Global persecution needs Congress’s response

The world is experiencing a crisis of religious freedom that poses a direct challenge to U.S. interests in the Middle East, Central and East Asia, Russia, China and sub-Saharan Africa.

In large parts of the world, this fundamental freedom is constantly and brutally under siege.

{mosads}In the Middle East, terrorist groups such as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) are attempting to systematically exterminate ancient religious communities. 

In Burma and Pakistan, Muslim and Christian minorities alike face systematic violence and discrimination. 

In Africa, nonstate actors target religious groups for violence and kidnapping. 

In China, Vietnam and North Korea, any independent religious practice is viewed as an unwanted competitor to the Communist state, leading to severe restrictions, arrests and torture.

The State Department needs new tools, training and resources to address these challenges. In a world where some people are willing to kill and die for their faith and where anti-Semitism persists even in the most tolerant of places, it is more important than ever for the U.S. to engage in robust religious-freedom diplomacy.

Seventeen years ago, Congress passed the landmark International Religious Freedom Act of 1998. The IRF Act created an ambassador-at-large position at the State Department and made protection and promotion of religious freedom a priority of U.S. foreign policy. 

Three different administrations have developed religious-freedom policy, and three different administrations have failed to check the rise of religion-related violence and the decline of religious freedom globally. 

It is worth asking what we can do better. Are new tools or new ideas needed to help address this crisis? Does the IRF Act need to be upgraded to reflect 21st century realities?

Those questions are why I introduced the Frank Wolf International Religious Freedom Act of 2015, H.R. 1150, with Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.). The bill is named after former Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.), the primary author of the original IRF Act and a tireless champion of the poor and the persecuted. 

H.R. 1150 strengthens the role played by the ambassador-at-large for religious freedom, and gives him more tools and the ability to better utilize existing resources. The bill will elevate his office, sending the signal inside the government bureaucracy that this policy is a priority. More importantly, it will demonstrate to victims of religious persecution that they are not forgotten.

The bill also provides a way for the administration to better coordinate IRF policy, because there is an ever-expanding number of special envoys, special advisers and ambassadors that have overlapping mandates. 

U.S. diplomats also need better training to recognize and understand the issues they will face during their service abroad. Finally, the bill gives the president new options to address the decimation of religious minorities by nonstate actors and terrorist groups.

Passing this legislation will protect our most cherished values and our interests. There is growing evidence that religious-freedom policy can help advance U.S. national security and economic interests. 

It can help stabilize growing democracies. It can help sustain economic freedom and enhance the equality of women. Religious freedom can act to undermine the religion-related violence perpetuated by nonstate actors. 

Diplomacy by itself will not stop terrorism, but coordinated with military and economic development efforts, it can help undermine the conditions that nurture groups such as ISIS and Boko Haram, as well as extremist Hinduism or radical Buddhism.

The bill is presently co-sponsored by a bipartisan group of more than 100 members of Congress. It is also supported by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the International Religious Freedom Roundtable, a diverse and ecumenical group of religious communities, ethnic groups and nongovernmental organizations.

In a letter sent to all members of Congress, the Roundtable endorsed the legislation, saying, “While there is very little we agree on theologically, or politically, we all agree that … the passage and implementation of HR 1150 … will send a clear and urgent message regarding the inherent dignity of every human being, as well as our common global security in the fight against religious persecution, extremism, and terrorism.”   

Smith has represented New Jersey’s 4th Congressional District since 1981. He sits on the Foreign Affairs Committee.