Those recommendations include filling some vacant positions that pressure oppressive countries and increasing the number of refugees allowed into the United States. “We urge the Biden administration and Congress to champion religious freedom and to center the safety and dignity of religious communities as foreign policy priorities,” says USCIRF Vice Chair Anurima Bhargava. “USCIRF recommends that the administration should immediately increase the annual ceiling for refugees; and definitely and publicly conclude that the atrocities committed against the Rohingya people by the Burmese military constitute genocide and take action accordingly; as the State Department recently determined regarding China’s genocide against Uyghur and other Turkic Muslims.”
USCIRF Report Highlights Ongoing Debate About India
International Christian Concern (ICC), which operates www.persecution.org, says it welcomes the latest USCIRF report and supports its recommendations. “We are once again happy to see a CPC recommendation for India,” notes ICC, “as the situation for religious minorities in the country continues to deteriorate.”
India has reportedly been pushing back against its CPC designation, but John Prabhudoss, chairman of the Federation of Indian American Christian Organizations (FIACONA), urges the USCIRF to stand firm. That governmental commission is assigned a task to study and report facts, he says, and shouldn’t concern itself with “how the report would make the political leaders of a country feel or react.”
FIACONA is particularly displeased with Johnnie Moore for issuing a dissent about India’s designation, both this year and last. Moore calls that nation “diversity personified,” noting that “its religious life has been its greatest historic blessing.” He adds, “India’s government and people have everything to gain and absolutely nothing to lose from preserving social harmony and protecting the rights of everyone.”
By giving India the benefit of the doubt, says FIACONA, Moore has not only “violated” his mandate but has also “agreed with the aggressors who are determined to hurt the 2,000-year-old church in India.” The group’s statement concludes, “We recommend that [Moore] floats once again down the Ganges to reflect on his monumental error in judgment and resign from the commission.”
