CNS photo/Suhaib Salem, Reuters. Yezidis in Sinjar, Iraq, attend a commemoration Aug. 3 to mark three years since the Islamic State launched what the United Nations called a genocidal campaign against them. The Trump administration has renewed its commitment to protecting religious minority groups threatened by IS in the Middle East, says a new State Department report on international religious freedom released Aug. 15. (CNS photo/Suhaib Salem, Reuters) See INTERNATIONAL-RELIGIOUS-FREEDOM-REPORT Aug. 15, 2017.
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By
Josephine von Dohlen , 8.15.2017
WASHINGTON
(CNS) -- The Trump administration renews its commitment to the protection of
religious minority groups threatened by the Islamic State in the Middle East,
according to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in the preface of the annual
State Department report on international religious freedom, released Aug. 15.
"ISIS
is clearly responsible for genocide against Yezidis, Christians and Shia
Muslims in areas it controlled," Tillerson said in a statement Aug. 15.
"ISIS is also responsible for crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing
directed at these same groups, and in some cases against Sunni Muslims, Kurds
and other minorities."
Since
the 1998 International Religious Freedom Act, the State Department documents
the state of religious freedom in nearly 200 countries around the world,
reporting to Congress the "violations and abuses committed by governments,
terrorist groups, and individuals."
Ambassador
Michael Kozak of the State Department's Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and
Labor, which produces the report, spoke about it in a news conference Aug. 15,
saying the report is used to create a fact base for U.S. government
decision-making.
Kozak
reported that while conditions for many do remain critical, there are signs of
hope for the future.
"ISIS
is being defeated," Kozak said. "Since the defeat of ISIS in great
chunks of Iraq, it means that religious minorities can return to their
liberated towns and villages and the next challenge is to see that they have
security and that their homes are rebuilt."
Over
the past 15 years, the number of Christians has fallen from between 1.4 million
and 800,000 Christians to 250,000 Christians in Iraq today, with two-thirds
being members of the Chaldean Catholic Church and nearly one-fifth members of
the Assyrian Church of the East, according to the report. In Syria, less than 10
percent of the entire population is Christian.
"There
is a growing consensus on the need to act, the genocidal acts of ISIS awakened
the international community to the threats facing religious minorities,"
Kozak said.
One
way the U.S. responds to the threats of IS, as the Islamic State also is known,
is through the Global Coalition, which was founded in 2014 as a group of 68
members, formed specifically for the purpose of reducing the number of threats
from IS through military and other campaigns against the militant group, as
well as providing humanitarian assistance to both Iraq and Syria.
"In
the areas liberated from ISIS, the preferred option is to return people to
their traditional villages and areas because we don't want to uproot
communities that have been there for thousands of years and take them
elsewhere, if we can help them with the security and other means that they need
to be able to resume traditional role as the valued members of their own
societies," Kozak said.
Kozak
told the press that the U.S. has a "good record" in fighting against
genocide, stating that the U.S. is in the process of "defeating the
perpetrators of genocide pretty soundly" in Iraq and elsewhere, as he
discussed the legal and moral obligations of countries working to combat
genocide.
Former
Secretary of State John Kerry first used the word genocide to describe the IS
attacks in Iraq and Syria against minority religious groups such as the
Christians, Yezidis and the Shiite Muslims back in March 2016.
Trump
recently nominated Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback to the post of ambassador at large
for international religious freedom, whose position would allow him to work
with the office of international religious freedom in the U.S. State Department
to support religious freedom throughout the world.
In
his weekly video address in April, President Donald Trump reminded America of
the country's commitment to religious freedom.
"From
the beginning, America has been a place that has cherished the freedom of
worship," Trump said April 14. "Sadly, many around the globe do not
enjoy this freedom. ... We pray for the strength and wisdom to achieve a better
tomorrow -– one where good people of all faiths, Christians and Muslims and
Jewish and Hindu, can follow their hearts and worship according to their
conscience."
In
April, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom released its own
report covering the 2016 calendar year and up to February 2017. Separate from
the State Department's Office of International Religious Freedom, the commission
offers similar recommendations to the administration and to Congress on the
state of religious freedom worldwide.
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