Is Anita Among, speaker of the Ugandan Parliament, paying a price for her role in passing the anti-gay bill in her country last year, or is she guilty of corruption? That’s the question Ugandans and people elsewhere ponder about the…
Religious freedom commission criticizes failure to name Nigeria and India as Countries of Particular Concern
The U.S. State Department should have included India and Nigeria in its annual list of countries that fail to protect religious liberty, according to a key religious freedom watchdog. The State Department annually assesses countries based on their levels of…
Oppressive regimes are now targeting citizens living safely abroad, including in the U.S.
“Transnational repression” is the emerging term for an insidious and growing form of global religious, political and ethnic persecution that has U.S., European and other governments reeling. The expression refers to the actions of foreign countries to intimidate, kidnap and…
Fact-finders highlight ethno-religious violence in Nigeria, while State Department declines to act
Christians and Muslims both fear they will be “eradicated” in Nigeria, a fact-finding team from the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom discovered. Last year, the commission, known as USCIRF, asked the U.S. State Department to label Nigeria, Africa’s most…
U.S. State Department calls out Russia, China, Afghanistan, Myanmar for extreme religious freedom abuses
Its continuing domestic crackdowns on minority religious groups and its invasion of Ukraine have solidified Russia’s status as one of the world’s leading violators of religious freedom, U.S. officials announced this month. “Following its designation as a Country of Particular…
In survey of religious oppression across the globe, Russia, Afghanistan and China take center stage
Russia has spent recent years in diplomatic and economic hot water with the United States over its mounting human rights and religious freedom violations, including the persecution of Muslims, Jehovah’s Witnesses and Protestant Christians. But the ongoing invasion of Ukraine…
Christian and Muslim groups respond differently to U.S. removal of Nigeria as a U.S. Country of Particular Concern
In Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, few topics elicit as much discussion or controversy as politics or religion and the accompanying effects on the people, for good or bad. It is not surprising then, that the recent delisting of Nigeria…
Baptist-led petition drive urges U.S. Congress to stop stalling on crisis in Myanmar
Former Burmese refugee Van Lian Kio said he has been tormented by the flood of social media reports, news accounts and images of brutal military repression of fellow Baptists and other religious minorities in his native country, now known as…
International religious freedom group decries Biden administration letting Nigeria escape Countries of Particular Concern list
The nation’s top bipartisan watchdog for international religious freedom praised one addition by the U.S. State Department to its 2021 list of Countries of Particular Concern for religious freedom violations but expressed astonishment that another country was dropped from the…