[Senate Hearing 114-143]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]


            STATE, FOREIGN OPERATIONS, AND RELATED 
             PROGRAMS APPROPRIATIONS FOR FISCAL 
             YEAR 2016

                              ----------                              


                       WEDNESDAY, MARCH 11, 2015

                                       U.S. Senate,
           Subcommittee of the Committee on Appropriations,
                                                    Washington, DC.
    The subcommittee met at 2 p.m., in room SD-124, Dirksen 
Senate Office Building, Hon. Lindsey Graham (chairman) 
presiding.
    Present: Senators Graham, Kirk, Blunt, Moran, Boozman, 
Lankford, Daines, and Murphy.

                  PROTECTING RELIGIOUS FREEDOM ABROAD

COMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE AND PEACE OF THE U.S. CONFERENCE OF 
                            CATHOLIC BISHOPS

STATEMENT OF BISHOP OSCAR CANTU, CHAIRMAN

              OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM
 
    Senator Graham. Thank you all for coming. We are going to 
do something that I think is a first, starting ahead of time, 1 
minute ahead of schedule.
    I want to thank the panel, which I will introduce in a 
second. My partner, Senator Leahy, is on the floor managing the 
Justice for Human Trafficking bill. And he will try to get 
here, but that is a responsibility that he needs to implement.
    I want to acknowledge Senator Leahy and his longtime staff 
director and partner in appropriations, Tim Rieser. Senator 
Leahy is well known throughout the world for being a champion 
of human rights. The Leahy amendment is one of probably the 
most well-known provisions in our law.
    I know that Senator Leahy shares my concern about what is 
going on with religious persecution, and the general 
deterioration of world order.
    So I will introduce the panel just in a second, but I would 
like to make a brief statement.
    I have been asked by a lot of people in South Carolina and 
throughout the country: what is going on in the world? They see 
on television things that they cannot believe exist in 2015. 
This is not 1015; this is 2015.
    As I speak, people are being crucified. People are being 
burned alive. They are being beheaded. And their only offense 
is that they have a different religious perspective than the 
radical Islamists who are trying to purify their faith, who are 
commanded by God, under their view of religion, to kill or 
convert every Christian they can find, to destroy the State of 
Israel, and destroy everything that we hold sacred and dear.
    Thousands of years of art being smashed with a 
sledgehammer. Women being raped and sold into captivity, and 
taken as trophies of war, because in their religious 
interpretation or view, they can do so.
    This hearing is the first in a long journey I will take 
along with my colleagues to shed light on what I think is one 
of the most barbaric periods in modern history. And if America 
doesn't shed this light, who will?
    The beauty of our Constitution and our way of life is that 
we have bought into a simple construct. I will insist on 
worshipping God or not at all upon my terms, and I will convey 
that same right to you. That is the way it works in America.
    The people we are fighting, ISIL and other associated 
groups, have one of the darkest views of religion and humanity 
of anyone since the Nazis. As the Nazis pursued a master race, 
these radical Islamic groups are pursuing a master religion.
    It is up to us, the good people of the world, not the 
perfect people of the world, but the good people of the world, 
to do something about it. It is going to take force of arms, 
but it is going to take more than that. It is going to take the 
moral authority that comes with our cause, speaking without 
equivocation and acting on our words.
    So, this is 2015, and it is hard to believe that we find 
ourselves where we do.
    The internal struggle between good and evil is alive and 
well today. Let it be said that we chose the path of good.
    Here's a quote from Martin Niemoller, I think is his name, 
I hope I didn't butcher his name, a very famous Protestant 
pastor who emerged as an outspoken public critic of Adolf 
Hitler and spent the last 7 years of Nazi rule in a 
concentration camp.
    Pastor Niemoller is best remembered for a quote that goes 
something like this: ``First they came for the socialist, and I 
did not speak out, because I was not a socialist. Then they 
came for the trade unionist, and I did not speak out, because I 
was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I 
did not speak out, because I was not a Jew. Then they came for 
me, and there was no one left to speak for me.''
    Let us remember that good counsel and advice, and speak out 
before they come for us, because what they will do to people of 
religious differences in the Mideast, they will do to us.
    As to the Christian community in the Mideast, they are not 
the only one being oppressed, by any means. But I think they 
are the canary in the coalmine.
    One of the oldest religious minorities in the Mideast, the 
Yazidis, and other religious minorities, are suffering 
mightily.
    This hearing today is to shed light on what we are doing, 
what we can do, and what we should do, and how to do more of 
it.
    So to my colleagues who are in attendance, thank you. We 
have a terrific panel.
    And at this time, I would like to introduce our panel: 
Ambassador David Saperstein, the Ambassador-at-Large for 
International Religious Freedom at the Department of State; 
Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council; Jay 
Sekulow, chief counsel at the American Center for Law and 
Justice; and Bishop Oscar Cantu, Bishop at Los Cruses, New 
Mexico, and chairman of the Committee on International Justice 
and Peace, U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
    Thank you all for being in attendance, and I look forward 
to your testimony.
    And, Bishop, we will start with you.

           SUMMARY STATEMENT OF BISHOP OSCAR CANTU

    Bishop Cantu. Chairman Graham, Ranking Member Leahy, and 
distinguished members of the subcommittee, thank you for 
inviting the Conference of Catholic Bishops to testify. I am 
Bishop Oscar Cantu, chair of the Committee on International 
Justice and Peace. My remarks will focus on the Middle East, 
where religious minorities face systematic persecution by the 
so-called Islamic state, or ISIL.
    I ask that our longer written testimony be entered into the 
record.
    The U.N. identified close to 2.5 million internally 
displaced persons across Iraq in February 2015, and in Syria, 
over 7.5 million internally displaced and almost 4 million who 
had fled the country. The U.N. reports that in 2014, there were 
over 11,000 civilian deaths in Iraq.
    All of these deaths and displacements were not due solely 
to religious persecution, but to the weakening of the rule of 
law and the corresponding rise of extremist groups, which made 
it possible for religious persecution to grow.
    In Syria and Iraq, religious persecution is a distinct 
crisis within a wider crisis. The U.N. has concluded that 
Iraq's diverse ethnic and religious communities have been 
intentionally and systematically targeted by ISIL, with the aim 
of destroying, suppressing, or expelling these communities 
permanently. Grim statistics are only part of the story.
    I made a solidarity visit to the Kurdish region of Iraq in 
January. Our hotel in Erbil overlooked the St. Elias Chaldean 
Catholic Chapel. The small chapel compound was packed with 
tents. An elderly woman came up to us with tears in her eyes as 
she recalled escaping the attack by ISIL. She now lives in 
poverty in a tent.
    Imagine the trauma, the sense of loss. In one tent, two 
families and 11 persons were huddled against the cold. In 
Dohuk, we met a displaced Yazidi father, a 34-year-old 
policeman, who shared the story of his flight on foot to Mount 
Sinjar, where they spent 12 days hiding in the hot summer. His 
family of eight now live in one room. Five other families share 
the building.
    Nearby at a church compound, two Christian families live in 
a former classroom with virtually no worldly possessions beyond 
clothes and blankets. They offered us coffee, a hospitable 
gesture of normalcy in a situation that is anything but normal.
    The suffering church is also the servant church. Caritas 
Iraq, in partnership with Catholic Relief Services, is 
operating child-friendly spaces to help children deal with 
trauma. They are winterizing unfinished buildings as shelters 
and distributing carpets, blankets, kerosene heaters, and cash 
assistance. The distributions were calm and orderly, despite 
the desperate circumstances.
    I especially appreciated my meeting with Archbishop Warda 
of Erbil and Bishop Warduni of Baghdad. These courageous 
shepherds are guiding their flocks through tragic times.
    We urge the U.S. Government to adopt five key polices. 
First, our Government must confront the crisis within a crisis. 
In addition to addressing the Syrian civil war and Iraqi 
sectarian violence, our Nation must work with others to protect 
pluralism through supporting education, interfaith dialogue, 
the rule of law, and impartial judicial systems.
    Passage of the Frank Wolf International Religious Freedom 
Act of 2015 would improve the ability of our Nation to advance 
religious freedom globally.
    Secondly, it is licit for the international community to 
use force to stop these unjust aggressors. But the use of 
military force must be proportionate and discriminate, and 
employed within the framework of international and humanitarian 
law.
    Third, military force alone is not adequate to address the 
challenge of violent extremism. It's critical to address 
political exclusion and economic desperation that are exploited 
by ISIL. Sunni marginalization in both Iraq and Syria created 
fertile soil for the growth of ISIL.
    In Syria, efforts to engage the government and mainstream 
rebels in negotiations on inclusive governance need real 
attention.
    Fourth, our Nation must scale up humanitarian and 
development assistance, and also deliver assistance through 
trusted non-governmental organizations (NGO), including faith-
based organizations like Catholic Relief Services, development 
that enables young people to look to the future with hope and 
parents to support their families in dignity, and help 
inoculate populations against extremism.
    For this reason, you must not rob Peter to pay Paul in the 
international assistance budget. Today's desperation can become 
tomorrow's extremism. We support robust funding of the 
assistance accounts listed in our written testimony.
    And fifth, Pope Francis has said a Middle East without 
Christians would be a marred and mutilated Middle East. We 
agree. Nevertheless, we must acknowledge that some will be 
unable to return to their homes.
    Our Nation needs to accept, for resettlement, a fair share 
of some of the most vulnerable people where return to their 
homes is impossible.
    With the images of destitute families seared into my 
memory, I cannot forget those suffering religious persecution 
in the Middle East. Neither should our Nation.
    Thank you.
    [The statement follows:]
           Prepared Statement of Bishop Oscar Cantu
    Chairman Graham, Ranking Member Leahy and distinguished members of 
the subcommittee, thank you for inviting the United States Conference 
of Catholic Bishops to offer testimony today on a high priority concern 
for us, religious persecution. My testimony will focus on the Middle 
East where Christians and other religious minorities are facing 
systematic and horrendous persecution at the hands of the so-called 
``Islamic State'' or ISIL.
    Just yesterday, the 35 bishops of the Administrative Committee of 
our Conference issued a statement in which they said: ``Upon learning 
of the death of 21 Coptic Christians at the hands of ISIL terrorists, 
Pope Francis called their murder a `testimony which cries out to be 
heard.' . . . The testimony of those 21 brave and courageous martyrs 
does not stand alone as thousands of families--Christian and other 
religions--find themselves fleeing from horrific violence. . . . We 
urge all people of goodwill to work toward protections of the 
marginalized and persecuted.'' I am here to reiterate that plea.
                        humanitarian catastrophe
    The numbers of persons and families impacted by the rampage of ISIL 
is staggering. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of 
Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) identified close to 2.5 million internally 
displaced persons (IDPs) across Iraq in February 2015.\1\ That same 
month in Syria OCHA identified over 12 million people in need of 
humanitarian assistance, almost 4 million who had fled the country as 
refugees, and over 7.5 million internally displaced.\2\
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    \1\ Iraq Crisis Situation Report No. 33 (21-27 February 2015).
    \2\ http://www.unocha.org/syria Data source: OCHA (as of February 
2015).
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    The U.N. estimates that the Syrian civil war, now entering its 
fifth year, has killed 220,000 persons. In Iraq, the U.N. reports that 
``[f]rom the beginning of January until 10 December 2014, at least 
33,368 civilians casualties have resulted from the ongoing violence, 
including at least 11,602 killed and 21,766 wounded.'' Of course, all 
of these casualties and forced displacements are not due solely to 
religious persecution, but the weakening of the rule of law and the 
corresponding rise of extremist groups, many associated with ISIL, 
created the conditions where religious persecution could grow 
malignantly like a cancer unchecked. In Syria and Iraq, religious 
persecution is a distinct crisis within a wider crisis.
    The U.N. in Iraq received ``reports of serious violations of 
international humanitarian law and gross human rights violations and 
abuses perpetrated by ISIL,'' including: ``attacks directly targeting 
civilians and civilian infrastructure, executions and other targeted 
killings of civilians, abductions, rape and other forms of sexual and 
gender-based violence perpetrated against women and children, slavery 
and trafficking of women and children, forced recruitment of children, 
destruction or desecration of places of religious or cultural 
significance, wanton destruction and looting of property, and denial of 
fundamental freedoms.''
    Ominously, the U.N. concluded: ``In particular, members of Iraq's 
diverse ethnic and religious communities, including Turkmen, Shabaks, 
Christians, Yazidi, Sabaeans, Kaka'e, Faili Kurds, Shi'ite Arab, and 
others have been intentionally and systematically targeted by ISIL and 
associated armed groups and subjected to gross human rights abuses, in 
what appears as a deliberate policy aimed at destroying, suppressing or 
expelling these communities permanently from areas under their 
control.'' \3\ Similar persecution and abuses by ISIL are widely 
reported in Syria. It should be added that Sunni Muslims who disagree 
with ISIL's radical ideology are often targeted for violence and 
intimidation, and many of them, including Sunni Kurds, have tried to 
protect persecuted minorities.
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    \3\ Report on the Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict in 
Iraq: 11 September-10 December 2014, Office of the High Commissioner 
for Human Rights, U.N. Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI).
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                           human consequences
    These statistics, as grim as they are, only tell part of the story. 
In January of this year, I made a solidarity visit to the Kurdish 
region of Iraq. Our hotel in Erbil, the capital of Kurdistan, 
overlooked St. Elias Chaldean Catholic Chapel. The small Chapel 
compound was packed with tents, home to 116 families and 560 persons 
who had fled the mainly Christian city of Qaraqosh to the south in 
August of 2014. On the final day of our visit, I celebrated Mass in the 
Chapel. An elderly woman came up to one of the members of our 
delegation after Mass with tears in her eyes as she recalled escaping 
the attack by ISIL militants. She now lives in poverty in a tent. 
Imagine the trauma, the sense of loss, the disorientation. In one tent 
two families and 11 persons were crammed into the tight living space, 
huddled against the cold.
    At the Shariya Collective in the Dohuk Governorate we met a 
displaced Yazidi father who shared his family's story. He was a 34-
year-old policeman. His family of eight fled on foot and walked for 
hours to Mount Sinjar where they spent twelve days hiding and foraging 
for food in very hot summer conditions. Kurdish fighters helped them 
get to Kurdistan. His family, including his mother, wife and children 
now lived in one room. Five other families are in the same building. He 
hopes to return to his ancestral village when security allows.
    At another Church compound near Dohuk, two related Christian 
families who had fled Mosul shared one room, a former classroom, as 
their temporary home. The man and his brother, with virtually no 
worldly possessions beyond clothes and blankets, offered us coffee, a 
traditional gesture of hospitality and normalcy in a situation that is 
anything but normal.
    The suffering Church of Iraq is also the servant Church. With 
incredible compassion and commitment, the local Church is reaching out 
through Caritas Iraq, in a strong partnership with Catholic Relief 
Services (CRS), to all in need. We traveled to Dohuk and the region 
surrounding the city where Caritas and CRS are running extensive 
programs for displaced Yazidis, Muslims and Christians. Many of the 
staff are themselves displaced persons.
    In the Dohuk area, CRS and Caritas are operating child-friendly 
spaces to help children deal with trauma in a safe environment and 
experience some normality. We visited a number of unfinished structures 
that CRS has helped to winterize with windows, doors and plastic 
sheeting, creating warmer homes in the face of the harsh winter 
weather. We witnessed long lines of displaced families receiving 
winterization items, including carpets, blankets, kettles, and kerosene 
heaters, containers and vouchers. We talked to people at another site 
receiving cash assistance based on the size of their families. The 
distributions were calm and orderly despite the desperate 
circumstances. We commend the Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster 
Assistance (OFDA) for their rapid and generous support of CRS' efforts.
    We met many Yazidis from Sinjar and Christians from Mosul who had 
fled ISIL with little more than the clothes on their backs. Their 
stories were haunting, but their gratitude was deep. Not only were they 
receiving assistance, they were being treated with human dignity.
    Whenever I got the opportunity I assured displaced families of the 
prayers, support and advocacy of the Church in the United States. Time 
and again, I promised to bring back their stories and their hopes for 
peace.
                      implications for u.s. policy
    As a bishop, I especially appreciated the opportunity to meet with 
Archbishop Bashar Matti Warda of Erbil, Bishop Raban Al Qas of Zakho 
and Amadiya, and Bishop Shlemon Warduni, Auxiliary Bishop of the 
Patriarchate of Babylon in Baghdad. Bishop Warduni had addressed our 
full body of bishops in June 2012. These courageous shepherds are 
guiding their flocks through incredibly difficult days. They asked for 
our prayers and promised theirs. They also affirmed our advocacy work 
with the Government of the United States.
    We were frequently told that Iraq needs international military 
assistance to protect its people from the onslaught of ISIL. At the 
same time, they asked our Nation to support Iraq in working for an 
increasingly inclusive government so that extremists cannot exploit 
Sunni exclusion and marginalization. It goes without saying that they 
begged our Nation to provide robust humanitarian and development 
assistance.
    Our Conference of Bishops urges the U.S. Government to adopt five 
key policies in response to the rise of ISIL and religious persecution 
in the Middle East:
    1.  Confront the reality of religious persecution in the Middle 
East, where Christians are beheaded ``for the mere fact of being 
Christians'' and other religious minorities suffer similarly at the 
hands of extremists;
    2.  Recognize that it may be necessary for the international 
community to use proportionate and discriminate force to stop these 
unjust aggressors and to protect religious minorities and civilians 
within the framework of ``international and humanitarian law;''
    3.  Acknowledge that the problem cannot be resolved solely through 
a military response and that it is critical to address political 
exclusion and economic desperation that are being manipulated by ISIL 
in its recruitment efforts, especially in Syria and Iraq;
    4.  Scale up humanitarian and development assistance to host 
countries and trusted non-governmental organizations (NGOs), including 
our own Catholic Relief Services, that are struggling to aid displaced 
persons; and
    5.  Accept for resettlement a fair share of some of the most 
vulnerable people where return is impossible.

