Secretary of State Antony Blinken released the State Department's 2022 International Religious Freedom Report, which shows "the rise of very troubling trends" in China, Russia, Iran, India and Afghanistan. File photo by Michael A. McCoy/UPI |
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May 15 (UPI) -- A new U.S. report is calling out religious freedom violations in China, Russia, Iran and India.
The State Department released its 2022 Report on International Religious Freedom on Monday. The report analyzes the state of religious freedom in 199 countries while documenting the violations of certain governments.
"This report released today reflects the picture that we saw emerge in 2022, but we are acting on the findings and observations of the report every single day," Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters Monday as he referenced "the rise of very troubling trends."
Among the key findings were governments, including Russia, China, Iran, Afghanistan and India, that continue to target faith community members within their borders.
While Saudi Arabia was singled out for its recent moves to increase interfaith dialogue and religious tolerance, it violated religious freedoms by making it illegal to practice any faith other than Islam, according to the report.
"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 re-education camps," Blinken said, as he acknowledged the 25 years since the passage of the International Religious Freedom Act.
Blinken also discussed work violations in the report that involved excluding religious minorities from certain professions or forcing them to work during times of religious observance.
The report highlighted a trend of increased government restrictions on access to holy sites and places of worship.
"Many countries continue to legislate and enforce apostasy, blasphemy and anti-conversion laws and related policies," Ambassador Rashad Hussain, who serves as the adviser to President Joe Biden on religious freedom conditions and policy, told reporters.
"These laws are direct attacks on the right to freedom of religion or belief," he added. "They criminalize religious expression and justify discrimination and harassment against members of minority religious groups and others who do not conform with the dictates of the approved theology."
The report highlighted the need for governments to provide equal access to education and other services.
"The Taliban, in the name of religion, continues to rob women and girls of this fundamental right," Hussain said as he referenced last year's death of Mahsa Amini, a young Iranian woman who died in police custody over allegations she broke strict laws on wearing a hijab.
While the report described a "growing bigotry at the societal level in many places around the world" and "the ongoing and deeply disturbing proliferation of anti-semitism, anti-Muslim hatred and xenophobia that target religious and non-religious communities," according to Hussain, it also documented strides in religious freedoms as more citizens "stepped up to counter these acts often at great personal risk."
"The United States will continue to stand by and support these brave advocates for religious freedom," Blinken told reporters.
"We defend the right to believe or to not believe, not only because it's the right thing to do but also because the extraordinary good that people of faith can do in our societies and around the world."