Iraq could be designated officially “religiously unfree”
Posted by judyw on May 3, 2008
Eli Lake writes in the New York Sun:
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom is split along party lines over whether to designate Iraq as a “country of particular concern” for religious freedom….
The commission yesterday sent a letter to Secretary of State Rice, saying, “We remain seriously concerned about religious freedom conditions in Iraq. The commission is traveling to the region later in the month and plans to issue its report and recommendation on Iraq in the near future, including a recommendation concerning the appropriate designation of Iraq this year under the International Religious Freedom Act.”
The writer interviewed Nina Shea, a longtime advocate for religious freedom and other human freedoms and a member of the commission, whom I greatly respect.
“I have been very concerned with the plight of religious minorities in Iraq,” Ms. Shea said in an interview. “This is one of the most intolerant places in the world for religious minorities. Half the Christians and half the Yazidis are believed to have fled Iraq since 2003. Six hundred thousand Christians have fled the country. There are about 500,000 Yazidis left. Eighty-five to 90% of the Mandeans have left,” she said.
Ms. Shea added, though, that reliable data on this question was hard to come by. She said that was one of the reasons the commission would be traveling to Damascus this month, to conduct more interviews with persecuted religious minorities forced to flee Iraq. “I wasn’t satisfied with our findings on this in the end,” she said. “We want to go Syria and learn more. Part of the problem is there are not many good reports out there.”
Ms. Shea was particularly worried about the status of Iraqi Christians who are forced to flee inside Iraq to internally displaced persons camps. “It is not a well-known fact that the government has instated a food ration coupon. When you become internally displaced, your food ration card is cut off. … I think it is incumbent on the Maliki government to provide food for these people,” she said….
While the outcome of the fight over Iraq inside the commission is in doubt, it may spur the White House to pressure the Iraqi government to provide more services for displaced Christians. “I think the Bush administration should be doing a lot more and should make keeping these small minorities in the country a priority,” Ms. Shea said. “Historically Iraq has been a pluralistic mosaic and these minorities are generally well educated and politically moderate. They help advance democracy and freedom in that country. It will be a Pyrrhic victory to have stabilized Iraq only to find it fanatically intolerant of Christians and other non-Muslim religions.”
I look forward to the commission’s report when they visit the region.
