US acknowledges 'real progress' on religious freedom, but obstacles remain

By Michael Hernandez

WASHINGTON (AA) – There has been “real progress” on advancing religious freedom worldwide, but obstacles continued to be faced by many seeking to freely exercise their religion, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Monday.

Speaking at a State Department event, Blinken said adherents and civil rights groups worldwide have been demanding their rights, and in some cases, “governments listen.”

He pointed in particular to advances in Belgium, which formally extended recognition to its Buddhist minority, Canada and the EU’s decisions to create offices to combat Islamophobia, and Brazil, which codified religious freedom guarantees for Afro-Indigenous groups.

But the top US diplomat said that in some cases governments have not only continued to restrict religious freedoms, but have also increased repression.

“Governments in many parts of the world continue to target religious minorities using a host of methods, including torture, beatings, unlawful surveillance, and so-called reeducation camps,” he said as he rolled out the annual congressionally-mandated US religious freedoms report.

“They also continue to engage in other forms of discrimination on the basis of faith or lack of faith, like excluding religious minorities from certain professions, or forcing them to work during times of religious observance. Governments use anti-conversion, blasphemy, apostasy laws, which ban the act of leaving a faith to justify harassment against those who don't follow their particular interpretation of a theology, often weaponizing those laws against humanists, atheists and LGBTQI+ individuals. Around the world citizens and civil society organizations stepped up to counter these acts often at great personal risk,” added Blinken.

Speaking alongside Blinken, Rashad Hussain, the US ambassador-at-large for religious freedom, cited six nations as countries of particular concern – Russia, China, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, India and Myanmar.

Russia was first designated as such in 2021, and a senior administration official who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity said it was re-listed because Moscow “continues to detain, physically abuse, and torture individuals on the basis of their religious beliefs Jehovah Witnesses, Crimean Tartars, Muslim groups, Falun Gong, Evangelical groups as well.”

On China, Hussain said the government has maintained repression of religious minorities, including the imprisonment and banishing of Muslim Uyghurs to reeducation camps.

It also continues to crack down on the Falun Gong religious movement.

In Afghanistan, Hussain said, “members of communities that do not tell the taller bonds narrower theological line must hide their religious identity or flee for their lives.”

Hussain recognized efforts within Saudi Arabia to foster greater inter-religious dialogue, but noted that practicing faiths other than Islam in the Kingdom remains illegal.

He said that in India there has been “extreme hate speech” against Muslims, while in Myanmar the regime “continues to repress the Rohingya population, causing many to flee their homes.”