Allow me to elaborate on each one.
1. Religious Persecution
    Our Government must name and confront the reality of religious 
persecution in the Middle East, where Christians are beheaded ``for the 
mere fact of being Christians'' and other religious minorities suffer 
similarly at the hands of extremists. It is critical that in addition 
to addressing the wider conflicts in the Middle East, including the 
civil war in Syria and sectarian violence in Iraq, that our Nation work 
with other nations, particularly those in the region, to support 
initiatives to promote education, pluralism, tolerance and respect. 
Support for intercultural education and interfaith dialogue, as well as 
investments in strengthening the rule of law and impartial judicial 
systems, are critical to reestablishing pluralistic societies 
respectful of religious freedom and human rights.
    Resisting religious persecution and promoting religious freedom are 
important not only for Christians and other religious minorities in the 
Middle East. They are critical for those societies as a whole. In a 
letter to Christians in the region, Pope Francis asserted: ``You can 
help your Muslim fellow citizens to present with discernment a more 
authentic image of Islam, as so many of them desire, reiterating that 
Islam is a religion of peace, one which is compatible with respect for 
human rights and favors peaceful coexistence on the part of all. This 
will prove beneficial for them and for all society. The tragic 
situation faced by our Christian brothers and sisters in Iraq, as well 
as by the Yazidi and members of other religious and ethnic communities, 
demands that all religious leaders clearly speak out to condemn these 
crimes unanimously and unambiguously, and to denounce the practice of 
invoking religion in order to justify them.'' \4\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \4\ Pope Francis, Letter to the Christians in the Middle East, 
December 21, 2014.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Religious persecution may begin with religious minorities, but it 
does not end there. An entire society is a risk when fundamental rights 
are denied to any group. Attacks on religious and ethnic minorities are 
attacks on the health of an entire society. The rights of all Syrians, 
Iraqis, Libyans and others in the region are at risk from the current 
situation. Our Nation must do more to protect civilians, especially 
religious minorities, to address political and economic exclusion that 
extremists exploit, and to assist refugees and internally displaced 
persons who have fled for their lives.
    The realities facing religious minorities around the world 
demonstrate the need for a renewed and refocused approach to addressing 
religious freedom. Passage of The Frank R. Wolf International Religious 
Freedom Act of 2015 (H.R. 1150) by this Congress would represent a 
first step in improving ``the ability of the United States to advance 
religious freedom globally through enhanced diplomacy, training, 
counterterrorism, and foreign assistance efforts, and through stronger 
and more flexible political responses to religious freedom violations 
and violent extremism worldwide.''
2. Responsibility to Protect
    Pope Francis and the Holy See have reiterated on a number of 
occasions that it is ``licit'' to use force to stop these unjust 
aggressors and to protect religious minorities and civilians from these 
horrendous attacks. They have emphasized that the use of military force 
must be proportionate and discriminate, and employed within the 
framework of ``international and humanitarian law.'' Given our Nation's 
history of military engagement in the region, an engagement that has 
contributed to Shia-Sunni tensions and weakened the rule of law, the 
United States must be particularly careful as it employs force to do so 
in close collaboration with international and local partners.
3. Diplomacy and Political Engagement
    Pope Francis has argued: ``In reaffirming that it is licit, while 
always respecting international law, to stop an unjust aggressor, I 
wish to reiterate, moreover, that the problem cannot be resolved solely 
through a military response.'' The international community needs to 
remember that military force alone is not adequate to address the 
challenges posed by violent extremism and religious persecution. It is 
critical to address political exclusion and economic desperation that 
are being manipulated by ISIL in its recruitment efforts, especially 
related to Syria and Iraq. Sunni exclusion and marginalization in both 
Iraq and Syria, combined with a weakening of the rule of law in the 
wake of the war in Iraq and the civil war in Syria, created fertile 
soil for the growth of ISIL. As ISIL recruits fighters from foreign 
countries, they often rally young recruits to the cause of defending 
Sunni Islam from perceived and real threats.
    The United States should lead international diplomatic efforts to 
encourage inclusive governance in both Iraq and Syria. We are grateful 
for the way the United States has worked with Iraqi officials to 
encourage the formation of an inclusive government in Iraq that 
respects human rights and religious freedom for all. Although Iraqis 
still face challenges in this regard, the task of building inclusive 
governance remains essential. The same must be done in Syria and Libya.
    In Syria, efforts to engage both the government and mainstream 
rebels in meaningful negotiations on a transition toward inclusive 
governance respectful of the rights of both majorities and minorities 
have never gotten enough serious attention and support. Such an 
initiative is critical to marginalize and overcome ISIL. A year and a 
half ago, the Administrative Committee of the U.S. bishops noted: ``A 
humanitarian catastrophe is unfolding in Syria. We call upon our Nation 
and the international community to save lives by pressing for serious 
dialogue to end the conflict, by refraining from fueling further 
violence with military attacks or arms transfers, and by offering more 
humanitarian assistance.'' \5\ The failure to press for serious 
dialogue then created space for the rise of ISIL. But it is never too 
late to engage in diplomacy and political solutions.
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    \5\ Statement on Syria, Administrative Committee, United States 
Conference Of Catholic Bishops, September 10, 2013.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
4. Humanitarian and Development Assistance
    Given the magnitude of the crisis and the depth of basic human 
needs, our Nation must scale up humanitarian and development assistance 
to host countries that are struggling to aid displaced persons. In 
addition, it is important to deliver both humanitarian and development 
assistance through trusted NGOs, including faith-based organizations 
like Catholic Relief Services, who are close to displaced populations.
    We must recognize that investments in international assistance not 
only alleviate human suffering, they are also investments in peace. 
Pope Francis maintains, ``Fanaticism and fundamentalism . . . need to 
be countered by . . . solidarity'' that rests ``on the following 
pillars: respect for human life and for religious freedom . . . ; 
commitment to ensuring what each person requires for a dignified life; 
and care for the natural environment.''
    Improvements in economic life that enable young people to look to 
the future with confidence and parents to support their families in 
dignity help inoculate populations against the false promises of 
extremism. This is particularly true in failing states and developing 
countries in which extremism has taken or may take root.
    The number of people affected by humanitarian crises today is 
staggering. The U.N. estimates 77.9 million people need humanitarian 
assistance in 2015. For this reason we ask Congress not to ``rob Peter 
to pay Paul'' in the international assistance budget. Today's 
desperation can exploited to become tomorrow's extremism. We urge you 
to support International Disaster Assistance, Migration and Refugee 
Assistance, and Emergency Refugee and Migration Assistance. As you 
know, not only in Syria and Iraq, but also in surrounding countries, 
humanitarian organizations, the U.N. and local communities are 
struggling to provide adequate humanitarian assistance. Overwhelmed by 
the influx of refugees, Jordan and Lebanon have begun to tighten their 
borders, pushing more refugees to flee in rickety boats across the 
Mediterranean, often losing their lives.
    In the Occupied Palestinian Territories, many people rely on the 
international community for their everyday survival. Unemployment, 
especially among young adults, is unacceptably high in both the West 
Bank and Gaza, contributing to suffering and instability. More than 
100,000 people are without housing in Gaza as a result of the latest 
conflict. Poverty and desperation in the Palestinian Territories are 
not good for ordinary Palestinians or for Israeli security. We urge you 
to continue funding to assist the poor and marginalized there.
    In places like the Central African Republic and South Sudan, 
humanitarian intervention and peacebuilding efforts would be impossible 
without United Nations or regional peacekeepers. Those peacekeepers are 
saving lives and need help to improve their efforts.
    Thanks in part to robust intervention by the United States, the 
international community is winning the struggle against Ebola. Yet much 
work remains to enable the affected communities to recover and children 
to return to school. The crisis has taught the international community 
a valuable lesson: that strengthening health systems globally not only 
protects the dignity of millions, but also is a valuable investment in 
preventing and containing future outbreaks. Support for infectious 
disease control is critical for the same reason.
    Support for Development Assistance and specific aspects of economic 
support funds that reduce poverty and enhance the dignity of families 
improves stability and immunizes populations against extremism. 
Approximately $0.5 billion of the Development Assistance request 
includes a long-overdue scaling up of investments in Honduras, El 
Salvador, and Guatemala, where tens of thousands of children and 
vulnerable families continue to flee violence and crushing poverty. It 
is essential that we address these root causes of migration.
    In all of these programs it is critical to preserve the important 
role of faith-based organizations through conscience clauses that 
prohibit discrimination in funding as well as through other provisions 
that ensure their unique contribution in serving the poor.
    We know there are many budget demands and limitations. We support 
you in working across the aisle and with the President to find a long-
term solution to our rising national debt, but strongly urge you to 
preserve the less than 1 percent of the Federal budget that reduces 
global poverty and the desperation that contribute to suffering, 
conflict and extremism. Reductions in the less than 1 percent of the 
budget devoted to helping the poorest and most vulnerable people in our 
world would not have a significant impact on deficit reduction, but 
would have a profound impact on the lives of people in desperate 
situations at a time of increased need. Together with Catholic Relief 
Services, the Conference of Bishops supports these poverty-reduction 
development and humanitarian accounts:

