(RNS) The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom has put India on its `watch list,’ citing the country’s “inadequate” response to recent waves of violence toward religious minorities.
While there has been a “disturbing increase in communal violence” in India, “the government’s response… has been found to be largely inadequate and the national government has failed to take effective measures to ensure the rights of religious minorities in several states, the commission said.
USCIRF has been particularly concerned about India’s religious tolerance since 2002, when organizations related to the Hindu Nationalist party Bharatiya Janata were on the rise. At that time, India was designated as a “country of particular concern,” — the commission’s most condemning category — but has since been removed from that list.
With attacks against Christians in December of 2007 and into 2008, USCIRF’s attention has been called back to India. They reported inadequate police and judiciary response to the violence and the subsequent displacement of 60,000 or more Christians in August and September of 2008.
Although USCIRF’s annual report is generally released in May, the chapter on India was postponed. The release announcing the country’s placement on USCIRF’s watch list was published Wednesday (Aug. 13).
“This year’s India chapter was delayed because USCIRF had requested to visit India this summer,” the release stated. “The Indian government, however, declined to issue USCIRF visas for the trip.”
What sets India apart from most of the countries on the watch list, which includes such places as Somalia, Cuba and Afghanistan, is their democratically elected government.
“In practice, however, India’s democratic institutions charged with upholding the rule of law … lack capacity and have emerged as unwilling or unable to consistently seek redress for victims of religiously-motivated violence,” said the USCIRF.
By Kristen May
Religion News Service
Copyright 2009 Religion News Service. All rights reserved. No part of this transmission may be distributed or reproduced without written permission.
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posted August 13, 2009 at 7:27 pm
“With attacks against Christians in December of 2007 and into 2008, USCIRF’s attention has been called back to India.”
I hope this doesn’t indicate they are mainly worried about Christians. That sentence certainly doesn’t prove it but does suggest it. I hope they can cite cases where they came out against attacks against Hindus or Buddhists or Muslims or atheists.
posted August 13, 2009 at 9:10 pm
nnmns,
I agree with your sentiments. Have you ever heard of the organization Voice of the Martyrs? It is an organization that calls attention to the persecution of Christians around the world, similar to what USCIRF is doing. While persecution of Christians is insidious, I would hope such organization would also be concerned about the persecution of Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Jews, Falun Gong, etc. Ditto for Jewish organizations devoted to fighting anti-Semitism…while anti-Semitism is a huge problem, people should be fighting ALL forms of discrimination, rather than that against their own group. I think persecution of ANY religion is wrong, but what kind of sucks about religion is that it makes people identify with a particular subset of humanity, rather than humanity as a whole.
posted August 13, 2009 at 9:14 pm
As critical as I am of religion and how insular it can be, there have been some examples of people of faith helping others outside of their religion. For instance, during World War 2 many Christians in Europe, motivated by their strong religious beliefs, helped Jews escape persecution. Also, when Islamic clerics issued a fatwa against Salman Rushdie, a leading Islamic scholar in Britain offered Rushdie sanctuary in his own home.
posted August 14, 2009 at 10:07 am
I think it’s rather sad but it appears that when a religion becomes dominant in a country, and if it is controlled by the conservative/fundamentalist section of the religion, it becomes a threat to everyone, regardless of the religion.
Hinduism in India, Islam in many of the middle eastern countries, Philippians has issues with those “not of the faith” and do so with little or no remorse.
Christianity in the U.S., while the fundamental groups do not have the power they would like, does not have the power they would like to have.
When you watch the violence, hear the news of all the killings, one can’t blame the views of atheists or others for having such a poor view of religion.
posted August 15, 2009 at 5:27 pm
Jesus reminded us that even our own family would be against us…so there you have it…I’m not surprised if we Christians are put down constantly, especially by radicals and Left Wing tics.
posted September 17, 2009 at 10:26 pm
http://www.uscirf.blogspot.com is a blog advocating reforms at USCIRF. It highlights current shortcoming like Lack of standard structure and consistency across reports, Conflict of Interest, Lack of transparency and disclosure, Quality of content, Lack of independent verification of IRFA compliance, Faulty premise, Failure to represent both sides in an intra-member conflict etc. It analyzes USCIRF 2009 India report to illustrate and highlight most of the shortcomings. It also makes reform recommendations.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. Major Concerns
1. Conflict of Interest
2. Inconsistent Reporting
3. Error of Omission
3. Minor Concern
1. Error of Commission
4. Reform Recommendations