the commission.

I did not look for this issue, it came to us, said Zogby, who cited a lengthy study from young lawyers in the West Bank occupied by Israel thatconcluded that Israel fails to meet international standards on religious freedom on which other nations are judged.

Other commissioners, Zogby said, were bullied to oppose an investigation. Thosepetitioning for an investigation were often dismissed as anti-Semites and some commissioners feared the commission would lose congressional support for investigating Israel, hesaid.

JoiningZogby Tuesday: the Rev. Aundreia Alexander, associategeneral secretary of the National Council of Churches; the Rev. Wesley Granberg-Michaelson, general secretary emeritus of the Reformed Church in America; and Fr. Drew Christiansen ofGeorgetown UniversitysBerkley Center for Religion, Peace & World Affairs.

Reese saidmany groups and people, including Zogby, propose that USCIRF launch investigations, but without a majority vote of the commission, those investigations dont go forward.

Jim proposed it, but he didnt get a majority, said Reese, who added that USCIRF reports often include dissents.

The following 16countries are on USCIRFs 2017 list of CPCs: Burma, Central African Republic, China, Eritrea, Iran,Nigeria,North Korea,Pakistan,Russia,Saudi Arabia, Sudan,Syria,Tajikistan,Turkmenistan,Uzbekistan andVietnam.

The10 countries on the State Departments list of prime religious freedom offenders, designated in 2016, are: Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

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