A Letter from Prometheus
The USA has included Pakistan in the list of states of “particular concern” over religious freedoms. While in the USA, Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari categorically rejected the list. The list for 2022 has Burma, China, Cuba, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan. Strangely neither India nor Israel is on the list although global human rights bodies are criticizing both countries for gross religious violations against Muslims.
A “Country of Particular Concern” is a designated under the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA) by the Secretary of State of a nation engaged in severe violations of religious freedom. The IRFA requires an annual review of the status of religious freedom worldwide and the designation of countries that have “engaged in or tolerated particularly severe violations of religious freedom” during the reporting period. The IRFA defines particularly severe violations of religious freedom as systematic, ongoing, egregious violations of religious freedom, including violations such as torture, degrading treatment or punishment, prolonged detention without charges, abduction or clandestine detention, or another flagrant denial of the right to life, liberty, or the security of persons. Is not bizarre the IRFA does not find torture, degrading treatment or punishment, prolonged detention without charges, abduction, and detentions of Muslims in India during the year 2020-2021 and during the first 10 months of the year, 2022 as the report covered the above-mentioned periods under consideration.
One can say that Bilawal refused to accept the list because he is the Foreign Minister of Pakistan and his statement is diplomatically loaded and politically motivated. However, facts speak that a recent report by Human Rights Watch published in October 2022 has also indicated state-sponsored brutalities committed against Muslims in India. The report that was presented by Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director at Human Rights Watch, categorically said that the authorities in India are increasingly using abusive punishments against Muslims in several states ruled by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) where party leaders have even demolished properties of Muslim without legal authorization. “The authorities in several Indian states are carrying out violence against Muslims as a kind of summary punishment. Officials, blatantly disregarding the rule of law, are sending a message to the public that Muslims can be discriminated against and attacked,” commented Meenakshi Ganguly.
BBC News correspondent for Delhi Geeta Pandey,m in her recent special report, showed facts that unprovoked attacks on Muslims by Hindu mobs have become routine in India. She explained her viewpoint by citing several incidents of brutal treatment being faced by Muslims including a video that went viral on social media exposing a terrified little girl clinging to her Muslim father as a Hindu mob assaulted him. The footage showed the 45-year-old rickshaw driver being paraded through the streets of Kanpur, as his crying daughter begged the mob to stop hitting him. The mob was forcing the Muslim rickshaw driver to chant “Jai Shri Ram” or “Long live Lord Ram”. Another viral video showed a Muslim bangle-seller being slapped, kicked, and punched by a Hindu mob in Indore and told by it to stay away from Hindu areas in the future. Almost every week such videos surfaced during the period of the year 2021-22—- a time when IRFA documented religion-related human rights violations for preparing the year 2022 report that was released on November 30.
Since the list for 2022 includes Burma, China, Cuba, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan, therefore one should review the list politically. The inclusion of China, Cuba, Iran, and North Korea does not need explanation because everybody knows the USA considers China as the biggest threat to its economy while it has over 50 years of bitter relations with Cuba. Iran has always been a country of “grave concerns” since the 1979 revolution and the US hostage crisis and Russia is a killer of humanity. The US did not invite Eritrea to the US-African state summit that took place recently because Eritrea is an “untrustworthy country” in Africa. Washington does not explain why it considers Eritrea “untrustworthy” The Department of State claims that Nicaragua’s current leaders have systematically undermined Nicaragua’s democratic structures and President Daniel Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, are not democratic while Saudi Arabia is no more trustworthy due to its openness for Russia and China and its refusal to accept the dictation of President Biden in the oil crisis. Tajikistan is “in orbit of Russian foreign policy” while Turkmenistan believes in non-aligned policy and does not care what the USA thinks about it. So now we need to find why the USA is not happy with its time-tested, frontline war partner and collaborator since the 1950s, Pakistan.
I can adduce several reasons but I believe Pakistan’s nuclear success, tricky strategic policy over Afghanistan, its proximity and dependence on China, and geopolitical location are some of the reasons for considering Pakistan as an “untrusted partner”. One can understand IRFA listing is based on the strategic interests of the USA rather than the actual situation of religious freedom parameters.
An academic article confirms that the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA) is a “soft power” tool of the USA. The paper also indicates that IRFA was seeded by Christian advocacy groups and prominent American evangelicals to address what was perceived as the growing persecution of Christians worldwide following the end of the Cold War.
An academic article titled “With Friends Like These: Does American Soft Power Advance International Religious Freedom?” written by Ariel Zellman and Jonathan Fox of the Department of Political Studies, Bar-Ilan University of Israel, published in May, confirms that the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA) is a “soft power” tool of the USA. The paper also indicates that IRFA was seeded by Christian advocacy groups and prominent American evangelicals to address what was perceived as the growing persecution of Christians worldwide following the end of the Cold War.
This can be a reason why IRFA keeps quiet when violations are against Muslims but IRFA reacts sharply when matters are related to Christianity and somehow or other with Ahmadis’ issues. Now one can understand what does France is not penalized when it does not allow Muslim women to use their religious hijab, or India, and Israel are not included in the list when they are killing kill Muslims.
