The U.S. State Department’s Country Reports on Human Rights, which was released on May 24, has been purged of all sections that discuss the state of religious freedom in the countries mentioned in the report — specifically, nations that have felt the effects of the Arab Spring revolution and its detrimental impact on minority Christians.
In the unprecedented move, the Department removed from the report information referencing events from 2011 — the onset of the Arab Spring — and instead simply makes reference to the 2010 International Religious Freedom Report and the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom’s (USCIRF) 2011 annual report, both of which only cover events from 2010 and make no mention of the rise in violence and persecution against Christians and other religious minorities in the Middle East. “The commission that I served on has some real concerns about that bifurcation, because the human rights reports receive a lot of attention, and to have pulled religious freedom out of it means that fewer people will obtain information about what’s going on with that particular freedom or right,” Leonard Leo, former chairman of the USCIRF, has been quoted as saying.
Notably, the USCIRF recently released its 2012 report, which does make specific mention of the Arab Spring movement and its effect on Christians in Muslim-majority nations such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
“Ignoring the facts on the ground does a disservice to Christians everywhere, as we stand with our brothers and sisters now in harm’s way because of the so-called Arab Spring,” says Robert Sweet, Vice President of Christian Freedom International.
To read more about the 2011 events of the Arab Spring movement and Christian persecution, download the USCIRF’s 2012 annual report at http://www.uscirf.gov/images/Annual Report of USCIRF 2012(2).pdf.