By Kelsey Dallas, Deseret News. Government and social interference with religious practice decreased in 2014, but people of faith faced more threats from terrorist groups, according to Pew Research Center’s latest report on global religious restrictions and hostilities. “Of the 198 countries included in the study, 24 percent had high or very high levels of…
By Doug Bandow, Huffington Post. All religious faiths are victims of persecution somewhere. In this supposedly enlightened, tolerant age, people routinely are brutalized, jailed and killed for their faith — or lack of faith — in God. Hostility to believers is evident even in the West, long home to the strongest advocates for freedom of…
By Bill Bumpas, OneNewsNow.com. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom recently released its 2015 annual report. USCIRF chair Dr. Katrina Lantos Swett says the world is seeing “very grave assaults on fundamental religious freedom” reaching “unprecedented levels particularly in the Middle East with the violent attacks by ISIS.” She outlines some of the human tragedies as…
By Samuel Smith, Christian Post As thousands of Christians in Iraq and Syria, and other parts of the Middle East, are being tossed from their homes, killed, raped and pillaged by Islamic State forces and other terrorist organizations, Princeton law professor Robert George claims that Christians in America and other westernized nations are too complacent…
By Lauren Markoe and Brian Pellot, Religious News Service WASHINGTON (RNS) President Obama on Monday (July 28) said he plans to tap Rabbi David Saperstein as the next ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom, the first non-Christian to hold the job, which was created in 1998. As ambassador, the man named as the most influential rabbi in America by…
By Robert P. George (CNN) — The recent ordeal of Meriam Yahia Ibrahim Ishag, a Sudanese mother and wife of an American citizen — coupled with Iran’s continued imprisonment of Saeed Abedini, also an American citizen and a pastor — should awaken our conscience to one grim and inescapable fact: The persecution of Christians continues….
By Napp Nazworth WASHINGTON — The days of acceptable Christianity in America are over, so in order to be a faithful witness to the gospel, Christians must be willing to suffer the costs of discipleship, Dr. Robert P. George declared in a Tuesday speech. George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University and chair of…
By Brian Pellot (RNS) Secretary of State John Kerry should cite 16 countries for severe violations of religious freedom, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom recommended Wednesday (April 30) in its 15th annual report. The State Department’s “Countries of Particular Concern” list has remained static since 2006, when eight countries — Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran,…
By Meredith Somers The U.S. should consider economic sanctions on countries where Christians endure persecution, torture and death to help ensure security here and abroad, a religious rights advocate told Congress Tuesday (Feb. 11). Elliott Abrams of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom said a “case-by-case analysis” could be used in weighing sanctions. “You…
By Faith McDonnell On July 23, 2013, Dr. Robert P. George was elected Chairman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF). USCIRF, an independent, bi-partisan U.S. federal government commission tasked with making policy recommendations to the President, Congress, and the State Department, was created by Congress through the enactment of the International Religious Freedom…