US wants freedom of religion to be part of Indo-US dialogue
Lalit K Jha/PTI / Washington Aug 13, 2009, 12:28 IST
US Commission for International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) today said it wants to have freedom of religion and belief to be an integral part of the Indo-US public diplomacy.
"The reason why we placed India on the 'watch list' is because as part of our growing relationship in order to make sure that it is productive and meaningful as possible.
"We believe human rights and freedom of religion and belief in particular need to be overlaid when you talk about other important economic and security issues," Leonard Leo, USCIRF chair, told the PTI in an interview.
In making its watch list determination, the USCIRF is hoping to have constructive discussion and dialogue about how it can make sure that freedom of religion and belief is an integrated part of the public diplomacy and foreign policy between the two countries.
"Because in our view, when you protect human rights fully, when you investigate and prosecute the kind of communal and sectarian violence we discussed in our report."
"You are creating better climate for stability and you are going to have better ability to achieve some of the objectives that Secretary Clinton discussed with some of the officials in India," he said. Leo hoped that USCIRF's watch list determination, will lead to recognition that protection of religious minorities and various forms of communal violence is one way of achieving our shared objective and vision.
"We recognise that and our hope is that by presenting in a very crisp way some of the challenges that are faced to some of the recent incidents that India would really sit down and try to come to terms of some of that development and good strategy for investigating and prosecuting the kind of misconduct and violent conduct that occurred ‘in Orissa for example," Leo said.
"By doing that, engaging in that kind of investigating and prosecuting activity you provide less space for extremist conduct. At the end of that day that creates a greater degree of stability, leads to the achievement of strategic objective that the United States and India have been discussing,” Leo said.
When asked about the Indian Government not issuing a visa to USCIRF members who were planning to go to India to have an on the spot assessment of the situation, Leo hoped that sometime in the future, the Indian Government will welcome them.
Leo hoped that the organisation will have an opportunity to talk with Indian officials in greater detail of how we can forge a productive partnership of how to ensure the utmost protection to religious minorities particularly in the wake of incidents in Orissa and Gujarat.
"We should put all this in a proper perspective. Yes, we put India on the watch list, but we also recognize that there is whole spectrum of problem around the world. For example Pakistan has far more serious problem than India.We recognize that," he said.
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
You must remember that Leonard Leo is a conservative, Christian propagandist in the very least. Do a google search on him, and see what you can dig up. This is the kind of guy Americans themselves are really paranoid about. The only reason he talks like this about India is because some of his ideologies support the Christian movements in India. It's a good thing India has not granted visas to the clowns in the USCIRF. It is not an important organization by any stretch, and as long as Democrats are in power, will be kept to the yapping role from the back benches.
Hindu-Muslim or Hindu-Christian riots in India are not at all religious.
The clashes are between three cultures.Conversion is a cultural phenomenan
and not religious,it is a secular act and not religios.Muslims and Christians are unable to separate secular and religios aspects and in the name of religion they are trying to dominate Hindus.US should know that Hinduism is not a religion.
There is nothing in Islam and Christianity to replace Hinduism
Hence conversion and separate cultural identity of these foreign cultures
can not and should not be tolerated in India So far as Jesus and Mohammad
as Prophets are concerned they are respectable to Hindus also.Jesus Mohammad, Bible ,Quran, Mosques,churchs as faith contents were never came as the cause of clashes.
Interesting that US should put India on a 'watch-list' for human-rights reasons, maybe they should look internally 1st, given that Katrina & New Orleans would still be fresh in their memories. Also, the same religious terrorism/extremism threatens the US as much as it does India, so maybe India should put the US on a 'watch-list' as well?
I'm not denying that there are issues to be addressed within India but we don't an outside force interfing, particularly given their track history in Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq as well as Pakistan.
Also, is the US watching whats happening in countries like China, Zimbabwe, etc are they on the watch list as well or religion is their only premise for human-rights?
Human-rights within India is at a reasonable level to let citizens belonging to minority communities/religions (& the fairer gender) to lead the country as Presidents & Prime-Ministers, so thank you for the concern but no thanks for any ?help'.
It is the biggest joke of the day! US suggesting freedom of religion. minorities have more freedom in this country compared to world. For god sake we have reservations for them. Europe have countries banning religious clothes and all and we are the culprits. Wow!
Content Guide