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                                   Amount ($ in
                    Agency                                           Account                        thousands)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
USAID.........................................  Maternal Health and Child Survival (including            770,000
                                                 vaccines).
USAID.........................................  Nutrition.......................................         120,000
USAID.........................................  Vulnerable Children (orphans and displaced                30,000
                                                 children).
USAID.........................................  HIV/AIDS........................................         330,000
DOS/PEPFAR....................................  HIV/AIDS (State Funding/PEPFAR).................       5,670,000
USAID.........................................  Malaria, TB, other infectious diseases, and            1,078,000
                                                 pandemic diseases.
USAID.........................................  Development Assistance..........................       2,999,694
USAID/OFDA....................................  International Disaster Assistance...............       2,100,000
DOS/PRM.......................................  Migration and Refugee Assistance................       3,300,000
DOS/PRM.......................................  Emergency Refugee and Migration Assistance......         100,000
MCC...........................................  Millennium Challenge Corporation................       1,250,000
DOS/IO........................................  Contributions to International Peacekeeping.....       2,930,223
DOS/IO........................................  Peacekeeping Operations.........................         495,200
DOS/IO........................................  Peace Operations Response Mechanism.............         150,000
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

5. Resettlement
    In January, in his address to the diplomatic corps, Pope Francis 
declared, ``A Middle East without Christians would be a marred and 
mutilated Middle East!'' \6\ Church leaders at all levels hope and pray 
for the day when Christians can return to their ancestral lands. The 
historic Christian presence in the Middle East is important 
religiously, and is critical for the pluralism and development of 
societies in the region. In my visit to Iraq, I met many refugees and 
internally displaced persons who shared the hope of return.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \6\ Address to the Diplomatic Corps, Pope Francis, January 12, 
2015.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    At the same time, we must acknowledge that some families and 
individuals will be unable to return to their homes. Our delegation to 
Iraq also met with some very vulnerable refugees and displaced Syrians 
and Iraqis who will not be able to return to their homes. Some have 
health conditions, others have lost a bread winner, and still others 
are orphaned. The most vulnerable of this population need to have the 
option of resettlement to a third country. The United States needs to 
accept for resettlement a fair share of some of the most vulnerable 
people where return is impossible, and it needs to expedite the 
processing of their resettlement. This should include the consideration 
of in-country processing for vulnerable Iraqis.
                               conclusion
    Religious persecution in the Middle East must be confronted 
directly and strongly with comprehensive and far reaching strategies: 
encouraging intercultural education and interreligious exchanges and 
rejection of extremist ideologies; strengthening the rule of law; using 
proportionate and discriminate force to protect religious minorities 
and civilians within the framework of ``international and humanitarian 
law; addressing political exclusion and economic desperation that are 
exploited by extremists; scaling up humanitarian and development 
assistance to host countries and trusted NGOs; and accepting for 
resettlement a fair share of some of the most vulnerable people where 
return is impossible.
    Near the conclusion of my visit to Iraq, Bishop Warduni thanked us 
for coming and demonstrating solidarity with the people and Church of 
Iraq at this time of persecution and conflict. He promised that they 
would not forget us. With the images of destitute refugees and 
displaced families seared into my memory, I cannot forget those 
suffering religious persecution in the Middle East. Neither should our 
Nation.

    Senator Graham. Thank you.
    Mr. Sekulow.

