The U.S. government performs lots of useful services besides blowing things up and collecting taxes, among them issuing reports on every imaginable thing. Among them is the International Religious Freedom Report (submitted to the Congress by the Department of State in compliance with Section 102(b) of the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA) of 1998), "an Annual Report on International Religious Freedom supplementing the most recent Human Rights Reports by providing additional detailed information with respect to matters involving international religious freedom."
Last year's report is here - this year's came out this week. The Executive Summary follows:
- It should be noted that there is no Iraq report in this year’s submission. In keeping with State Department precedent, we do not report on our own governance but welcome the scrutiny of other responsible reporters. The reporting period ends on June 30, which roughly coincides with the date of the transfer of power from the Coalition Provisional Authority to the Iraqi Interim Government. In June, the Secretary acted to remove Iraq’s designation as a "Country of Particular Concern" for its severe violations of religious freedom under the regime of Saddam Hussein. The Transitional Administrative Law, ratified in March, includes provisions for freedom of religion, including the right to "freedom of thought, conscience, and religious belief and practice." Early next year, the Department will release its annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, which will include a section on religious freedom in Iraq from the transfer of power to the Iraqi Interim Government through the end of 2004.
The Executive Summary consists of three parts. Part I identifies many of the countries where religious freedom is restricted and classifies their actions and policies into five categories. Part II provides examples of nations whose governments have taken significant steps to promote or protect religious freedom, even though serious problems may remain in those countries. Part III lists noteworthy actions the U.S. Government has taken to encourage other nations to promote religious freedom. Some countries are mentioned in more than one part of the summary, according to the type of action or situation being reported. Within Part I, several of the countries could be listed in more than one of the five categories; however, in the interest of brevity, a given country is listed only once, in the category that best characterizes the fundamental barriers to religious freedom in that country.
Part I: Barriers to International Religious Freedom
Totalitarian or Authoritarian Actions to Control Religious Belief or Practice
Totalitarian and authoritarian regimes seek to control religious thought and expression. Such regimes regard some or all religious groups as enemies of the state because of their religious content. The practice of religion is often seen as a threat to the state’s ideology or the government’s power. Oftentimes, the state suppresses religions based on the ethnic character of the religious groups.
Article comments
1 - Jim Carruthers
Lemme see, uhm, working to bring back Cthulhu from the city of R'lyeh, and trying to organize an anarcho-syndicalist soccer league. And then there's the grow-op, but we don't talk about that. As for child-care, those thieving street urchins are almost as much bother as the revenue they bring in, so I'd have to call that a break-even.
2 - Eric Olsen
Say, do you know a guy named "Artful Dodger"?
3 - Jim Carruthers
But I do know about food, glorious food. But, yah, I might have seen him. Who wants to know?
4 - Eric Olsen
his mum misses him