State Department highlights ‘non-state actors’ in annual religious freedom report

October 16, 2015

The US State Department has issued its annual religious-freedom report and highlighted the destructive influence of “non-state actors” such as the Islamic State and Boko Haram.

“In 2014, non-state actors committed some of the world’s most egregious abuses of religious freedom and other human rights,” the department said. “Government failure, delay, and inadequacy in combatting these groups often had severe consequences for people living under significant and dire restrictions on, and interference with, their exercise of freedom of religion. Other concerning trends over the year included significant increases in the number of recorded anti-Semitic incidents, and increasing restrictions on religious liberty imposed under the pretext of combatting terrorism and violent extremism.”

 

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Further information:

• The 2014 International Religious Freedom Report (State Dept.)
• Full text (State Dept.)