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The United States Needs an Ambassador for Religious Freedom Now

The Obama administration must send a clear signal to Egypt and the Middle East that they must embrace religious freedom in full.

Egyptian Copts murdered while at worship. The threat of religious extremists gaining political power in Egypt, Tunisia, Jordan, Yemen, and elsewhere in the Middle East.

The terrorist "Party of God" (Hezbollah) in control of Lebanese democracy.

Catholics slaughtered at mass in Baghdad. Iraq's ancient Christian population shrinks, and many non-Muslim minorities flee Iraq.

A Pakistani Christian mother sentenced to death for insulting the prophet Muhammed. A Muslim governor murdered for defending her; the public supports the murderer. Al Qaeda continues to operate in nuclear-armed Pakistan.

Taliban ideology flourishes in Afghanistan. Muslim reformers are prosecuted for blasphemy.

Iran's religious courts impose death. Iranian Christians are subjected to a massive roundup by authorities. The Iranian theocratic regime seeks nuclear weapons and supports Islamist terrorists.

The fact that the Middle East is a cauldron of religious persecution and extremism is perhaps unsurprising.

What many Americans may not know is that the United States has for over a decade had an official policy of countering persecution and extremism by advancing religious freedom.

In 1998 Congress passed unanimously, and President Bill Clinton signed, the International Religious Freedom (IRF) Act. The law established at the State Department a very senior diplomatic official—the IRF ambassador at large—to lead in matters of policy, and to put the promotion of religious freedom at the center of American diplomacy.

No administration has succeeded in doing that. But both Clinton and President George W. Bush appointed well-qualified ambassadors, and U.S. IRF policy, while not without serious problems, became a fixture at the Department of State.

The Obama administration, however, has largely ignored that policy. Today, as the Middle East cauldron threatens to boil over, there is quite literally no one in charge.

In November, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee held a hearing for Suzan Johnson Cook, President Obama's nominee for IRF ambassador at large. Despite having a whole platoon of senior envoys in place to pursue favored initiatives (e.g., closing Guantanamo, outreach to Muslim communities, disabilities, and climate change), the President had taken18 months even to nominate Johnson Cook.

After her nomination, some voiced concerns about her qualifications for the job. Such concerns led Senator Jim DeMint (R, SC) to place a temporary hold on the nomination in committee, but neither Senate Democrats, the State Department, nor the White House paid much attention, and time ran out in the last Congress. The administration has now re-nominated Johnson Cook, but, even if she is confirmed, it remains highly unlikely that she will have the authority or the resources within the State Department to succeed. Unlike other ambassadors at large, such as the ambassador for women's issues, she will not work directly under Secretary Clinton, but will be buried in State's bureaucracy under a much lower ranking official.

The utter indifference to this key office, and to IRF policy, by the White House and the State Department has been scandalous. The administration apparently does not believe that religious persecution and extremism in the Middle East and elsewhere constitute a humanitarian imperative for U.S. action.

Additionally, it clearly fails to grasp the national security implications of religious freedom's absence.

In few places are these implications clearer than in Egypt. Christians have been present in Egypt for two millennia, but their existence has proven fragile for two interrelated reasons: the authoritarian policies of President Hosni Mubarak and the growth of Islamist extremism. Thus far the Obama administration has cautiously shepherded Mubarak to the exits, perhaps too cautiously. But whatever happens next, the United States cannot afford to make the same mistake it did with the Palestinian Authority in 2006—simply hoping that "free and fair elections" will be the gateway to stable democracy. It bears recalling that Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933 through free and fair elections.


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Comments

Displaying 1–3 of 15 comments

Randall Laraway

February 20, 2011  6:54pm

President O'Bama is still our elected president and therefore we are bound as Christians to always pray for him and all our elected officials. So, we sincerely ask the Lord God to grant President O'Bama a softened heart that will recognize America's need for an International Religious Freedom ambassador to the State Department. And while we're at it let us petition our congressmen to compile and present a law making it a requirement that no matter who is president, he must appoint ALL such positions during the 1st year of his tenure in office. This will close up any gaps left open due to irresponsibility whether he agrees with the appointed office or not. Do I hear any Amens on this vital issue?

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John Masterson

February 16, 2011  2:12pm

"The Obama administration must send a clear signal to Egypt and the Middle East that they must embrace religious freedom in full." This is not going to happen in reality because US foreign policy is controlled by Zionists, who support the violently racist Israeli government - under the laws of which only a Jew can migrate to Israel, even if he or she is a communist atheist. A "Jew" is defined not in terms of religious belief but in terms of matrilineal parentage. Palestinians born in (Israeli-confiscated) Palestine but chased out by Israeli force, are not permitted to return, even if they are Christians. In Israel, only Jewish people have full rights. In this respect our US government gives precedence to non-Christian Jew usurpers and confiscators over dispossessed, terribly oppressed Christians. See 1 John 2:22-23 for the Bible's view of modern Zionism. The liberal Zionists who control Congress are 'anti-racist' but they support violent Israeli racism. What hypocrites! Matt 23:13 etc

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Jerry Chase

February 13, 2011  3:49pm

I believe that the reverse of Farr's subtitle is true: Christian and other religious leaders from all over need to send the Obama administration "a clear signal" that said American administration needs to "embrace religious freedom in full". Is there not doubt about this? Have the Egyptian Copts even been mentioned by the U. S. Ambassador? What about the recent Christian Palestinian bookstore owner that was martyred? Can Israel have any confidence in the U. S. A. . . NOW ? I don't have ANY confidence in the Obama administration for anything but their intended destruction of goodness, morality, decency, and America itself.

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