May 19, 2003
Panel warns religious freedom at risk in Afghanistan
___WASHINGTON--An independent panel warned May 13 that religious freedom in Afghanistan is perilously at risk unless the U.S. government presses for greater human rights protections.
___In its annual report to Congress, the president and the State Department, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom said Afghanistan could again become a repressive Islamic state unless Washington intervenes.
___"There are indications that Afghanistan is being reconstructed--without serious U.S. opposition--as a state in which an extreme interpretation of Sharia (Islamic law) would be enforced by a government which the United States supports and with which our nation is closely identified," the nine-member panel warned.
___The watchdog panel called for increased security to guarantee human rights, as well as secular courts to prevent "misguided judicial activism" and a commitment to make sure "punishments such as flogging, amputation of limbs and death by stoning are banned."
___The commission also rebuked Saudi Arabia, one of America's closest allies in the Middle East, for restricting non-Muslim faiths.
___"The commission shares the State Department's view that freedom of religion does not exist in Saudi Arabia and notes that advancing human rights, including religious freedom, has not been a public feature" of U.S. diplomacy, the panel said.
___The commission, which was chartered by the 1998 International Religious Freedom Act, monitors religious freedom issues and advises the government on ways to weave those concerns into foreign policy.
___The panel chided the State Department, however, for ignoring many of its recommendations, particularly adding Saudi Arabia to a list of "countries of particular concern" for its human rights policy.
___In March, Secretary of State Colin Powell named six countries--Burma, China, Iran, Iraq, North Korea and Sudan--as countries of particular concern for their "systematic, ongoing and egregious" violations of religious freedom.
___The watchdog commission wants Powell to add six more countries--India, Laos, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Turkmenistan and Vietnam--to the list, as well as naming Egypt, Indonesia, Nigeria and Uzbekistan to a "watch list."
Get printer-friendly version of this story
Send this story to a friend
News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.
Contents/ Masthead / Why We're Here / Links / Archive / E-mail us/ SUBSCRIBE!/ Signup for FirstLook