{"id":1625,"date":"2012-11-16T10:04:00","date_gmt":"2012-11-16T10:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/news\/expert-finds-religious-freedom-a-matter-of-national-security\/"},"modified":"2012-11-16T10:04:00","modified_gmt":"2012-11-16T10:04:00","slug":"expert-finds-religious-freedom-a-matter-of-national-security","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2012\/11\/expert-finds-religious-freedom-a-matter-of-national-security\/","title":{"rendered":"Expert finds religious freedom a matter of national security"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Washington D.C., Nov 16, 2012 \/ 03:04 am (CNA<\/a>).- The protection of religious freedom worldwide is so essential to democracy and prosperity that it should be considered an issue of \u201cnational security\u201d to the U.S. government, says a former diplomat.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cReligious freedom is buried in the bureaucracy and so people understand this is not a priority for us,\u201d Dr. Tom Farr, senior fellow at Georgetown\u2019s Berkley Center for Religion Peace and World Affairs, said Nov. 14.<\/p>\n

\tFarr, who spoke as part of the Family Research Council\u2019s \u201cCry of the Martyrs\u201d webcast and served as State Department\u2019s first Director of the Office of International Religious Freedom, said that the U.S. needs to implement policies and provide resources to support religious freedom throughout the world.<\/p>\n

\tCreated 14 years ago, the Office of International Religious Freedom works to promote religious freedom as a \u201ccore objective of U.S. foreign policy,\u201d but Farr said the current administration, as well as its predecessors, has largely fallen short in promoting this issue as foreign policy.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cThat needs to change if we\u2019re going to have an impact on persecuted Christians and others around the world,\u201d he said. Protecting religious freedom abroad is \u201cin our interest\u201d since doing so can help emerging democracies to grow beyond just one generation.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cThe point is religious freedom can lead to economic development, religious freedom can lead to political development,\u201d Farr said, \u201cThere\u2019s plenty of history and plenty of data today that suggests this.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tEven still, Farr said he\u2019s concerned that \u201cour government doesn\u2019t pay much attention to this.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tDuring his remarks, Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) said the persecution of Christians is \u201con the rise, not on the decline\u201d with 160,000 Christians \u201cseriously persecuted\u201d for their beliefs last year.<\/p>\n

\tOne of the biggest threats to religious freedom is \u201cIslamic extremism\u201d which he said has not been challenged enough to the extent that it should be by the Obama administration.<\/p>\n

\tIn Iran, for example, Vitter said the current administration has \u201cnot been aggressive at all in pushing back against\u201d the growing trend of Christian persecution.<\/p>\n

\tVitter recommended that Americans raise awareness about persecution, such as in the case of Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani, an Iranian Christian who was sentenced to death for his faith, but released in September due to international outcry calling for his freedom.<\/p>\n

\tTodd Nettleson, director of media development for Voice of the Martyrs, called on Americans to sign a petition calling for the release of Asia Bibi, a Pakistani mother sentenced to death for insulting the
\n\tProphet Muhammad by defending her Christian faith at work in 2010.<\/p>\n

\tIn Nigeria, Emmanuel Ogebe of The Jubilee Campaign, said that despite the \u201cpersecution on steroids\u201d Christians in his country are experiencing at the hands of Boko Haram \u2013 a radical Islamist organization \u2013 the U.S. government will not label the group as a terrorists and has failed to list proper data regarding the attacks in State Department reports.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cThere\u2019s a systematic desire not to label it as what it is,\u201d Ogebe, who is also a Christian and lawyer, said. \u201cThey will not concede that Christians are being attacked.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tHe raised the point that although Boko Haram attacked three cities throughout Nigeria on Christmas Day in 2011, only one was recorded in the Annual Report on International Religious Freedom.<\/p>\n

\tOgebe said he knows that data is incorrect because a family member attends one of the churches that was bombed and \u201canyone who Googles the Christmas Day attacks will see three cities were attacked.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tTony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, encouraged support for persecuted Christians through prayer and by petitioning the government to take more action in supporting religious freedom worldwide.<\/p>\n

\t\u201c\u2026we as individual believers in this country can take a stand in standing with our brothers and sisters that are being persecuted around the world, and then we can get our government to do the same,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\n<\/a>\n<\/div>\n

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Washington D.C., Nov 16, 2012 \/ 03:04 am (CNA).- The protection of religious freedom worldwide is so essential to democracy and prosperity that it should be considered an issue of “national security” to the U.S. government, says a former di…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1031,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-us"],"yoast_head":"\nExpert finds religious freedom a matter of national security<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Washington D.C., Nov 16, 2012 \/ 03:04 am (CNA).- The protection of religious freedom worldwide is so essential to democracy and prosperity that it should be considered an issue of “national security” to the U.S. government, says a former di...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, 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