|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
NEW YORK (AFP) - The United States warned Tuesday that state-driven religious persecution was rampant across swaths of Asia and the Middle East and censured several European nations for branding influential spiritual groups as cults. The annual report on International Religious Freedom, unveiled by Secretary of State Madeleine Albright on the sidelines of the UN millennium summit here, surveyed the state of religious tolerance in 194 countries. Totalitarian governments were accused of treating religions threatening their dominant ideology as an "enemy of the state" in the report, which painted a damning picture of life for believers in nations including China, Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan. "Much of the world's population lives in countries in which the right to religious freedom is restricted or prohibited," said the executive summary of the report, which will be submitted to the U.S. Congress. China's communist authorities were accused of tightening repression against groups encompassing many faiths, including Buddhism, Islam, Roman Catholicism and meditation groups like Falunggong. "Members of such groups were subject to harassment, extortion, prolonged detention, physical abuse, and incarceration in prison," it said. China denied perpetrating faith-based repression but critics say only believers who confirm to tight controls imposed by Beijing's religious bureau can worship openly. Elsewhere in Asia, the report claims religious persecution is rife in Myanmar, that prisoners were beaten and branded insane in North Korea because of their beliefs and that worshippers in Vietnam also face repression. The report also targets governments deemed guilty of controlling religions by designating them as hostile or security threats. In predominantly Shia Muslim Iran, the State Department charges that Jewish, Christian and Sunni Muslim communities face harassment and imprisonment. Saddam Hussein's Iraq is accused of a "brutal campaign of murder, summary execution, and protracted arbitrary detention against the religious leaders and adherents of the majority Shia Muslim population." Security forces are guilty of murdering Iraqi Shia Muslim clerics and desecrating scores of holy sites, the report said. Another U.S. bęte-noire, Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, was accused of exploiting "ethnic, religious, and political divisions" to shore up his power base. Sudan meanwhile supported slavery and persecuted Christians and religious minorities who deviate from the government's interpretation of Islam, the report charged. A similar accusation was leveled at Afghanistan, where the Taliban rulers were reported to sponsor weekly "public executions, floggings, and amputations" against people who broke strict Sharia laws. Austria, France, Germany the Czech Republic and Belgium were also targeted, for stigmatizing certain religions "by wrongfully associating them with dangerous "cults" or "sects." The report mentions findings by the French National Assembly, which contributed towards an "atmosphere of intolerance" toward minority groups. "A few of the groups on the list are clearly dangerous, but most are merely unfamiliar or unpopular," said the summary. Germany is criticized for its handling of the Church of Scientology, which counts several Hollywood stars as members, while Austria is faulted for referring to Jehovah's Witnesses in "negative" terms. Continued government "observation" of the group created an environment, which encouraged discrimination, the report said. Concern is also expressed about a "restrictive" law in religions in Russia, which is said to create a hierarchy of faiths, and alleged harassment of some groups in the country. Two nations are singled out for praise in the report. Azerbaijan and Laos are praised for making significant improvement in religious tolerance, which could lead to a future decrease in impediments to freedom of worship. |
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
