ISIS, Boko Haram dealt blow to religious freedom

Taking a broader view of the religious practices and violations, the report released by Secretary of State John Kerry, however, gave a thumbs up to the Indian authorities as they “continued to enforce laws created to protect “religious sentiments” and minimize the risk of religious violence, which a few argued had the effect of limiting freedom of expression related to religion”.

The report also points to violence by Boko Haram in Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad and Niger that killed more people in 2014 than the previous five years combined and faults the Nigerian government for not doing more to confront the terrorist group and investigate, prosecute and punish perpetrators of religious violence.

The “International Religious Freedom Report” has no direct impact on U.S. policy towards the countries it studies, but Kerry said it would serve as reference for diplomats and activists lobbying for change.

The countries now on the CPC list are: Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. “Terrified young girls have been separated out by religion and sold into slavery”.

“The world has learned through very hard experience that religious pluralism encourages and enables contributions from all; while religious discrimination is often the source of conflicts that endanger all”, Kerry said in his remarks during release of the US worldwide Religious Freedom 2014 report.

Government forces harassed the community throughout the year, raiding Bible classes and detaining and beating church members, and at times preventing followers from leaving their homes, the report said.

“Although authorities permitted a few traditional religious ceremonies and practices” in Tibetan areas, authorities also often “restricted or canceled religious festivals, [and] at times forbade monks from traveling to villages to conduct religious ceremonies”, the report said. “Today they are silent”, he said.

“We normally think of that as racism and we feel that when it steps over that line then it constitutes anti-Semitic activity and not just legitimate discourse about Israel’s policies”, he said.

“The government continued to imprison approximately 600 conscientious objectors for refusing to participate in mandatory military service”, the report said, adding that the Supreme Court upheld a lower court decision imprisoning a conscientious objector for 18 months.