[Congressional Bills 114th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 69 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

114th CONGRESS
  1st Session
S. RES. 69

 Calling for the protection of religious minority rights and freedoms 
                               worldwide.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                            February 5, 2015

   Mr. Inhofe (for himself, Mr. Thune, Mr. Wicker, Mr. Boozman, Mr. 
Portman, Mr. King, Mr. Rubio, and Mr. Lankford) submitted the following 
  resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
 Calling for the protection of religious minority rights and freedoms 
                               worldwide.

Whereas it is a human right for all peoples to enjoy the fundamental freedom of 
        religion, and the United States remains committed to promoting and 
        protecting those that have been marginalized and persecuted because of 
        their faith;
Whereas Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights recognizes that 
        ``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'';
Whereas the freedom to worship by minority religious communities worldwide has 
        come under repeated and deadly attack, and often religious minorities 
        are regarded as enemies of the state;
Whereas the freedom to proselytize by minority religious communities has also 
        come under repeated and deadly attack in recent years through so-called 
        blasphemy laws and anti-conversion laws that are punishable by fines, 
        imprisonment, and death;
Whereas, on November 1, 2010, the deadliest ever recorded attack on Iraqi 
        Christians occurred at the Sayidat al-Nejat Catholic Cathedral located 
        in central Baghdad, where militants stormed the church and detonated 2 
        suicide vests filled with ball bearings, killing 58, including 2 
        priests, and wounding 78 parishioners;
Whereas, in November 2010, Aasia Bibi, a Christian mother of five, was fined 
        $1,100 and sentenced to death by hanging for blasphemy, becoming the 
        first woman condemned to death on blasphemy charges in Pakistan, and 
        remains jailed today appealing her sentence;
Whereas, on December 29, 2011, the Shia religious leader Tajul Muluk's Islamic 
        boarding school in Madura Island, Indonesia, was burned down in an arson 
        attack by 300 anti-Shi'ite protestors, causing 500 Shia residents to 
        flee from their homes, and on January 1, 2012, the Indonesian Ulema 
        Council issued a fatwa against his teachings, leading to blasphemy 
        charges and the arrest of Muluk on April 12, 2012, in Sampang, where he 
        remains in prison;
Whereas, on July 28, 2012, Saeed Abedini, a Christian pastor with dual Iranian 
        and United States citizenship, was arrested on charges solely based on 
        his Christian faith, convicted, and sentenced to eight years in a brutal 
        Iranian prison where he remains today;
Whereas, on October 17, 2013, 10 bombs exploded in the minority Shi'ite 
        districts of Baghdad, killing 44 people, including 6 children, and on 
        that same day a suicide bomber drove into a village in the northern 
        province of Ninebeh, killing 15 Shabaks, who are mainly Shi'ites and are 
        viewed as apostates by extreme Sunni Islamists;
Whereas, on November 16, 2013, Zhang Shaojie, a member of Three-Self church and 
        pastor of the government-sanctioned Nanle County Christian Church, 
        China, was arrested, fined $16,000, and given a 12-year prison sentence 
        for ``gathering a crowd to disrupt the public order,'' in what is 
        believed to be retaliation for his advocacy on behalf of his 
        congregation and community;
Whereas, on May 15, 2014, a Sudanese Christian woman, Meriam Ibrahim, was 
        imprisoned and sentenced to death by hanging for allegedly committing 
        apostasy from Islam and faced constant pressure to renounce her faith of 
        Christianity while in prison, and only after immediate and sustained 
        pressure by the United States Senate and the Department of State was she 
        released and allowed to leave the country, settling in New Hampshire 
        with her husband and two children;
Whereas, on November 10, 2014, a young Christian Pakistani couple, Shama Bibi 
        and Sajjad Maseeh, who was four months pregnant with her fifth child, 
        were brutally beaten by a mob in Punjab Province, had their legs broken 
        so they could not flee, and were locked in a brick kiln to burn to death 
        while a crowd of 1,200 watched for alleged blasphemy of the desecration 
        of a Koran;
Whereas, since 2010, the Nigerian terrorist organization Boko Haram, which 
        translates to ``western education is a sin,'' has destroyed more than 
        1,000 churches across Nigeria, abducted hundreds of Christians to 
        forcibly convert to Islam, and in increasingly violent attacks beginning 
        in 2014, has killed more than 1,700 Christians;
Whereas, according to the United States Commission on International Religious 
        Freedom, over 15,000 people in North Korea are presently incarcerated in 
        prison labor camps for attempting to practice their religion and face 
        constant abuse in attempts to force them to renounce their faith;
Whereas, since the beginning of its reign of terror, ISIL has sought to destroy 
        any person of faith that does not embrace their own perverted 
        interpretation of Islam, leading to the destruction of Jonah's tomb in 
        Mosul, the destruction of Sunni shrines and mosques in Ninevah, the 
        destruction of Christian churches in Syria, and the slaughter of anyone 
        who resists their teachings; and
Whereas seven Indian states have so-called ``anti-conversion'' apostasy laws 
        that require officials to assess the legality of conversions, and fine 
        and/or imprison those responsible for the conversions if it is 
        determined to be illegal: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That the Senate--
            (1) remains committed to protecting the human right and the 
        fundamental freedom of religion, especially those of religious 
        minorities;
            (2) recognizes that government policies prohibiting the 
        freedom of thought and religion are designed to harass and 
        intimidate religious groups; and
            (3) urges in the strongest terms that the United States 
        Government lead the international effort in calling for the 
        repeal of all existing apostasy and blasphemy laws.
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