US religious freedom panel again recommends India for blacklist

World
By William

An independent commission in the United States has recommended for the fourth year in a row that the Indian government, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, be added to a religious freedom blacklist. all of 2022.

In its annual report on Monday, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) again called on the US State Department to designate India as a “country of special concern”.

The independent panel has been advocating for the predicate since 2020. The label accuses a government of “systematic, ongoing [and] flagrant violations” of freedom of religion and opens the door to economic sanctions.

The body said that by 2022, the Indian government was “promoting and enforcing religiously discriminatory policies at the national, state and local levels.” These include “laws targeting religious conversion, interfaith relations, the wearing of hijabs and the slaughter of cows, which adversely affect Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Dalits and Adivasis (indigenous peoples and scheduled tribes).”

The report noted that about 14 percent of India’s population of 1.4 billion is Muslim, about 2 percent Christian and 1.7 percent Sikh. Almost 80 percent of the country is Hindu.

The panel further alleges that the Indian government, led by Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), “continued to suppress critical voices – particularly religious minorities and those advocating on their behalf”.

The US panel only makes recommendations and cannot determine policy. There was little expectation that the State Department would adopt the committee’s position as Washington and New Dehli have continued to strengthen their ties in an effort to counter China’s influence in the Indo-Pacific region.

In its report, the religious freedom watchdog noted that the administration of US President Joe Biden had “failed to designate India” as a “country of particular concern” after making the recommendation in previous years.

“The United States and India continued to maintain strong bilateral ties around economic trade and technology. Trade will reach $120 billion by 2022, making the United States India’s largest trading partner,” the report said.

“President Biden and Prime Minister Narendra Modi interacted on multiple occasions, including the G20 and G7 summits and the Quad Leaders summit,” it added, the latter referring to the informal grouping of the US, India, Japan and Australia.

The Indian government did not immediately respond to the latest report. Following last year’s recommendation, New Delhi State Department spokesman Arindam Bagchi accused senior US officials of making “ill-informed” and “biased” comments.

“As a naturally pluralistic society, India values ​​religious freedom and human rights,” Bagchi said in a statement at the time.

For its part, the Indian American Muslim Council said the latest USCIRF report “reconfirms what [the rights group] has been saying for years: that Indian government, under Prime Minister [Narendra Modi] has continued to systematically violate the religious freedom of minority communities, especially Muslims and Christians.”

More blacklist recommendations

The report also called on the Biden administration to add Afghanistan, Nigeria, Syria and Vietnam to its blacklist, as well as Myanmar, China, Cuba, Eritrea, Iran, Nicaragua, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia , Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.

The panel first made the recommendation for Afghanistan last year, following the Taliban’s takeover of the country in August 2021. Afghanistan has long been on the committee’s watch list, and the Taliban itself was featured in some of the earliest reports of the panel identified as “particularly concerning”. reports, from 2000 and 2001.

The commission said the group “violates the freedom of religion or belief of religious minorities; women; members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex (LGBTQI+) community; and Afghans with different interpretations of Islam”.

In Nigeria, the report focused on several blasphemy convictions in 2022, as well as mob violence related to blasphemy charges. It noted that the Biden administration failed to heed a similar recommendation last year, even though Nigeria was briefly under the administration of former President Donald Trump.

In Syria, the panel highlighted government violence against the Druze communities amid the country’s ongoing civil war.

In Vietnam, the commission said, “the government has intensified its monitoring and persecution of religious groups,” including Montagnard and Hmong Protestants, Cao Dai adherents, Hoa Hao Buddhists, Unified Buddhists and other religious groups not affiliated with the government are registered.

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