Members of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF)
(USCIRF)
The report by the US congressional panel while named 13 countries as serious violators of religious freedom, said India's case is 'pending' and will be examined by a team of religious analysts visiting the country in June.
"The Commission is planning to travel to India for the first time in June 2009. Therefore the Commission will release its report on India during this summer," the report said.
The announcement apparently provides a ray of hope for church leaders who have been greatly peeved at the recent atrocities on Christians, including the Orissa violence which marred the secular fabric of the country.
Interestingly, the report mentioned the name of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi as the only individual who has been denied an American visa under the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA).
Modi was denied visa for severe violations of religious freedom.
Meanwhile, the report has also noted last year's arrest of 15 Indian Christians in Qassim province of Saudi Arabia. "In May 2008, government officials arrested 15 Indian Christians in the Qassim Province for conducting their religious worship in private.”
“During the raid, a CPVPV member reportedly beat the pastor, and Christian songbooks and Bibles were confiscated,” it said.
The USCIRF report has listed Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, China, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Vietnam, as being the world’s biggest and worst violators of religious freedom and human rights. It is listed under ‘country of particular concern’.
The list includes name of such countries where the governments have been unable or unwilling to counter religious violence, and discriminate against people on religious basis.
On neighboring Sri Lanka the report said that religious minorities had been attacked in their places of worship. It also denounced the legislation on religious conversions which it said would violate international law.
The USCIRF is a US government-funded agency created to monitor the status of freedom of thought, conscience, and religion or belief abroad, as defined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and related international instruments.
It further gives independent policy recommendations to the US President, the Secretary of State, and the Congress.
