USCIRF Spotlight Podcast

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Ahmadiyya Muslims Face Persecution, Discrimination, and Hostility Oct 22, 2021

Show notes

The Ahmadiyya Muslim community was founded in 1889 in Punjab, India and today has an estimated tens of millions of members globally. Because of the differences between Ahmadiyya beliefs and beliefs in Sunni and Shi’a Islam, many Muslims consider Ahmadiyya Muslims to be heretics. Some governments that regulate the practice of Islam deem Ahmadiyya Muslims as “non-Muslims” and place legal restrictions on Ahmadiyya Muslim practice. Ahmadiyya Muslims have also faced repression and societal discrimination in both Muslim and non-Muslim majority countries.

Amjad Khan, a spokesperson for the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community USA, joins us today to shed light on some of the challenges faced by the Ahmadiyya community globally.

Click here to read USCIRF’s Ahmadiyya Persecution Factsheet for further information

Religious Cemeteries as Targets of Destruction Oct 15, 2021

Show notes

Cemeteries are sacred sites that are of great spiritual, cultural, and historical significance to many religious and ethnic groups. These holy sites are governed by religious laws and customs that dictate the location of, the appearance of, and the activities and behaviors allowed on the burial grounds. Despite laws aimed to protect these sites, cemeteries around the world catering to a variety of religious groups are targets for defilement, which includes vandalism such as spray paint, theft, or smashed headstones. In other cases, whole graveyards are exhumed or razed in preplanned operations.

Last month USCIRF published a new factsheet on this topic that outlines international human rights law that defines the obligations of countries to protect these sites.

USCIRF Vice Chair Nury Turkel joins us on today’s episode to discuss the targeted destruction by non-state actors and state-sponsored entities of religious communities’ cemeteries in several countries around the world, including his native China.

Click here to read USCIRF’s Factsheet on the Destruction of Cemeteries

Saudi Arabia’s Religious Reforms Not Enough Oct 08, 2021

Show notes

Saudi Arabia has made some reforms to select polices impacting religious freedom, including improvements to its textbooks. Nevertheless, there are still several deeply rooted issues that undermine the credibility of its claims to be undertaking serious reform: non-Muslim communities may not construct houses of worship; Shi’a Muslims in Saudi Arabia still face systematic discrimination; religious dissidents continue to languish in prison; and the guardianship system limits a woman’s ability to exercise her religious freedom.

It goes without saying that Saudi Arabia has a long way to go in terms of improving religious freedom conditions on the ground. USCIRF Supervisory Policy Analyst Scott Weiner joins us today to highlight the areas in which they have made reforms, and elaborate on the conditions as they currently stand.

Read USCIRF’s latest Country Update on Saudi Arabia

Learn more about religious prisoner of conscience Raif Badawi mentioned in this episode.

Religious Freedom & Taliban Fears in Tajikistan Sep 30, 2021

Show notes

For many years, USCIRF has been deeply concerned about religious freedom conditions in Central Asia, and more recently the impact of the Taliban’s rise to power in Afghanistan on the surrounding region.

Since 2012, USCIRF has recommended that the State Department designate Tajikistan a Country of Particular Concern (CPC), in response to the government’s increasing repression following the passage of a strict religion law in 2009. The State Department followed this recommendation in 2016 and has designated Tajikistan a CPC every year since.

USCIRF Senior Policy Analyst Jason Morton joins us to discuss religious freedom conditions in Tajikistan as well as how recent developments in neighboring Afghanistan potentially complicate these conditions. He also explores the danger of using security challenges to curb religious freedom.

Click here to view USCIRF’s hearing on religious regulation in Russia and Central Asia

Click here to read USCIRF’s report on the abuse of extremism and terrorism laws in Tajikistan

Why the State Department Should Re-designate Nigeria as a CPC Sep 24, 2021

Show notes

Since 2009, USCIRF has recommended that the U.S. State Department designate Nigeria a country of particular concern, or CPC, for engaging in or tolerating systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations. In December 2020, the State Department designated Nigeria for the first time, making Nigeria the first secular democracy to be added to the CPC list.

As we approach the end of 2021 and anticipate the State Department’s upcoming CPC designations, today’s discussion with USCIRF Commissioner Frederick A. Davie will demonstrate why CPC re-designation is warranted, correct some common misconceptions, and explore how the U.S. government can adjust its policy in Nigeria to assist the government in improving its religious freedom record.

Read more USCIRF reporting on religious freedom in Nigeria here.