                  AMERICAN CENTER FOR LAW AND JUSTICE

STATEMENT OF JAY SEKULOW, CHIEF COUNSEL
    Mr. Sekulow. Chairman Graham, Ranking Member Leahy, who I 
understand has other business, but I appreciate his concern 
over this issue, and other members of this distinguished 
subcommittee, thank you for calling this hearing.
    Senator, on behalf of the American Center for Law and 
Justice and over 166,000 people who have contacted us just in 
the last week regarding this issue, thank you having this 
hearing and thank you for allowing me to testify.
    The issue of religious persecution is prevalent to minority 
faiths within the Middle East region, there is no doubt. My 
testimony is going to focus primarily on the plight of 
Christians and others in two countries that are allies of the 
United States, Turkey and Pakistan; and also discuss the 
situation in Iran; and then briefly mention, as the bishop has 
already done eloquently, the situation with the Islamic state.
    I would like to first cover, if I can, the fact that, 
Chairman Graham, you and I discussed this earlier this week, 
and I am going to quote your words because I think these are 
the words that should be at the heart of what we are talking 
about, that we are facing today a religious genocide in the 
Middle East by ISIS and other groups destroying Christian 
populations that have existed for 2,000 years.
    One of the cornerstones of humanity is the fundamental 
right to religious freedom and belief. Following the atrocities 
of the Holocaust, after World War II, the international 
community responded by a series of actions, one of those was 
the establishment of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 
Article 18 of which says, everyone has the right to freedom of 
thought, conscience, and religion.
    And I would point out that the international community has 
formalized these in a series of actions, including the 
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Iran is a 
signator. Pakistan is a signator to these international 
obligations.
    Yet, despite their signatures to the covenants and to the 
Declaration of Human Rights, there has been a consistent 
pattern of denying fundamental rights.
    Islamic-based countries have often attempted to subject 
international norms to their view or Sharia law, which is 
paramount within that culture. The United Nations has expressed 
that these limitations violate the very institutions and the 
very instruments that these governments have signed. But 
nevertheless, the policy maintains as is.
    Iran, Turkey, and Pakistan voted in favor of the Universal 
Declaration of Human Rights without any reservation whatsoever.
    Iran, Senator, as many of you know, we have a troubling 
situation for Christians in Iran. I could talk from a firsthand 
prospective, as we represent the interests of the Abedini 
family. Saeed Abedini has been in jail now for 3 years almost.
    His crime was and is that he is a Christian. They said it 
was a violation of the Iranian Government through their mock 
judicial process--a faux judiciary, I call it--accused him of 
violating national security interests because he had house 
churches that met for prayer, worship, and study.
    Iran is silently suffocating the church. Even private 
worship comes at a heavy price. Iran, as I said, convicted 
American citizen Saeed Abedini. He's representative of hundreds 
of others.
    I do want to thank personally here Ambassador Saperstein 
for meeting with the family of Saeed Abedini, Naghmeh, his 
wife, and also the President for meeting with Naghmeh and her 
two children. It was reassuring to know that there is a concern 
at the highest levels.
    Having said that, at the close of 2014, 92 Christians that 
we know of remained in prison in Iran. There are hundreds of 
others that we don't know of, and, of course, mass executions. 
That is Iran.
    Turkey, our NATO ally, struggles to recognize the religious 
rights of minorities, and that is being kind. Turkey denies 
recognition of the Ecumenical Patriarch of the Greek Orthodox 
Church. I represent that church globally. The clergy cannot 
even leave the compound of the patriarch with clerical garb. 
They are not allowed to build new churches. They are not 
allowed to repair existing churches. This takes place at the 
same time that, in 2007, three employees of a Bible publishing 
house had their hands tied, legs tied, throats slit, and 
killed. And the five individuals involved in that, who were 
arrested, have now been released from jail in Turkey, our NATO 
ally.
    Disturbingly, now, of course, it has been reported and 
confirmed that Turkey has increased its ties with Hamas, which 
is a group that is bent on persecuting Jews. That is our ally, 
Turkey.
    Pakistan, another ally, blasphemy laws create an ongoing 
problem for Christians in the region. Asia Bibi is a Christian 
mother of five. She remains on death row for offering water to 
a Muslim, a coworker of hers.
    After advocating for reform, the governor of the area was 
assassinated and killed.
    We have an office that operates in Lahore, Pakistan. Our 
affiliate in Pakistan is representing a 7-year-old Christian 
girl who was raped and kidnapped by her Muslim neighbors and no 
prosecution for those that are known to have done this, zero.
    Finally, with regard to the Islamic state, it changes on an 
hourly basis. Just a few weeks ago, we reported on the 21 
Coptic Christians who were killed. That was followed up by 
hundreds of Assyrian Christians that were taken. And just a few 
days ago, another village was taken with additional Christians.
    And, Chairman, as you said, Senator Graham, crucifixions, 
beheadings in 2015 should not be the way in which the civilized 
world operates.
    With regard to recommendations, we have those in our 
written submission, which I request be made a part of the 
record. But there are some things that are being done, and some 
things that need to be done.
    We need ensure that our allies abide by universal 
declarations they signed off on. If they don't, there needs to 
be a penalty for that, and that penalty needs to be that they 
don't get U.S. dollars if they are knowingly, willfully, and 
consciously violating religious liberty and religious rights.
    We need to increase the role of the Ambassador-at-Large for 
Religious Freedom. I think it plays a key role that we now 
have, again, another Ambassador. Rabbi Saperstein has been a 
friend of mine for a long time.
    I have no doubt, with the right funding and the right 
positioning and the right acceptance within the State 
Department, he will be able to fulfill an important role.
    And finally, Senator, I want to thank you again and the 
subcommittee. Having this hearing goes a long way in solving 
this problem.
    And thank you for that, Senator. Thank you, members.
    [The statement follows:]
                 Prepared Statement of Jay Alan Sekulow
                            i. introduction
    Chairman Graham, Ranking Member Leahy, and distinguished members of 
the subcommittee, on behalf of the American Center for Law and Justice 
(ACLJ) and our global affiliates, and over 150,000 of our members who 
have signed our petition to protect persecuted Christians, thank you 
for allowing me to come before you to discuss the rapidly increasing 
persecution of Christians throughout the world. Please also allow me to 
thank you and your staff for holding this hearing to be a voice for 
persecuted religious minorities. With the ACLJ's ongoing legal 
representation of Christians throughout the world who are persecuted 
for their faith, we are keenly aware of the vital importance of today's 
hearing.
    Christianity was born in Bethlehem, now the West Bank, but quickly 
spread through people like the Assyrians and Armenians--those who 
flourished in ancient Mesopotamia, spreading Christianity in what we 
now call the Near East and modern-day Turkey. Eastern Christian 
traditions believe that Christianity existed throughout parts of South 
Central Asia as early as 52 AD.\1\ But despite the deep rooted history 
of Christianity in the Near East and South Central Asia, over the last 
century, the Christian Church's anguish at the catastrophic decline of 
Christianity in the region is palpable. The ``lion's share'' of 
persecution faced by Christians arises in countries where Islam is the 
dominant faith. But let me be clear, the ``lion's share'' of 
persecution faced by Muslims also arises in countries where Islam is 
the dominant faith. There has been a mass exodus of Christians from 
these regions due to increasing levels of Christian persecution. In the 
Near East alone, estimates place between a half and two-thirds of all 
Christian populations have left the region or been killed in the past 
century. Of course this threat has grown as of late with the 
intentional targeting of Christians by the Islamic State in Syria and 
Iraq.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \1\ Some Christians in India claim that the Apostle Thomas 
converted their ancestors near 52 AD. Though there is no scientific 
evidence of Apostle Thomas's visit to India, historians report that 
around 180 AD a Gospel of Matthew written in the Hebrew language was 
found in India, which was left with the Christians there by St. 
Bartholomew.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    My prepared remarks today will focus on the growing trends of 
religious persecution brought either through government restrictions or 
social hostilities that lead to discrimination, persecution, and all 
too often murderous actions towards religious minorities. While the 
issue is prevalent for other minority faiths, because of the ACLJ's 
work for Christians around the world my testimony will primarily focus 
on the growing persecution of the Christian community in those 
countries where the ACLJ's work can offer the most informed material 
for this hearing. Thus, I will focus my testimony on persecution in the 
Islamic Republic of Iran, the Republic of Turkey, at the hands of the 
Islamic State in the Syrian Arab Republic and the Republic of Iraq, and 
finally, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.
    The varying degrees of persecution in these countries range from 
the violent beheadings at the hands of the Islamic State in Syria and 
Iraq, to imprisonment and persistent intimidation in Iran, to 
desecration and confiscation of Christian properties in Turkey. But as 
Pope Francis recently said, ``Even those Christians who are forced away 
in an `elegant' way, with `white gloves': that too is persecution.'' 
\2\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \2\ Pope: There Are More Christian Martyrs Today than Ever, Vatican 
Radio, (June 30, 2014), http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2014/06/30/
pope_there_are_more_christian_martyrs_today
_than_ever/1102363.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
     ii. international standards for freedom of religion and belief
    After the horrors of World War II, a global consensus emerged 
demanding the international community protect each individual's human 
dignity and fundamental rights. The atrocities committed against 
specific ethnic and religious groups had shown that governments could 
gravely fail in their duty to protect the life and liberty of their 
citizenry. Emerging from this context, countries voted in favor of the 
Universal Declaration of Human Rights (``UDHR'') as a non-binding but 
aspirational Declaration of the rights of humanity.\3\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \3\ Universal Declaration of Human Rights, G.A. Res. 217 (III) A, 
U.N. Doc. A/RES/217(III) (Dec. 10, 1948). Note that almost all Islamic 
countries have also signed the Cairo Declaration of Human Rights in 
Islam. Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam: World Conference on 
Human Rights, Aug. 5, 1990, U.N. GAOR, 44th Sess., Agenda Item 5, U.N. 
Doc. A/CONF.157/PC/62/Add.18 (1993). Article 10 of the Cairo 
Declaration seems to limit the right of conversion, and bounds all 
human rights to compliance with Shariah law.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    One of the cornerstones of humanity is the fundamental right to 
religion or belief. The right to freedom of religion or belief, as 
defined by international standards, is a wide-ranging right covering a 
large number of distinct yet interrelated protections. Internationally, 
the primary instruments outlining this protected right are article 18 
of the UDHR, article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and 
Political Rights (``ICCPR''),\4\ and the 1981 Declaration on the 
Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on 
Religion or Belief (``1981 Declaration'').\5\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \4\ International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), 
adopted Dec. 16 1966, G.A. Res. 2200A (XXI), U.N. Doc A/6316 (1966), 
999 U.N.T.S. 171.
    \5\ Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and 
of Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief, G.A. Res. 36/55, U.N. 
GAOR, 36th Sess., Supp. No. 51, U.N. Doc. A/RES/36/55 (Nov. 25, 1981) 
[1981 Declaration]. Iraq expressed a collective reservation on behalf 
of the Organization of Islamic Conference (now the Organization of 
Islamic Cooperation) that the vote of these bloc countries in favor of 
this non-binding declaration was limited to those provisions that were 
not contrary to Shariah law or to any legislation or act based on 
Islamic law.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    One of the articulated protections of this freedom is the freedom 
to practice the religion of one's choice free from any coercion. The 
UDHR sets forth, in article 18, the principle that ``everyone has the 
right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion,'' and clearly 
articulates that such a 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, 
practise, worship and observance.'' \6\ Article 18 of the ICCPR states 
that everyone's right to freedom of religion or belief includes the 
``freedom to have or to adopt a religion or belief of his choice, and 
freedom, either individually or in community with others and in public 
or private.'' \7\ Paragraph 2 of Article 18 bars coercion that would 
impair this right, ``including the use of threat of physical force or 
penal sanctions to compel believers or non-believers to adhere to their 
religious beliefs and congregations, to recant their religion or belief 
or to convert.'' \8\ Article 1 of the 1981 Declaration states that 
``[t]his right shall include freedom to have a religion or whatever 
belief of [one's] choice'' and that ``[n]o one shall be subject to 
coercion which would impair his freedom to have a religion or belief of 
his choice.'' \9\ The right to change one's religion is absolute and is 
not subject to any limitation whatsoever. Any legislation that would 
prohibit or limit the right to change one's religion would be contrary 
to international human rights standards.\10\ This includes any 
``[p]olicies or practices having the same intention or effect, such as, 
for example, those restricting political rights protected under article 
25 of the ICCPR or access to education, medical care or employment.'' 
\11\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \6\ UDHR, supra note 3, art. 18.
    \7\ ICCPR, supra note 4, art. 18(1).
    \8\ Id. art. 18(2).
    \9\ 1981 Declaration, supra note 5, art. 1.
    \10\ Human Rights Committee, General Comment no. 22, the right to 
freedom of thought, conscience, and religion (Art. 18), UN Doc. CCPR/C/
21/Rev.1/Add.4,  3, 5 (1994) [hereinafter HRC General Comment No. 
22].
    \11\ Id.  5.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    The right to manifest one's religion includes the right to worship 
and assemble, whether in private or in public; \12\ to establish 
physical places of worship; \13\ to establish religious education 
institutions; to worship in ``a particular language customarily spoken 
by a group''; \14\ to write, issue, and disseminate relevant 
publications in these areas; \15\ and to train, appoint, elect, 
designate, or replace appropriate religious leaders and teachers.\16\ 
While the scope of freedom afforded to persons to manifest their 
religion or belief is wide, certain limitations can be imposed in 
exceptional circumstances when done in accordance with article 18, 
paragraph 3, of the ICCPR. Such limitations must be specified by law 
and be ``necessary to protect public safety, order, health, or morals 
or the fundamental rights and freedoms of others.'' \17\ These 
limitations must not be ``applied in a manner that would vitiate the 
rights guaranteed in article 18'' of the ICCPR.\18\ Interpreting the 
allowance for limitations on the right to manifest one's religion, the 
U.N. Human Rights Committee (now the Human Rights Council) held that 
limitations on the freedom to manifest a religion or belief for the 
purpose of protecting morals must be based on principles not deriving 
exclusively from a single tradition or religion.\19\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \12\ ICCPR, supra note 4, art. 18(1).
    \13\ HRC General Comment No. 22, supra note 10,  4.
    \14\ Id.
    \15\ Id.
    \16\ Id.
    \17\ ICCPR, supra note 4, art. 18(3).
    \18\ HRC General Comment No. 22, supra note 10,  8.
    \19\ See Id.  8.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Islamic-based countries have often attempted to subject this right 
to Shariah law, or limited the manifestation of religious minorities 
under the guise that their practice threatens the country's the 
national security. But the United Nations, interpreting the obligations 
under the ICCPR, has stated that concerns for national security are not 
grounds to limit the manifestation of religion.\20\ Furthermore, a 
state religion recognized either officially or in practice ``shall not 
result in any impairment of the enjoyment of any of the rights under 
the [ICCPR], . . . nor in any discrimination against adherents to other 
religions or non-believers.'' \21\ Similarly, ``imposing special 
restrictions on the practice of other faiths [is] not in accordance 
with the prohibition of discrimination based on religion or belief and 
the guarantee of equal protection under ICCPR article 26.'' \22\ 
Finally, even if ``a set of beliefs is treated as official ideology in 
constitutions, statutes, proclamations of ruling parties, etc., or in 
actual practice, this shall not result in any impairment of the 
freedoms under article 18 or any other rights recognized under the 
ICCPR nor in any discrimination against persons who do not accept the 
official ideology or who oppose it.'' \23\ Thus, the existence of a 
state religion cannot be a basis for discriminating against or limiting 
any rights of adherents of other religions or non-believers.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \20\ Id.
    \21\ Id.  9.
    \22\ Id.
    \23\ Id.  10.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Finally, the obligation to protect religious freedom extends beyond 
a country's obligations to its citizens. International human rights 
standards require a country to protect the rights to ``all individuals 
within its territory and subject to its jurisdiction'' and to do so 
``without distinction of any kind,'' including distinctions based on 
religion.\24\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \24\ ICCPR, supra note 4, art. 2(1); see also UDHR, supra note 3, 
art. 2 (``Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth 
in this Declaration without distinction of any kind, such as . . . 
religion. . . .'').
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
     iii. lack of religious freedom in the islamic republic of iran
    Today in Iran, Christians make up less than .04 percent of the 
overall population.\25\ Two categories of Christians compose this small 
percentage: ethnic and non-ethnic. The ethnic Christians consist mainly 
of Armenians and Assyrians (or Chaldeans). Non-ethnic Christians, for 
the most part, are converts to Christianity. While historically, the 
Iranian Government has granted ethnic Christians some religious rights, 
in recent years, the ethnic Christians have faced increased levels of 
persecution and discrimination. But, by and large, non-ethnic 
Christians face the higher levels of persecution and discrimination in 
Iran.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \25\ See Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, 
International Religious Freedom Report for 2013: Iran, U.S. Dep't St. 
(2014) (reporting that 300,000 Christians live in Iran), http://
www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/irf/religiousfreedom/index.htm#wrapper; The 
World Factbook, Cent. Intelligence Agency (2013), https://www.cia.gov/
library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ir.html (estimating Iran's 
total population at 78,868,711).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Persecution of Christians in Iran comes primarily at the hands of 
government officials, though there are some reported cases of societal 
hostility against the non-ethnic and evangelical Christians. Despite 
allegations by the Iranian Government that its laws respect and 
recognize the Christian community, the Christian community in Iran 
faces systemic and systematic state persecution and discrimination.
    The Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran (``Constitution'') 
states that Islam (Twelver Ja'fari school of Islamic jurisprudence) is 
the nation's official religion.\26\ Accordingly, all Iranian laws must 
be derived from and consistent with Islamic law.\27\ Under the 
Constitution, Christianity is one of the three legally recognized 
religious minorities in Iran. Through this recognition, ethnic 
Christians maintain the right, at least in principle, to exercise their 
faith.\28\ Article 13 of the Constitution states: ``Zoroastrian, 
Jewish, and Christian Iranians are the only recognized religious 
minorities, who, within the limits of the law, are free to perform 
their religious rites and ceremonies, and to act according to their own 
canon in matters of personal affairs and religious education.'' As 
interpreted by the Iranian Government, these rights pertain only to 
ethnic Christians in Iran who act within the limits of the law, 
including non-codified principles of Islamic law.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \26\ Qanuni Assassi Jumhurii Islamai Iran [The Constitution of the 
Islamic Republic of Iran] 1980, art. 12.
    \27\ Id. art. 4.
    \28\ Id. art. 13 (emphasis added).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    The Iranian Government is quick to cite provisions of its 
Constitution that protect religious freedom for minority faiths,\29\ 
but in reality these provisions protect only ethnic minorities who stay 
within the bounds of Shariah law, and who close off their religious 
practices to anyone outside the ethnicity. Even so, the actions of the 
Iranian Government towards the Christian minority violate not only 
Iran's Constitution, but also numerous international treaty obligations 
to which Iran has solemnly agreed to be bound.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \29\ Concerning freedom of thought, conscience, and religion, 
Article 23 of the Constitution provides that the ``investigation of 
individuals' beliefs is forbidden, and no one may be molested or taken 
to task simply for holding a certain belief.'' Id. art. 23. Article 26 
of the Constitution grants the recognized ethnic religious minorities 
the freedom to form associations, such as churches. The Constitution 
also dictates respect for the human rights of non-Muslims, but 
qualifies this protection by stipulating that ``this principle applies 
to all who refrain from engaging in conspiracy or activity against 
Islam and the Islamic Republic of Iran.'' Id. art. 14. Notably, 
prosecutors often bring charges against Christians, asserting that 
their Christian activities amount to crimes such as ``propaganda 
against the Regime'' and ``acting against national security.'' See 
generally U.N. Special Rapporteur on Human Rights to Iran, Report of 
the Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Islamic 
Republic of Iran, U.N. Doc. A/HRC/22/56 (Feb. 28, 2013) [hereinafter SR 
2013 Report].
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Besides its domestic laws that purport to protect religious 
minorities, Iran voted in favor of the Universal Declaration of Human 
Rights, ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political 
Rights (without reservation), and voted in favor of the 1981 
Declaration (with reservation).\30\ As addressed above, within each of 
these international laws, Iran has obliged itself to protect every 
individual's right to religious freedom, expression, peaceful assembly, 
to be free from arbitrary detainment, to be free from discrimination on 
the basis of religion, and to have a fair trial in the presence of an 
impartial tribunal.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \30\ See UDHR, supra note 3 (voted on Dec. 10, 1948); ICCPR, supra 
note 4 (entered into force March 23, 1976, ratified by Iran in 1975); 
1981 Declaration, supra note 5 (joined the bloc reservation that its 
vote was limited to those provision consistent with Shariah law).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Iran has shown utter disrespect for these obligations when it comes 
to its treatment of religious minorities in Iran. Recently, at least 
one news source reported that Iran's Judiciary Chief, Ayatollah Sadegh 
Larijani has ``criticized the Universal Declaration of Human Rights'' 
and stated that Iran made a mistake when it voted for the 
Declaration.\31\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \31\ The Head of Iran's Judiciary: the Universal Declaration 
Mistakenly Joined, BBC Persia (Persian) (Feb. 2, 2012), http://
www.bbc.co.uk/persian/iran/2012/02/120202_123_sadeq_
larijani_iran_un_human_rights.shtml.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    The human rights situation for the Christian minority in Iran has 
regressed to the lowest levels we have seen since the early days of the 
Islamic revolution.\32\ Just days ago, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-
moon stated that
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \32\ U.S. Comm'n on Int'l Religious Freedom, Annual Report 2013, at 
74 (2013) [hereinafter USCIRF Report 2013], available at http://
www.uscirf.gov/sites/default/files/resources/
2013%20USCIRF%20Annual%20Report%20(2).pdf.

