{"id":671,"date":"2011-04-29T17:13:50","date_gmt":"2011-04-29T21:13:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/omsweetom\/?p=671"},"modified":"2011-04-29T17:13:50","modified_gmt":"2011-04-29T21:13:50","slug":"uscirf%e2%80%99s-circus-act","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/2011\/04\/uscirf%e2%80%99s-circus-act.html","title":{"rendered":"USCIRF\u2019s Circus Act"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>The White House released President Obama&#8217;s birth certificate. \u00a0Kate wore McQueen. \u00a0Apple released a white iPhone. \u00a0And the cherry on top of this week\u2019s circus&#8230;USCIRF put India on its \u201cwatch list\u201d again.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Yesterday, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), a quasi-governmental body that monitors \u201cviolations of religious freedom abroad,\u201d released its annual report and included India, for the third year in a row, on its \u201cwatch list\u201d alongside countries such as Afghanistan and Russia. \u00a0I am still baffled, and clearly miffed, as to how the world\u2019s largest secular democracy managed to find a spot on the same \u201cwatch list\u201d as Afghanistan.<\/p>\n<p>Sure, India has had its share of inter-religious problems, the 2002 Gujarat riots being the most commonly cited. \u00a0But so have countries like Malaysia, with its downtrodden minority Hindu population, and Sri Lanka, neither of which USCIRF considered \u201cwatch list\u201d worthy. \u00a0So, let\u2019s examine a few points, which my colleagues at the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hafsite.org\/HAF_Alleges_Bias_in_Listing_India_on_Watch_List\">Hindu American Foundation (HAF) presented to USCIRF during their testimony<\/a> in March:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>India provides separate personal and family laws for Muslims and Christians<\/li>\n<li>India subsidizes the annual Hajj pilgrimage for Muslims &#8211; which runs into the $100 millions<\/li>\n<li>Except for the Hindu majority in India, all religious communities are able to control their places of worship, free from government interference<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>So why does India get this undeserving distinction? \u00a0It seems that USCIRF is concerned about the \u201cFreedom of Religion Act(s),\u201d also erroneously referred to as \u201canti-conversion\u201d laws. \u00a0HAF testified that first, these laws are rarely enforced, and second, they haven\u2019t impinged on a person\u2019s ability to willfully convert. \u00a0Based on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/suhag-a-shukla-esq\/harvesting-souls-yields-c_b_817793.html\">the growing number of converts reported by various Christian evangelical groups<\/a>, the laws have clearly failed in their attempt to protect vulnerable populations from predatory proselytization.<\/p>\n<p>But again, in Malaysia, ethnic Malays are born Muslim and aren\u2019t free to convert. \u00a0Hindu parents tend to have difficulty registering their children as Hindus. \u00a0All minorities are increasingly forced to deal with Islamic sharia courts, despite a parallel court system. \u00a0A <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hafsite.org\/media\/pr\/exiled-malaysian-human-rights-activist-addresses-large-crowds-us-tour\">peaceful protest rally of over 50,000 Malaysian Hindus and Indians<\/a> was violently and brutally suppressed by the country\u2019s government in 2007. \u00a0In its <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hafsite.org\/media\/pr\/hhr09execsummary#Malaysia\">annual human rights report<\/a>, HAF regularly covers these and other violations of religious freedom that minorities in Malaysia face. \u00a0So why then, despite these serious restrictions on religious freedom, isn\u2019t USCIRF concerned about Malaysia\u2019s \u201cFreedom of Religion Act?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Of course, maybe we\u2019re overreacting. \u00a0One of my good friends has worked on the Hill for a couple of years now, and when I asked if he had any contacts at USCIRF, he replied, \u201cAt who???\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The White House released President Obama&#8217;s birth certificate. \u00a0Kate wore McQueen. \u00a0Apple released a white iPhone. \u00a0And the cherry on top of this week\u2019s circus&#8230;USCIRF put India on its \u201cwatch list\u201d again.&nbsp; Yesterday, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), a quasi-governmental body that monitors \u201cviolations of religious freedom abroad,\u201d released its annual report&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":390,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-human-rights"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>USCIRF\u2019s Circus Act - Om Sweet Om<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/2011\/04\/uscirf\u2019s-circus-act.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"USCIRF\u2019s Circus Act - Om Sweet Om\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The White House released President Obama&#8217;s birth certificate. \u00a0Kate wore McQueen. \u00a0Apple released a white iPhone. \u00a0And the cherry on top of this week\u2019s circus&#8230;USCIRF put India on its \u201cwatch list\u201d again.&nbsp; 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Yesterday, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), a quasi-governmental body that monitors \u201cviolations of religious freedom abroad,\u201d released its annual report&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/2011\/04\/uscirf\u2019s-circus-act.html","og_site_name":"Om Sweet Om","article_published_time":"2011-04-29T21:13:50+00:00","author":"sheetal","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/2011\/04\/uscirf%e2%80%99s-circus-act.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/2011\/04\/uscirf%e2%80%99s-circus-act.html","name":"USCIRF\u2019s Circus Act - Om Sweet Om","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-04-29T21:13:50+00:00","dateModified":"2011-04-29T21:13:50+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/#\/schema\/person\/892f83fe41e8ba0b2d625fb00436cec8"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/2011\/04\/uscirf%e2%80%99s-circus-act.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/2011\/04\/uscirf%e2%80%99s-circus-act.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/2011\/04\/uscirf%e2%80%99s-circus-act.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"USCIRF\u2019s Circus Act"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/","name":"Om Sweet Om","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Sheetal Shah","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/#\/schema\/person\/892f83fe41e8ba0b2d625fb00436cec8","name":"sheetal","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/b81\/b81e39bd8aa137041bf8c5f1ece2d99fx96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/b81\/b81e39bd8aa137041bf8c5f1ece2d99fx96.jpg","caption":"sheetal"},"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/author\/sheetal"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/390"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=671"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":674,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671\/revisions\/674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}