Hazara Community Threatened in Afghanistan Sep 17, 2021

Show notes

When Afghanistan was under Taliban control in 1996-2001, the Taliban discriminated against and violently persecuted the Hazara Shi’a community—which they labeled as “heretical.” Subsequently, the Hazara community continued to face targeted attacks over the last 20 years by the Taliban and ISIS-K. In the first half of 2021 alone, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan documented at least 20 violent incidents targeting Hazara.

Religious freedom conditions in Afghanistan have drastically deteriorated since the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan last month. This does not bode well for vulnerable minorities in Afghanistan such as the Hazara community.

We discuss the current situation for the Hazara community in Afghanistan with Farkhondeh Akbari and Andrea Gittleman. Ms. Akbari is a PhD candidate at the Australian National University who is a member of the Hazara Shi’a community, and Ms. Gittleman is with the Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Read more USCIRF reporting on Afghanistan here.

Islam in Africa Sep 10, 2021

Show notes

Islam plays a significant role in Africa’s past and present, with at least 500 million Muslims living in Africa today. While many Muslims in Africa practice their faith in peace and harmony, across the region some Muslim communities have been denied their right to freedom of religion or belief by both governments and nonstate actors.

Given the important role that Islamic traditions and practice play for many Africans, we examine some of the specific challenges facing Muslims on the African continent. USCIRF Policy Analyst Madeline Vellturo joins us today to discuss the range of violations in recent years that a diversity of Muslim traditions have and continue to encounter to this day.

Religion, Law and Citizenship in Assam, India Sep 02, 2021

Show notes

For the past two years, USCIRF has recommended that India be designated a Country of Particular of Concern (CPC) by the State Department due the government’s promotion of Hindu nationalist policies resulting in systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom. One such policy is the 2019 passage of the discriminatory Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA)—a fast track to citizenship for non-Muslim migrants from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan residing in India—which led to nationwide protests against the CAA in early 2020 and spurred state and nonstate violence, largely targeting Muslims.

Today, USCIRF Chair Nadine Maenza joins us to discuss a report on India that will be issued in the coming weeks by the Political Conflict, Gender and People’s Rights Initiative, Center for Race and Gender, at the University of California, Berkeley. The report, called “BREAKING WORLDS: Religion, Law and Citizenship in Majoritarian India: The Story of Assam,” is authored by a team of researchers led by Dr. Angana Chatterji. The report is a case study of the Indian government’s attempt to alter the basis of Indian citizenship through the pilot implementation of the CAA and accompanying National Register of Citizens (NRC) in the northeastern state of Assam.

Read more of USCIRF’s reporting on India here.

Fourth Anniversary of the Rohingya Genocide Aug 25, 2021

Show notes

On August 25, 2017, the Burmese military, known as the Tatmadaw, launched a genocidal campaign in Rakhine State against the largely Muslim Rohingya community. The United Nations Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar has documented instances of Burmese military units involved in indiscriminate killings of civilians, mass rape, and arbitrary detentions. This year, the situation has only further deteriorated. On February 1, the Tatmadaw launched a coup installing the ruling military junta led by Senior General Min Aung Hlaing. Six months later, on August 1, General Hlaing declared himself prime minister until at least 2023.

In our 2021 Annual Report, USCIRF recommended that the State Department again designate Burma as a country of particular concern, or CPC, for engaging in systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom, particularly against Rohingya Muslims. The U.S. government continues its investigation into whether a genocide and crimes against humanity have been committed by the Burmese military against the Rohingya people. USCIRF has urged a swift determination.

USCIRF Chair Nadine Maenza joins us today to discuss the ongoing situation in Burma and to commemorate the somber fourth anniversary of the genocide against the Rohingya community. She le a delegation to Burma most recently in 2019 and also visited Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh, where hundreds of thousands Rohingya people live to this day in refugee camps without knowing when and if they may be able to return to their homeland.

Read all USCIRF policy recommendations regarding Burma in the the 2021 Annual Report Burma Chapter.

The Impact of Majoritarianism on Religious Minorities in South Asia Aug 19, 2021

Show notes

We have seen a significant deterioration in religious freedom conditions in South Asia in recent years. Blasphemy cases, forced conversions, attacks on houses of worship, hate speech, and violence targeting religious minorities are among the long list of religious freedom concerns in the region—particularly in India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh.

Farahnaz Ispahani joins us to expound upon the myriad of concerns in the region. She is a former member of Parliament in Pakistan, and is currently a Public Policy Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center and a Senior Fellow at the Religious Freedom Institute.

Read more about USCIRF’s policy recommendations for all countries mentioned in this episode in the 2021 USCIRF Annual Report