        Members of ethnic and religious minority groups [in Iran] 
        continue to face persecution, including arrest and 
        imprisonment, the denial of economic opportunities, expulsion 
        from educational institutions, deprivation of the right to 
        work, and closure of businesses and the destruction of 
        religious sites, such as cemeteries and prayer centres. 
        Individuals seeking greater recognition for their cultural and 
        linguistic rights risk facing harsh penalties, including 
        capital punishment.\33\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \33\ Annual Report of the United Nations High Commissioner for 
Human Rights and Reports of the Office of the High Commissioner and the 
Secretary-General, Situation of Human Rights in the Islamic Republic of 
Iran, U.N. Doc. A/HRC/28/26,  45 (2015), http://www.un.org/en/ga/
search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/HRC/28/26.

    Corresponding with the increase of persecution in recent years, 
government officials, including a President of Iran, and influential 
Muslim clerics have repeatedly demonized and called for the suppression 
of Christianity.\34\ Various religious and political leaders, including 
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei,\35\ have publicly 
declared Christians to be enemies to Islam and enemies to Iran.\36\ The 
governor of Tehran, Morteza Tamadoon, referred to Christians as `` 
`deviant' and `corrupt' and vowed to identify and detain more.'' \37\ 
Evangelical Christians have been characterized as terrorists, being 
backed by foreign enemies, and likened to the Taliban.\38\ Such 
demonization reflects the government's true sentiments towards 
Christianity and the official policy at the roots of religious 
persecution in Iran.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \34\ President Ahmadinejad called for an end to Christianity in 
Iran. U.S. Comm'n on Int'l Religious Freedom, Annual Report 2013, at 76 
(2013) [hereinafter USCIRF Report 2013],
available at http://www.uscirf.gov/sites/default/files/resources/
2013%20USCIRF%20Annual%20
Report%20(2).pdf.
    \35\ Id. at 74.
    \36\ ``Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, head of the Guardian Council, 
referred to them as `sinful animals' and `corrupt.' '' U.S. Comm'n on 
Int'l Religious Freedom, Annual Report 5 (2013) [hereinafter USCIRF 
Report 2013], available at http://www.uscirf.gov/sites/default/files/
resources/2013%20USCIRF%20Annual%20Report%20(2).pdf.
    \37\ U.S. Comm'n on Int'l Religious Freedom, Annual Report 86 
(2012) [hereinafter USCIRF Report 2012], available at http://
www.uscirf.gov/sites/default/files/resources/Annual%20Report
%20of%20USCIRF%202012(2).pdf
    \38\ Id.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Counter to its obligations under the ICCPR, the Iranian Government 
has recently taken systematic measures that restrict the right of 
religious assembly and right to manifest the Christian faith in the 
believers' spoken language. By the end of 2013, the Iranian Government 
had closed all Farsi-speaking government-approved churches and almost 
all Farsi-speaking services offered in government-approved churches 
that operate in a couple of languages (Armenian, Assyrian, etc.). The 
four remaining small elderly congregations that operate in Farsi 
operate under very strict guidelines. These congregations are forbidden 
from baptizing new members, and every week during their religious 
service, someone from the ministry of Intelligence monitors church 
attendance and disallows any new Farsi-speaking non-members from 
entering the church. No Farsi Christian literature or Bibles may be 
sold, provided, or given away by the church. The leadership of these 
small congregations has been put under such severe government pressure 
to leave the country or to close their church that many have left the 
country. Through these restrictions, the government is silently 
suffocating the remaining churches through severe restrictions on their 
finances, restrictions on their ecumenical fellowship (with the wider 
global church as well as between the remaining churches in Iran), an 
inability to train new leaders, and an intentional scarcity of 
Christian literature and scriptures in Farsi. The lack of freedom to 
gather with like-minded Christian believers without threat or 
intimidation has made even recognized ethnic religious minorities feel 
as though they are ``second class citizens.'' \39\ and both categories 
of Christians are a far cry from realizing religious liberty.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \39\ USCIRF Report 2012, supra note 36, at 82.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    The Iranian Government has effectively forced Farsi-speaking 
Christians to move underground, worshiping in secret in private homes, 
but doing so comes at the risk of being detained and imprisoned for 
acts against national security. A member of the Assembly of Experts 
classified house churches as ``against the national security'' of 
Iran.\40\ While meeting peacefully for religious gatherings in private 
homes is legal in Iran, the government frequently charges Christians 
with national security charges based on such legal gatherings. In fact, 
the Government of Iran convicted American citizen Saeed Abedini of 
intentionally threatening the Government of Iran solely because he had 
prayed with Christians in private homes. Pastor Saeed is presently 
serving an 8-year prison sentence under horrendous conditions and is 
suffering from untreated internal injuries that he obtained from 
beatings he endured since his arrest. After reviewing his arrest and 
detention, the United Nations ruled his detention ``arbitrary'' and in 
violation of numerous international covenants.\41\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \40\ International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, The Cost of 
Faith 26 (2013) [hereinafter The Cost of Faith], available at http://
www.iranhumanrights.org/2013/01/cost_of_
faith.
    \41\ Opinions adopted by the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention 
at its sixty-seventh session, U.N. Doc. A/HRC/WGAD/2013 (Oct. 21, 
2013).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    While international law prohibits arbitrary arrest and detention, 
this is one of the most regularly used methods of persecution against 
the Christian minority. At the close of 2014, 92 Christians remained 
detained or imprisoned by the Iranian regime. These are only the known 
cases, in which the victim and/or the victim's family has consented to 
the case being known to the public. Many Christians are threatened that 
if they seek legal counsel or speak of their detainment, more harm will 
come to them and their family; thus, 92 likely is a very low estimate 
of the actual number. Additionally, this number does not reflect the 
hundreds of Christians who have been arrested and released, but who 
remain under the intimidation of their case being brought to trial 
should they return to their Christian activities. Those Christians who 
are eventually released from detention regularly face exorbitant bail 
amounts, often requiring the deed to their family home be turned over 
to the government. In many cases the government never brings their case 
to trial leaving the charges and the property put up for bail hanging 
over Christians as a form of intimidation.
    Many Christian converts have reported that their interrogators 
applied various means of coercion, including threats of execution, to 
force them to revert back to Islam, while other Christians have 
reported that they were forced to sign affidavits swearing that they 
would no longer participate in Christian activities in order to secure 
their release. Additionally, they are threatened with criminal 
prosecution, physical and psychological abuse, and the arrest or threat 
of harm to family members to pressure them to stop participation in 
Christian activities publicly or privately.\42\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \42\ The Cost of Faith, supra note 40, at 45.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    The U.N. Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Iran reported that 
of the 221 individuals he interviewed for his 2012 report for the 
General Assembly who had been arbitrarily detained,

        [a]pproximately 73 percent . . . alleged that they were 
        blindfolded during interrogations; 58 percent reported the use 
        of prolonged solitary confinement; 62 percent reported 
        intimidation of family members for the purpose of placing 
        pressure on the target of interrogations; 78 percent stated 
        that they were beaten during interrogations; and 8 percent 
        reported being hung from ceilings for the purpose of soliciting 
        confessions. Moreover, 64 percent of those interviewed alleged 
        that they were denied adequate access to a lawyer after the 
        investigative phase of their case, and another 82 percent 
        stated that they believed that the judge had already made up 
        his mind about their case, and that he was being directed by 
        the Prosecutor's Office.\43\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \43\ U.N. Special Rapporteur on Human Rights to Iran, Report of the 
Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic 
Republic of Iran, U.N. Doc. A/67/369,  5, 46 (Sept. 13, 2012) 
[hereinafter SR Sept. 2012 Report], available at http://
www.shaheedoniran.org/english/dr-shaheeds-work/latest-reports/3078-
special-rapporteur-s-sepetember-2012-report-on-the-situation-of-human-
rights-in-the-islamic-republic-of-iran.html.

