Freedom of religion or belief is a foreign policy priority

[cbayer]

http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/religious-rights/204820-freedom-of-religion-or-belief-is-a-foreign-policy

April 30, 2014, 04:30 pm

By Robert P. George

Iranian pastor Saeed Abedini, a U.S. citizen, has been serving an eight-year prison sentence since January 2012 for “threatening national security” through his involvement in Iran’s house church movement. The “Baha’i Seven,” Iran’s Baha’i leaders, have been jailed since 2008 for heading a religious movement that contradicts the beliefs of Tehran’s theocratic leaders.

Shabbaz Bhatti, a Christian who was Pakistan’s Minister for Minority Affairs and a friend of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), of which I am chairman, was murdered by the Pakistani Taliban in March 2011 for opposing his country’s blasphemy law and Aasia Bibi’s death sentence for blasphemy. Two months earlier, Salman Taseer, the Muslim governor of Punjab province, met the same fate for the same reasons. Ms. Bibi remains jailed while her appealed case drags on.

Gao Zhisheng, one of China’s most respected human rights lawyers, is paying a heavy price for his brave defense of fellow citizens, from Falun Gong practitioners to Christians. After disbarring him, China’s government imprisoned and tortured him, and has concealed his whereabouts for nearly two years.
Eritrean Orthodox Church Patriarch Abune Antonios, the leader of Eritrea’s largest religious community, remains under house arrest. He was illegally deposed in 2006 for protesting government interference in church affairs, refusing to excommunicate 3,000 opponents of the Isais Afweki government, and calling for political prisoners to be released. Since 2007, the government has held him at an undisclosed location, denying him family visits and access to medical care despite his being a severe diabetic.

Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/religious-rights/204820-freedom-of-religion-or-belief-is-a-foreign-policy#ixzz30Pcxw1Ly