WASHINGTON TIMES
A federal religious liberty watchdog has called for a congressional hearing after the State Department again failed to place India and Nigeria on its annual list of “countries of particular concern” regarding international religious liberty issues.
U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom Chair Abraham Cooper and Vice Chair Frederick A. Daviesaid there was “no justification” for the department‘s omission of the two nations. The commission is an independent federal panel that advises the executive and legislative branches on religious persecution and promoting the freedom of religion and belief around the world.
“Days before Christmas, hundreds of Christians were killed in Nigeria, along with their pastor,” the two USCIRFexecutives said in a statement Thursday evening. “This is just the latest example of deadly violence against religious communities in Nigeria that even the State Department has condemned. The majority of commissioners have traveled to Nigeria and noted the threats to freedom of religion or belief and the deadly implications to religious communities.”
The pair added, “In India, in addition to perpetrating egregious religious freedom violations within its borders, the government has increased its transnational repression activities targeting religious minorities abroad and those advocating on their behalf.”
Secretary of State Antony Blinken in a statement released Thursday said Burma, the People’s Republic of China, Cuba, Eritrea, Iran, Nicaragua, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan were designated as CPCs.
He said Algeria, Azerbaijan, the Central African Republic, Comoros, and Vietnam were designed as “Special Watch List” countries.
Azerbaijan is a new addition to the list. The country, which boasts a 97% Muslim population, drew widespread condemnation for its September 2023 clash with Armenia over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region. Forces in the enclave quickly surrendered and nearly all of the 100,000 ethnic Armenian population fled to neighboring Armenia
Mr. Cooper and Mr. Davie acknowledged the State Department’s addition of Azerbaijan to the special watchlist, but said they were disappointed their recommendation that Egypt, Indonesia, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Turkey and Uzbekistan be placed on the same list was ignored. They also said Vietnam should be designated a country of concern “based on the State Department’s own reporting on [that] government’s religious freedom violations.
The State Department announcement said eight nonstate organizations were designated as “entities of particular concern” al-Shabaab, Boko Haram, Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the Houthis, ISIS-Sahel (formerly known as Islamic State in the Greater Sahara or ISGS), Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP, also referred to as ISIS-West Africa) and Jamaat Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin (JNIM).
Mr. Blinken did not refer to the situations in Nigeria and India, while noting, “Significant violations of religious freedom also occur in countries that are not designated. Governments must end abuses such as attacks on members of religious minority communities and their places of worship, communal violence and lengthy imprisonment for peaceful expression, transnational repression, and calls to violence against religious communities, among other violations that occur in too many places around the world…