    Many Christians are detained for months on end without ever knowing 
the formal charges against them. For example, after arresting him on 
December 26, 2010, Iranian authorities held Farshid Fathi for roughly 
12 months without a formal indictment.\44\ A year after his arrest, in 
his first appearance before a court, Judge Salavati informed Farshid 
Fathi of his charges: acting against national security, contact with 
enemy countries, and possessing religious propaganda.\45\ In April 
2012, the court sentenced Fathi to 6 years imprisonment, which he is 
currently serving.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \44\ The Cost Of Faith, supra note 40, at 45. The ACLJ is also in 
contact with a close family friend of Farshid Fathi and has verified 
this account.
    \45\ See generally Voice of the Martyrs, http://
www.persecution.com/public/newsroom.aspx?
story_ID=NTIy.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Non-ethnic Christians, those who convert to Islam also face 
frequent threats of execution for their conversion to Christianity. In 
2009, Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani was convicted and sentenced to death as 
an apostate. After spending almost 3 years in prison under the threat 
of execution, the Iranian Government released Pastor Nadarkhani on 
September 8, 2012, but only after a large international campaign for 
his release. As further evidence of Iran's animus toward Christians, 
Iranian authorities rearrested Pastor Nadarkhani on Christmas Day of 
that same year and imprisoned him for an additional 2 weeks before 
again releasing him in January 2013.\46\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \46\ Lisa Daftari, Christian Pastor Nadarkhani Freed from Jail in 
Iran after Christmas Day Arrest, Fox News (Jan. 7, 2013), http://
www.foxnews.com/world/2013/01/07/christian-pastor-nadarkhani-released-
form-iranian-prison/.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    In December 1990, the Iranian Government executed Hossein Soodmand 
for apostasy, evangelizing to Muslims, and serving as pastor of a 
church for converts from Islam.\47\ At least one prominent human rights 
attorney in Iran has shared with the ACLJ that during the beginning of 
2012, he successfully defended 19 Christians who were formally charged 
with apostasy.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \47\ The Cost Of Faith, supra note 40, at 32.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    On numerous other occasions, judges have urged prosecutors to 
pursue apostasy convictions against defendants even when the charge was 
not officially before the court.\48\ The ACLJ has on file a 2008 
Iranian ruling against Pastor Behnam Irani, who was charged with 
``acting against national security,'' but during his trial the judge 
noted that Pastor Irani was an apostate and that a new case should be 
brought against him seeking his execution. Many Christians, though 
never formally charged with apostasy, have been threatened with 
execution for choosing Christianity during their detention and 
interrogations.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \48\ See id.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Several Christians have reported their expulsion from secondary 
school and university programs because of their religion.\49\ Iran's 
admission regulations for higher education mandate that ``education 
authorities must deny admission to an `enemy of the Islamic Republic' 
or those who `repudiate to be morally corrupt.' '' \50\ Thus, converts 
to Christianity, who have been demonized as morally corrupt and enemies 
of the state, are regularly denied entrance to or expelled from 
educational institutions.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \49\ The Cost Of Faith, supra note 40, at 68.
    \50\ Id. at 68 n. 306.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    In violation of Article 28 of the Iranian Constitution, employers 
often discriminate against Christians upon finding out about an 
employee's conversion. Under Iranian law, it is mandatory that 
employment applications ask for the applicant's ``religion'' and as a 
result, it is nearly impossible for Christians, especially Protestants, 
to avoid discrimination.\51\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \51\ Id. at 12.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Iran's mechanism of persecution, though often less gruesome than 
other Islamic extremists, such as the Islamic State, represents a slow 
strangling of the Christian community within its borders. Through 
Iran's demonization and systematic oppression of Christians in Iran, it 
hopes Christians will ultimately be eradicated from the region.
             iv. struggles for religious freedom in turkey
    Turkey, which by many is considered to be a moderate Muslim state 
that has succeeded in establishing a democracy,\52\ struggles to 
recognize the rights of its religious minorities. Turkey has ratified 
the ICCPR, but done so with limited reservations that have allowed it 
to limit religious freedom.\53\ Under the push for a completely secular 
form of government, Turkey has enacted policies that violate the right 
of religious minorities to establish places of worship.\54\ The 
Norwegian Helsinki Committee found in their report on religious freedom 
in Turkey, the government has denied 670 buildings being used for 
worship a ``place of worship'' status.\55\ Almost 600 of the buildings 
that have been denied ``place of worship'' status are houses of worship 
for the Alevi minority.\56\ Based on the opinion of Turkey's 
Directorate of Religious Affairs, many of the Alevi's applications are 
denied because ``the places of worship [for] Muslims are mosques.'' 
\57\ Therefore, the government prevents those who belong to the 
unrecognized Alevi religious minority from worshiping in their own 
facilities because they are considered Muslims for whom the only 
recognized place of worship is a mosque.\58\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \52\ See, e.g., Peter Kenyon, The Turkish Model: Can It Be 
Replicated?, NPR (Jan. 6, 2012, 12:01 AM), http://www.npr.org/2012/01/
06/144751851/the-turkish-model-can-it-be-replicated (noting that, in 
the context of the Arab Spring, ``many [were] looking to Turkey as an 
example of a modern, moderate Muslim state that works.'').
    \53\ Status of Treaties, Ch. IV Human Rights, 4. ICCPR Status, 
United Nations Treaty Collection, (7 Mar. 2014, 5:03 PM), http://
treaties.un.org/Pages/ViewDetails.aspx?src=TREATY&
mtdsg_no=IV-4&chapter=4⟨=en. In ratifying the ICCPR, Turkey 
reserved the right ``to interpret and apply the provisions of Article 
27 . . . in accordance with the related provisions and rules of the 
Constitution''--but Article 27 is a crucial tool for protecting the 
religious freedom of minorities as it provides that religious 
``minorities shall not be denied the right, in community with the other 
members of their group . . . to profess and practise their own 
religion.'' ICCPR, supra note 4, art. 27.
    \54\ See HRC Comment No. 22, supra note 10,  4.
    \55\ Norwegian Helsinki Comm., The Right To Freedom Of Religion Or 
Belief In Turkey 25 (2013), available at http://
inancozgurlugugirisimi.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/NHC-
I%CC%87O%CC%88G-FoRB-Report-Eng.pdf.
    \56\ Id.
    \57\ Id.
    \58\ Id.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    The Greek Orthodox Church in Turkey has faced similar struggles. 
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew is the head of the Greek Orthodox 
Church and the spiritual leader of all the world's 250+ million 
Orthodox Christians.\59\ In 1923 and 1970, the Istanbul Governorate 
issued decrees dictating who might become Ecumenical Patriarch and the 
manner in which he must be elected.\60\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \59\ See Paul Nathanail, The Ecumenical Patriarchate of 
Constantinople, Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Am., http://
www.goarch.org/ourfaith/ourfaith8880 (last visited Mar. 9, 2015).
    \60\ See A. Suat Bilge, The Fener Greek Patriarchate, Perceptions: 
J. Int'l Aff., Mar.-May 1998, at 75, 78, 82.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    These decrees stated that candidates and electors must all be of 
Turkish citizenship and that the Governor of Istanbul would have the 
power to strike any name from the list of candidates he may deem 
unfit.\61\ With the Orthodox population of Turkey plummeting over the 
last century to just a few thousand, these restrictions thus represent 
an existential threat to this ancient institution.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \61\ See id.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    In 2011, then-Prime Minister Erdogan issued an executive reform 
statement waiving the 5-year residency requirement for Orthodox 
hierarchs wishing to apply for Turkish citizenship,\62\ seemingly 
solving the problem of the dwindling Orthodox population in today's 
Turkey. While this was a positive step forward, this reform fell far 
short of full resolution of this ongoing problem. The discretionary 
nature of the decree means that it can be rescinded at any time, as 
illustrated by the fact that while 21 hierarchs have been awarded 
citizenship under this policy since 2011, five have been denied 
citizenship with no reason given.\63\ Further, it is not clear that an 
executive decree from Ankara can override local policies of the 
Istanbul Governorate under the current constitutional structure.\64\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \62\ Constantine G. Caras, Order of St. Andrew, The Status And 
Issues of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople 5 (2014).
    \63\ Id.
    \64\ See id.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Turkey also restricts the ability for all faith groups to obtain 
``legal personality'' and thus religious communities, including the 
Orthodox, are unable to buy property, hold title to property, or press 
claims in court as a community.\65\ In theory, individuals from a faith 
group can register an association or foundation for the group,\66\ but 
the utility of these vehicles is significantly restricted in 
reality.\67\ For instance, Turkey's civil code prevents foundations 
from being formed with the purpose of supporting a particular religious 
community.\68\ The only exception allowed is for religious foundations 
previously established under the 1923 Lausanne Treaty, which precludes 
newer faith groups from creating foundations.\69\ Therefore, the 
foundation vehicle is not a viable alternative to legal personality for 
faith groups. An association is considered by some to be a better 
option than a foundation, but this vehicle is also inadequate. 
Associations are often hampered by significant bureaucratic 
obstacles,\70\ subject to broad regulations formulated for other types 
of associations, and may even be restricted by Turkey's Constitution if 
the government interprets it as prohibiting associations formed 
specifically for religious purposes.\71\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \65\ Id. at 27.
    \66\ Mine Yildirim, TURKEY: Religious Freedom Survey, January 2014, 
Forum 18 News Service (Jan. 16, 2014), http://www.forum18.org/
archive.php?article_id=1916.
    \67\ Eur. Comm'n for Democracy Through Law, Opinion on the Legal 
Status of Religious Communities in Turkey and the Right of the Orthodox 
Patriarchate of Istanbul to Use the Adjective ``Ecumenical'',  37-41, 
82nd Sess., Op. No. 535/2009 (2010), available at http://www.mfa.gr/
images/docs/ellinotourkiko/gnomodotisi_epitropis_venetias.pdf.
    \68\ Yildirim, supra note 66.
    \69\ Id.
    \70\ Id.
    \71\ Eur. Comm'n for Democracy Through Law, supra note 67,  43.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    The lack of legal personality has been incredibly troubling for the 
Orthodox faith. Refusing to recognize the Ecumenical Patriarchate as 
the global leader of the Orthodox faith, the Government of Turkey calls 
the Patriarchate the ``Rum Patrikhanesi''--the Patriarch of the Romans 
(Byzantines)--or sometimes even just the Bishop of the Fenir District 
of Istanbul.\72\ But after a 2008 victory at the European Court of 
Human Rights, the Buyukada Orphanage was returned to the Ecumenical 
Patriarchate in title to ``Rum Patrikhanesi.'' \73\ This decision to 
register the property under that name was, in itself, an important 
development. The Ecumenical Patriarchate had never been afforded the 
legal personality necessary to own property and this title, despite not 
going as far as to provide full legal status as a global institution, 
has provided de facto legal status to the Patriarchate.\74\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \72\ See Bill Wunner, The Last Orthodox Patriarch in Turkey?, CNN 
(Aug. 27, 2010, 3:13 PM), http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/08/26/
wus.patriarch/.
    \73\ See Legal Entities of Non-Muslims: ``Problems and Rights'', 
Order of St. Andrew the Apostle (Feb. 7, 2014), www.archons.org/news/
detail.asp?id=721.
    \74\ See id.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    The historical lack of legal personality for the Ecumenical 
Patriarchate has resulted in government seizure of thousands of church 
properties over the last 80 years.\75\ Since Turkey began the EU 
accession process, a series of reforms have allowed minority religious 
foundations to apply for the return some of their seized properties or 
to be compensated by the government.\76\ Virtually none of those 
applications were granted until the most recent reform of August 
2011.\77\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \75\ Comm'n on Security & Cooperation In Eur., The Greek Orthodox 
Church In Turkey: A Victim of Systematic Expropriation 5-6 (2005), 
available at http://www.csce.gov/
index.cfm?FuseAction=Files.Download&FileStore_id=656.
    \76\ U.S. Dep't of State, Int'l Religious Freedom Report for 2012, 
12, available at http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/
208588.pdf.
    \77\ Id.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    This reform, an executive decree by then-Prime Minister Erdogan, 
gave minority religious foundations 1 year to apply to regain seized 
properties.\78\ As of October of 2014, roughly 25 percent of minority 
foundation applications had received a positive response.\79\ Thus, 
where these applications represent a fraction of confiscated 
properties, minority religious foundations are still left seeking 
compensation for or return of a staggering majority of confiscated 
properties. Unfortunately, most of the property has been returned after 
years of dilapidation and thus require incredible resources to restore 
the facilities.\80\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \78\ U.S. Comm'n on Int'l Religious Freedom, 2012 Annual Report 5, 
available at http://www.uscirf.gov/sites/default/files/resources/
2012ARChapters/turkey%202012.pdf.
    \79\ Eur. Comm'n, Turkey Progress Report 16 (2014), available at 
http://ec.europa.eu/
enlargement/pdf/key_documents/2014/20141008-turkey-progress-
report_en.pdf.
    \80\ U.S. Dep't of State, Int'l Religious Freedom Report for 2013, 
Turkey: Executive Summary 15 (2014), available at http://www.state.gov/
j/drl/rls/irf/2013/eur/222277.htm.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    As a party to the ICCPR, Turkey must ensure that ``everyone [has] 
the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion,'' which 
includes the freedom ``to manifest . . . religion or belief in worship, 
observance, practice, and teaching.'' \81\ Turkey is also a party to 
the Treaty of Lausanne, which specifically grants non-Muslims the 
ability ``to establish, manage and control . . . any schools and other 
establishments for instruction and education.'' \82\ However, many non-
Muslim religious institutions have no means of training clergy \83\ 
