Imagine that your legal church edifice is suddenly seized and bulldozed by the government. It happened to Seventh-Day Adventists in Turkmenistan. Or that a Hindu-nationalist mob tears down your centuries-old mosque, setting off days of rioting in which thousands are killed. It happened to Muslims in India. Or that the police raid your house to seize and destroy religious objects and pictures of your Buddhist teacher and leader. It is happening in Tibet. Or that a court rules that the Salvation Army is not a religious organization, but a dangerous paramilitary group. It happened in Russia.
Such flagrant violations of religious freedom are all too common today. Concern among Americans led to congressional passage in 1998 of the International Religious Freedom Act, which created the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom. Congress believed that while human rights had carved out a place in American foreign policy, religious freedom wasn't getting its due. The State Department had become quite comfortable talking to other governments about the importance of a free press and democratic elections, but American diplomats seemed less adept at promoting religious freedom as an internationally recognized, fundamental human right.
The Commission's goal is that other nations uphold their own international human rights commitments. For example, Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states: "Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom,either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance." Every member of the United Nations has subscribed to those principles, yet too many nations—including, sadly, such Western democracies as France, Germany, Austria, and Greece—violate them.
