US government criticized for ‘lagging commitment to religious freedom’

August 23, 2013

Two leading religious-freedom advocates criticized the Bush and Obama administrations for their “unwise failure to act” in defense of religious freedom.

Robert George, the Princeton University politics professor who serves as chairman of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, joined Katrina Lantos Swett, the commission’s vice chairwoman, in airing their criticisms in The Washington Post. George is a Catholic; Swett is a Mormon and a Democrat.

“Violators such as Egypt, Pakistan and Vietnam are escaping the accountability that the International Religious Freedom Act is meant to provide,” they said.

“Without new designations [from the Obama administration], sanctions attached in 2011 to Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea and Sudan will expire this month,” they added. “Allowing the International Religious Freedom Act’s sanctions authority to expire would send the disturbing message that the United States won’t implement its own law on religious freedom.”

 

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Further information:

• The U.S.’s lagging commitment to religious freedom (Washington Post)