In Asia, Vietnam and Bangladesh also recorded serious cases of abuses and persecution in 2023. Criticism of India was not omitted, even though Delhi is an important ally for Washington against Beijing. In Pakistan, Ahmadi Muslims often suffer the worst discrimination.
Washington () – “Governments around the world continue to attack individuals, close places of worship, forcibly displace communities and imprison people because of their religious convictions.” With these words, the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, presented the latest report on religious freedom in the world, recalling that not only the State Department but also the Pew Research Institute has confirmed that in recent years the restrictions of Governments in relation to religions have reached the highest levels since 2007.
The report analyzes the situation in several countries around the world. “In India we are seeing a worrying increase in anti-conversion laws, hate speech, the demolition of places of worship and homes of members of minority religious communities,” Blinken said in a rare criticism of Delhi, which Washington considers an important ally against Beijing.
The report cites dozens of violent episodes, including murders of Muslims who traded (or were suspected of doing so) beef (the Hindu majority considers cows sacred), but also episodes of lack of police intervention in cases of attacks against Christians, accused (without evidence) of forced conversions.
The document then mentions the continued violence in the northeastern state of Manipur, where clashes between different ethnic groups broke out more than a year ago. According to the information gathered, so far they have burned more than 250 churches, murdered more than 200 people, and more than 60,000 have been displaced.
“The report appears to reflect the reality on the ground, as Indian media reports numerous episodes of violence against religious minorities,” said Fr. Babu Joseph, former spokesperson of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India. “Although accusations of forced religious conversions are spreading rapidly in India, a fact-check would undoubtedly show that many of them are just a figment of imagination and are done to denigrate some communities.”
In Pakistan, the police are also unable to protect members of religious minorities, the report says. And police officers “accused of abuse received light sanctions or were not sanctioned at all.” According to the Center for Social Justice, a local NGO, in 2023, 103 cases of forced conversions and marriages of Christian, Hindu and Sikh women and girls were verified. At least 16 people were murdered because of their faith, while “29 people were accused of blasphemy, of which 75% were Muslims, 20% Ahmadis (the Pakistani Constitution prohibits considering them Muslims) and 3.3% Christians. ”. This repression is also carried out online. The cybercrime department of the Federal Investigation Agency arrested 140 people for alleged blasphemy on social media, of whom 11 were sentenced to death, a sentence that was later confirmed in two cases by higher courts.
Ahmadis are also often the ones who suffer the most discrimination in neighboring Bangladesh. Local organizations recorded 22 episodes of violence in 2023, in which one Ahmadi Muslim was killed and 62 were injured along with 19 Hindus. Muslim leaders have frequently denounced government interference in the appointment and dismissal of imams, who are also given instructions on the content of sermons.
In Asia, other serious violations of religious freedom occur in China and Vietnam, where the repression, in both cases, is carried out by the Communist Party. According to several reports, Beijing continues to exert control over religious groups that it perceives as a threat to state interests. New administrative measures came into effect in September requiring monasteries, churches, mosques and temples to support the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party, implement “Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics” and promote the “Sinicization” of the religion, and a campaign was carried out to enforce these measures. The Chinese government has arrested, tortured and mistreated, disappeared or subjected an unknown number of people to forced indoctrination, often victims of “vague and inconsistent” accusations. The number of people imprisoned for their faith is estimated to range from a few thousand to 10,000.
Rashad Hussein, US ambassador for religious freedom, at the presentation of the report said that the campaign against the Uighurs also “follows decades of persecution of religious communities, from Tibetan Buddhists to Christians and Falun Gong practitioners.” . Among them, at least 188 have died in 2023 due to persecution, the report adds.
Liu Pengyu, a spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Washington, said the report’s allegations were inaccurate and accused the US State Department of trying to interfere in China’s internal affairs.
In Vietnam, on the other hand, “the authorities have recognized two new religious organizations after more than four years without any new recognition”, but, despite this, religious groups to which members of some ethnic minorities belong suffer persecution and abuse , to the point that sometimes “it is possible to assume that the reported cases are related exclusively to religious affiliation.”
Despite new legislation being enacted in March last year “that places new limits on the discretion of local authorities in applying the ‘Law on Belief and Religion'” and “includes new requirements for receiving foreign funding,” the report says – Blinken traveled to Hanoi in April and urged the Vietnamese government to improve “registration policies by making them more uniform and transparent.”
(With the collaboration of Nirmala Carvalho)
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