A bipartisan U.S. panel has recommended Iraq be returned to a list of the world’s worst violators of religious liberty for the first time since an American-led invasion liberated the Middle East country from Saddam Hussein’s rule in 2003.
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) announced Dec. 16 its recommendation that the State Department should designate Iraq as one of its “countries of particular concern” (CPCs), a category reserved for governments that have “engaged in or tolerated particularly severe violations of religious freedom.”
Iraq should receive such a designation based on the “ongoing, severe abuses of religious freedom [in the country] and the Iraqi government’s toleration of these abuses, particularly abuses against Iraq’s smallest, most vulnerable religious minorities,” USCIRF Chair Felice Gaer told reporters at a Capitol Hill news conference.
“The lack of effective government action to protect these communities from abuses has established Iraq among the most dangerous places on earth for religious minorities.”
The lack of protection for these minorities — which include ChaldoAssyrian and other Christians, Sabean Mandaeans and Yazidis — has resulted in many of their members fleeing to other parts of Iraq or into neighboring countries. In addition, problems remain between the Shi’a and Sunni Muslim sects in Iraq, according to USCIRF.
Religious minorities are in danger of extinction in Iraq, USCIRF said. The Christian population of the country has fallen from as many as 1.4 million Christians in 2003 to a total of 500,000 to 700,000. Nearly 90 percent of Sabean Mandaeans have either left the country or been killed in that time period. In addition to Yazidis, other minorities that have been repressed are Baha’is and Jews.
Sabean Mandaeans follow the teachings of John the Baptist, while Yazidi rituals include worship of a fallen angel who repented.
The USCIRF report on Iraq is available at the commission’s Web site, www.uscirf.gov. (BP)
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