since the Turkish Government prohibited private higher education in 
1971.\84\ This is a significant obstacle for religious minorities 
because they are unable to train native future leaders for their 
congregations, thus limiting the availability of individuals who can 
become religious leaders in their communities.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \81\ ICCPR, supra note 4, art. 18 (emphasis added).
    \82\ Treaty of Lausanne, art. 40, 24 July 1923, http://
www.mfa.gov.tr/lausanne-peace-
treaty.en.mfa.
    \83\ Ass'n of Protestant Churches Comm. For Religious Freedom & 
Legal Affairs, ``A Threat'' or Under Threat?: Legal And Social Problems 
of Protestants In Turkey 29 (2010) [hereinafter Problems of Protestants 
in Turkey], http://www.olir.it/areetematiche/233/documents/
rapporto_minoranze_turchia.pdf.
    \84\ Pelin Turgut, The Pope's Push to Protect Minority Christians 
in the Muslim World, Time (Nov. 29, 2006), http://content.time.com/
time/world/article/0,8599,1564055,00.html.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    For the Orthodox, this battle has played out over the forcible 
closure of Halki School of Theology, the main seminary of the Orthodox 
that had trained most of the Patriarch since the school's founding in 
1844 was forced to stop accepting new students.\85\ This closure has 
forced the Church to send would-be priests abroad for education, with 
many such students then electing not to return to Turkey.\86\ Despite 
what appeared to be a promise in 2012 by then-Prime Minister Erdogan to 
President Obama to reopen Halki,\87\ the school remains closed to this 
day.\88\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \85\ Id.
    \86\ See Ines San Martin, Orthodox leader to Turkey: Re-open Our 
Seminary, Cruxnow.com (Nov. 27, 2014), http://www.cruxnow.com/church/
2014/11/27/orthodox-leader-to-turkey-re-open-our-seminary/.
    \87\ See Remarks by President Obama and Prime Minister Erdogan of 
Turkey after Bilateral Meeting, Whitehouse.gov (Mar. 25, 2012, 4:49 
PM), http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/03/25/remarks-
president-obama-and-prime-minister-erdogan-turkey-after-bilatera.
    \88\ Endy Zemenides, Our Complicit Silence, World Post (Jan. 21, 
2015, 7:41 PM), http://www.huffingtonpost.com/endy-zemenides/our-
complicit-silence_1_b_6492996.html.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Unfortunately, as chronicled above, virtually all positive reforms 
promised and hoped for in the last decade have fallen short. As one 
legal expert called them, they are all ``reforms but''--reforms that 
certainly move the situation in the right direction but with 
considerable carve-outs and caveats that cause them to fall far short 
of affording the Ecumenical Patriarchate and religious minorities the 
legal rights and protections required for basic human dignity.\89\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \89\ See Promised Legal Reforms Disappoint Turkey's Religious 
Minorities, Christiantoday.com (Oct. 4, 2013), http://
www.christiantoday.com/article/
promised.legal.reforms.disappoint.turkeys.
religious.minorities/34253.htm.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Disturbingly, the Turkish Government has also aligned itself with 
Hamas, a recognized terrorist organization by the U.S. State 
Department.\90\ Hamas was founded as the ``jihad'' wing of the ``Moslem 
[Muslim] Brotherhood in Palestine'' which is committed to the 
annihilation of Israel and the Jewish people \91\ and has conducted 
numerous terrorist attacks on Israeli citizens.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \90\ Foreign Terrorist Organizations, U.S. Dep't St., http://
www.state.gov/j/ct/rls/other/des/123085.htm (last visited Mar. 9, 
2015). In addition to the U.S., Canada, and the EU have also designated 
Hamas a terrorist organization. See Adrian Croft, EU to Appeal Ruling 
that Hamas Should be Off Terror List, Reuters, 19 Jan. 2015, available 
at http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/01/19/us-eu-hamas-courts-
idUSKBN0KS0N820150119 (noting EU's terrorist designation for Hamas is 
subject of ongoing litigation).
    \91\ The Covenant of the Islamic Resistance Movement art. 2 (1988), 
available at http://
avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/hamas.asp; see also id. pmbl.,  8 
(``Our struggle against the Jews is very great and very serious. . . . 
The Movement is but one squadron that should be supported by more and 
more squadrons from this vast Arab and Islamic world, until the enemy 
is vanquished and Allah's victory is realized.''); id. art. 7,  6-7 
(``The Prophet, Allah bless him and grant him salvation, has said: `The 
Day of Judgement will not come about until Moslems fight the Jews 
(killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The 
stones and trees will say O Moslems, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind 
me, come and kill him.' '').
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Turkey's ruling Justice and Democracy Party (AKP) has long had ties 
to Hamas and has been supportive of its terrorist tactics. Senior 
Turkish officials have met with Khaled Mashal, the head of llamas's 
military wing, on numerous occasions.\92\ In December of last year, 
Prime Minister Davutoglu invited Mashal to be the ``surprise guest'' 
speaker at the AKP convention.\93\ Hamas has established a headquarters 
in Istanbul, Turkey, which is operated by Salah al-Arouri, a Hamas 
leader who is believed to have orchestrated the terrorist attacks on 
Israel that led to weeks of armed conflict between Hamas militants and 
Israel Defense Forces last year.\94\ There are also links between AKP 
leadership, including then-Prime Minister Erdogan, and the deadly 
attempt by a Turkish operated flotilla to break Israel's legal blockade 
of Gaza in 2011.\95\ In addition, there are new reports that llamas 
terrorists are ``undergoing military training on Turkish soil, with the 
knowledge, support and assistance of local [Turkish] authorities.'' 
\96\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \92\ Steven G. Merley, Jerusalem Ctr. for Pub. Affairs, Turkey, the 
Global Muslim Brotherhood, and the Gaza Flotilla 44 (2011), available 
at http://www.jcpa.org/text.Turkey_Muslim_Brotherhood.pdf; Soner 
Cagaptay, Islamists in Charge, Wall St. J. (Aug. 18, 2006), http://
www.wsj.com/articles/SB115584938301538731.
    \93\ Behlul Ozkan, Can Turkey Lead the Islamic World and Still Be a 
Western Ally?, World Post (Jan. 15, 2015, 1:59 PM), http://
www.huffingtonpost.com/behlal-azkan/turkey-islamic-world-
west_b_6474746.html.
    \94\ Bassem Dabbagh & Mohammad al-Fadilat, Hamas Leader Strengthens 
Alliance with Turkey, Al-Araby Al-Jadeed (29 Dec. 2014), http://
www.alaraby.co.uk/english/politics/2eb167f5-b491-4fb3-9aea-
3a5f3d88ed17.
    \95\ Merley, supra note 92, at 7.
    \96\ Alex Fishman, Forced from Damascus, Hamas Establishing Itself 
in Turkey, Ynetnews.com (Feb. 25, 2015, 12:47 AM), http://
www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4630331,00.html.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Turkey's ties to terrorist groups like Hamas raise significant 
concerns about continued U.S. aid and its commitment to the North 
Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). U.S. law strictly forbids foreign 
aid to nations that have been found to ``repeatedly provided support 
for acts of international terrorism.'' \97\ NATO's mandate, which 
Turkey joined in 1952, includes a recent reaffirmation of its 
commitment to counter-terrorism, calling it a ``core task[]'' of the 
Alliance.\98\ The U.S. must reassess its foreign aid and relations with 
Turkey in light of its growing support for Hamas terrorists and urge 
its NATO ally to renounce its ties with this terrorist group that is 
dedicated to destroy Israel and Jews in particular.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \97\ 22 U.S.C. Sec. 2371 (this law tasks the Secretary of State 
with the authority determine whether a country repeatedly provided aid 
to terrorists).
    \98\ NATO's Policy Guidelines on Counter-Terrorism, NATO, http://
www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/official_texts_87905.htm (last updated May 
24, 2012).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
                  v. persecution by the islamic state
    ISIS--the Islamic State--has unleashed an unparalleled assault on 
religious minorities, especially Christians, in its quest to establish 
a worldwide Islamic Caliphate. The heinous atrocities committed by ISIS 
against Christians from Iraq, Syria, Libya, Egypt, and now Nigeria \99\ 
is nothing short of genocide. ISIS is systematic in its slaughter and 
barbaric and its brutality.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \99\ On Sunday, March 8, 2015, Boko Haram declared public 
allegiance to the Islamic State. Nima Elbagir, Paul Cruickshank and 
Mohammed Tawfeeq, Boko Haram Purportedly Pledges Allegiance to ISIS, 
CNN (March 9, 2015, 10:39 AM ET), http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/07/africa/
nigeria-boko-haram-isis.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    In the summer of 2014, ISIS made a public and direct proclamation 
to Christians living in Iraq--one of the oldest contiguous Christian 
communities in the world: Convert, pay a tax (the jizya), leave, or 
die.\100\ ISIS gave Christians until July 19, 2014 to comply or face 
extermination.\101\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \100\ Kelly Phillips Erb, Islamic State Warns Christians: Convert, 
Pay Tax, Leave Or Die, Forbes (July 19, 2014, 11:29 PM), http://
www.forbes.com/sites/kellyphillipserb/2014/07/19/
islamic-state-warns-christians-convert-pay-tax-leave-or-die/.
    \101\ Convert, Pay Tax, or Die, Islamic State Warns Christians, 
Reuters (July 18, 2014) http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/07/18/us-
iraq-security-christians-idUSKBN0FN29J20140718.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    This was not an empty threat. ISIS has since beheaded, crucified, 
buried alive, raped, and desecrated Christian men, women, and children 
without mercy.
    Since ISIS's reign of terror began, thousands of Christians have 
been forced from their homes. In Mosul, for example, one of the largest 
Christian communities in the Middle East was forced to abandon their 
homes and flee for their lives.\102\ In the nearby town of Qaraqosh, 
nearly 50,000 Christians were displaced when ISIS cut off their supply 
of electricity and water.\103\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \102\ Alissa J. Rubin, ISIS Forces Last Iraqi Christians to Flee 
Mosul, N.Y. Times (July 18, 2014), http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/19/
world/middleeast/isis-forces-last-iraqi-christians-to-flee-mosul.html.
    \103\ Tens of Thousands of Christians Flee ISIS Attack on Nineveh 
Town of Qaraqosh (Hamdaniya), Christian Solidarity International, 
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/tens-of-thousands-of-
christians-flee-isis-attack-on-nineveh-town-of-qaraqosh-hamdaniya-
2648025
41.html [hereinafter Christians Flee ISIS].
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    The jihadist army has marked the homes of Iraqi Christians with the 
Arabic letter ``N'' (pronounced ``noon''), which stands for 
``Nazarene'' or ``Nasrani,'' a pejorative term used to label 
Christians.\104\ ISIS placed the mark of the Nazarene on the homes of 
thousands of Christians branding them for extermination.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \104\ See Heba Kanso, Symbol of ISIS Hate Becomes Rallying Cry for 
Christians, CBS News (Oct. 20, 2014, 5:30 AM), http://www.cbsnews.com/
news/for-christians-symbol-of-mideast-
oppression-becomes-source-of-solidarity/; Christine Sisto, As Jihadists 
Expel Christians from Mosul, the International Community Responds, 
National Review (July 23, 2014, 6:31 PM), http://
www.nationalreview.com/article/383493/christian-genocide-symbolized-
one-letter-christine-sisto.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    ISIS has burned,\105\ destroyed, and otherwise desecrated some of 
the oldest Christian churches in the world. It has demolished ancient 
religious artifacts, including the tomb of the Old Testament prophet 
Jonah,\106\ throughout Iraq and Syria.\107\ ISIS has also reportedly 
attempted to sell other religious artifacts to fund its 
operations.\108\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \105\ ISIS burns 1,800-year-old church in Mosul, Al Arabiya News 
(July 20, 2014), http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2014/
07/20/ISIS-burns-1-800-year-old-church-in-Mosul
.html.
    \106\ Dana Ford and Mohammed Tawfeeq, ISIS Militants Destroy the 
Tomb of Johah, CNN (July 25, 2014), http://edition.cnn.com/2014/07/24/
world/iraq-violence/.
    \107\ Polly Mosendz, Replicas and at Least One Treasure Destroyed 
by ISIS in Museum, Newsweek (Feb. 26, 2015, 4:30 PM), http://
www.newsweek.com/replicas-and-least-one-treasure-
destroyed-isis-museum-309810.
    \108\ Perry Chiaramonte, ISIS reportedly Selling Christian 
Artifacts, Turning Churches into Torture Chambers, Fox News (Dec. 23, 
2014), http://www.foxnews.com/world/2014/12/22/isis-
reportedly-selling-christian-artifacts-turning-churches-into-torture-
1596164509/.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Yet religious relicts are not the main target of ISIS's barbarity; 
ISIS is systematically slaughtering and committing heinous atrocities 
against Christians, Yazidis, and other religious minorities in Iraq, 
Syria, and beyond. It views these religious minorities as ``infidels 
without human rights.'' \109\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \109\ Christians Flee ISIS, supra note 103.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Last August, ISIS drove out and corralled thousands of members of 
the Yazidi faith on the top of Mount Sinjar in northern Iraq. It had an 
entire religious minority besieged and on the brink of extinction.\110\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \110\ Thousands of Yazidis `Still Trapped' on Iraq Mountain, BBC 
(Aug. 12, 2014), http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-28756544.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    ISIS is abducting, raping, and selling Christian women as sex 
slaves, specifically targeting religious minorities.\111\ ISIS's 
jihadist army has beheaded Christian children.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \111\ Sam Webb and Khaleda Rahman, The Price of a Slave . . . as 
Determined by Official ISIS Price List: Islamist Group Sets Prices for 
Yazidi and Christian Women--with Girls Under Nine Fetching the Highest 
Price, Daily Mail (Nov. 4, 2014), http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/
article-2820603/The-price-slave-determined-official-ISIS-price-list-
Islamist-group-sets-prices-Yazidi-Christian-women-girls-nine-fetching-
highest-price.html.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    A United Nations committee has concluded that ISIS is 
``systematic[ly] killing . . . children belonging to religious and 
ethnic minorities . . . , including several cases of mass executions of 
boys, as well as reports of beheadings, crucifixions of children and 
burying children alive.'' \112\ The report goes on to detail how ISIS 
has perpetrated ``systematic sexual violence,'' and ``the abduction and 
sexual enslavement of children'' belonging to these religious minority 
communities.\113\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \112\ Stephanie Nebehay, Islamic State Selling, Crucifying, Burying 
Children Alive in Iraq--UN, Reuters, Feb. 4, 2015, available at http://
in.reuters.com/article/2015/02/04/mideast-crisis-
children-idINKBN0L828E20150204.
    \113\ Id.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    The Reverend Canon Andrew White, the Christian ``Vicar of 
Baghdad'', recounted multiple such atrocities:

        ``Things were bad in Baghdad, there were bombs and shootings 
        and our people were being killed, so many of our people fled 
        back to Nineveh, their traditional home.'' . . . 

        ``[ISIS] came in and they hounded all of them out. They killed 
        huge numbers, they chopped their children in half, they chopped 
        their heads off, and they moved north and it was so terrible 
        what happened.'' . . . 

        . . . 

        ``Islamic State turned up and said to the children, you say the 
        words that you will follow Mohammed.'' . . . 

        ``The children, all under 15, four of them, said no, we love 
        Yesua [Jesus], we have always loved Yesua, we have always 
        followed Yesua, Yesua has always been with us.

        ``They said: `Say the words.' They said: `No, we can't.' They 
        chopped all their heads off. How do you respond to that? You 
        just cry.'' \114\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \114\ Jack Moore, Isis Beheads 4 Christian Children in Iraq for 
Refusing to Convert to Islam Claims `Vicar of Baghdad', International 
Business Times (Dec. 8, 2014, 1:35 PM), http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/isis-
beheads-4-children-iraq-refusing-convert-islam-claims-vicar-baghdad-
1478586; see also Before Being Killed, Children Told ISIS: `No, We Love 
Jesus', Orthodox Christian News (Nov. 28, 2014), http://myocn.net/
before-being-killed-children-told-isis-no-we-love-jesus/.

    Last month, ISIS released a propaganda video showing the grizzly 
beheading of 21 Egyptian Christians in Libya.\115\ ISIS had abducted 
these 21 Coptic Christian men, specifically seeking them out because of 
their faith,\116\ from a Christian village in Libya.\117\ It not only 
executed them in the most grotesque manner, but it recorded and widely 
publicized the massacre, making it crystal clear that these men were 
targeted for slaughter because of their Christian faith.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \115\ ISIS video appears to show beheadings of Egyptian Coptic 
Christians in Libya, CNN (Feb. 16, 2015), http://edition.cnn.com/2015/
02/15/middleeast/isis-video-beheadings-christians/.
    \116\ Ian Lee and Jethro Mullen, After ISIS Slaughters Christians, 
an Egyptian Village Mourns its Sons, CNN (Feb. 19, 2015), http://
edition.cnn.com/2015/02/18/middleeast/egypt-christians-grieving-
village/.
    \117\ Id.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Two weeks ago, ISIS jihadists raided several Christian villages in 
northeastern Syria, abducting \118\ over 200 Christian men, women, and 
children.\119\ It is feared that ISIS is planning another propaganda 
massacre of even more horrific proportions.\120\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \118\ Suleiman al-Khalidi, Islamic State in Syria Abducts at Least 
150 Christians, Reuters, (Feb. 25, 2015), available at http://
www.reuters.com/article/2015/02/25/us-mideast-crisis-
christians-idUSKBN0LS0MH20150225.
    \119\ Activists Say Islamic State Releases 19 Syrian Christians, 
Associated Press, (Mar. 1, 2015), available at http://
www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/activists-say-islamic-state-
releases-19-syrian-christians/2015/03/01/867cabba-c036-11e4-a188-
8e4971d37a8d_story.
html.
    \120\ Though ISIS has since release nineteen of these more than 220 
Christians hostages, each over the age of fifty, id., it did so only 
after they paid the jizya tax and accepted ISIS as their rulers. Ben 
Brumfield, ISIS Releases Some Christian Hostages--but Why?, CNN (Mar. 
2, 2015), http://edition.cnn.com/2015/03/02/middleeast/isis-hostages-
why-now/.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Notably, the recent kidnapping of Coptic Christians occurred 
outside of Iraq and Syria. It took place in Libya and was specifically 
directed at Egyptian Christians,\121\ showing ISIS's jihadist goal to 
murder Christians far exceeds the bounds of it's current territory. In 
fact, a recent edition of its propaganda magazine, Dabiq, depicted the 
black flag of ISIS flying over the Vatican.\122\ In that magazine, ISIS 
spokesman Mohammed al-Adnani wrote these chilling words:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \121\ Lee and Mullen, supra note 116.
    \122\ Carol Kuruvilla, Islamic State's Black Flag Flies Over 
Vatican on Cover of Propaganda Magazine, Huffington Post (Oct. 14, 
2014, 10:35 AM), http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/14/isis-vatican-
flag_n_5979424.html.

        ``[Our goal is to] conquer your Rome, break your crosses, and 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
        enslave your women, by the permission of Allah, the Exalted.''

        ``If we do not reach that time, then our children and 
        grandchildren will reach it, and they will sell your sons as 
        slaves at the slave market.'' \123\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \123\ Id.

    With the new allegiance pledged by Boko Haram--the terrorist group 
in Nigeria that has killed thousands, targeted Christian villages, and 
forced millions to flee their homes since 2009--ISIS has spread its 
influence deeper into Africa.\124\ This allegiance increases the risks 
of the terrorist organization spreading to other African countries 
neighboring Nigeria, something the Boko Haram has attempted in recent 
weeks as it conducted terrorist attacks in Niger and Chad.\125\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \124\ Elbagir, supra note 99.
    \125\ Nigeria's Boko Haram Militants Attack Chad for First Time, 
BBC (13 Feb. 13, 2015, 09:30 ET), http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-
31453951; Abdoulay Massalaki, Reuters, Feb 12, 2015, available at 
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/02/12/us-nigeria-violence-niger-
idUSKBN0LG1DE20150212.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    ISIS is not just persecuting Christians; it is waging an all out 
genocide against Christians. It is specifically targeting Christians, 
along with other religious minorities and Muslims who do not adhere to 
its specific brand of radical Islam.
    Yet the Christians ISIS seeks to silence, enslave, and exterminate 
are holding true to their faith. The 21 Christians beheaded last month 
had the name of Jesus on their lips as they drew their last 
breath.\126\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \126\ Lee and Mullen, supra note 116.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
          vi. persecution in the islamic republic of pakistan
    In the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, religious minorities are 
persecuted both by the Pakistani Government and by the majority 
Muslims. While Pakistan's blasphemy laws provide a tool for the 
majority Muslims to persecute minorities on account of their religion 
and to settle personal scores, the government does not provide adequate 
protection to its vulnerable citizens and gives a free hand to the 
culprits. Additionally, due to widespread corruption, coupled with 
religious bias, law enforcement officials allow criminals to go 
unpunished.
    When Pakistan gained independence from India in 1947, Pakistan's 
founding father, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, had envisioned a secular, 
democratic Pakistan. In his first address to the Constituent Assembly, 
Jinnah said: ``You are free; you are free to go to your temples, you 
are free to go your mosques or to any other place or worship in this 
State of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion or caste or creed--
that has nothing to do with the business of the State.'' \127\ In 
practice, however, Pakistan quickly became discriminatory and 
regressive, incorporating Shariah law into the Constitution and the 
Penal Code.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \127\ Muhammad Ali Jinnah's first Presidential Address to the 
Constituent Assembly of Pakistan (August 11, 1947), available at http:/
/www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00islamlinks/
txt_jinnah_assembly_1947.html.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    The Pakistani Constitution of 1973 states that ``sovereignty over 
the entire universe belongs to Allah Almighty alone and the authority 
which He has delegated to the State of Pakistan, through its people for 
being exercised within the limits prescribed by Him is a sacred 
trust.'' \128\ According to article 2, Islam is the State 
religion.\129\ Article 227 of the Constitution mandates that ``all 
existing laws shall be brought into conformity with the Injunctions of 
Islam.'' \130\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \128\ Pakistan Const. Annex, art. 2(A). Article 2-A consists of an 
annexed proposal known as the ``Objectives Resolution'' presented by 
then-Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan to the Constituent Assembly in 
1949. This proposal was annexed as part of Pakistan's 1973 constitution 
after serving as the preamble to earlier versions of Pakistan's 
constitution.
    \129\ Pakistan Const. art. 2.
    \130\ Id. art. 227(1).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    An eventual outgrowth of Pakistan's institutionalized Shariah, with 
its aspect of religious discrimination, was the gradual adoption of the 
infamous blasphemy laws. The most onerous blasphemy law, added in 1986, 
is Section 295-C of the Pakistan Penal Code, which states:

        Whoever by words, either spoken or written, or by visible 
        representation or by any imputation, innuendo, or insinuation, 
        directly or indirectly, defiles the sacred name of the Holy 
        Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) shall be punished with 
        death, or imprisonment for life, and shall also be liable to 
        fine.\131\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \131\ Pak. Penal Code Sec. 295-C, inserted by Criminal Law 
(Amendment) Act, III of 1986, S. 2.

    While the text of this law allows for the punishment of life 
imprisonment as an alternative to the death sentence, in 1991 
Pakistan's Federal Shariat Court (FSC) held that ``[a]lternative 
[p]unishment of life imprisonment as provided in S.295-C, Penal Code, 
1866, [is] repugnant to the Injunctions of Islam as given in Holy Quran 
and Sunnah.'' \132\ The FSC was established by a presidential order, 
which is now incorporated in the Pakistani Constitution under Chapter 
3A.\133\ The FSC is empowered to decide whether ``any law or provision 
of law is repugnant to the Injunctions of Islam.'' \134\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \132\ Muhammad Ismail Qureshi v. Pakistan through Secretary, Law 
and Parliamentary Affairs, 1991 PLD 10.
    \133\ Pakistan Const. chap. 3(A).
    \134\ Id. art. 203D(2).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Between 1987 and 2014, over 1,300 people have been accused under 
blasphemy laws.\135\ The overwhelming majority of them are Christians, 
Ahmadis, Hindus, and Shias. Currently, there are at least 17 
individuals on death row and 19 others serving life sentences. Many 
others have been charged and await trial.\136\ Even those who are 
acquitted often spend substantial time incarcerated. Most blasphemy 
cases are marred by false accusations and planted evidence, as 
blasphemy charges are oftentimes brought as a way to settle unrelated 
personal disputes.\137\ Such false accusations are facilitated by the 
lack of procedural safeguards in the law.\138\ Despite the serious 
penalties, the so-called crime does not require proof of intent or 
evidence to be presented.\139\ Further, there are no penalties for 
false allegations.\140\ Not only that, the laws are vague as to what 
constitutes a violation, which allows courts and law enforcement to 
apply their personal religious interpretation.\141\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \135\ What are Pakistan's Blasphemy Laws?, BBC News (Nov. 6, 2014), 
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-south-asia-12621225.
    \136\ U.S. Comm'n on Int'l Religious Freedom, Annual Report 75 
(2014) [hereinafter USCIRF Report 2014], available at http://
www.uscirf.gov/sites/default/files/USCIRF%20
2014%20Annual%20Report%20PDF.pdf.
    \137\ Id.
    \138\ Id.
    \139\ Id.
    \140\ Id.
    \141\ Id.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Targets of religious persecution and religiously-motivated violence 
in Pakistan include Christians, Shia Muslims, Ahmadis, and Hindus.\142\ 
Shia events and places of worship have been frequently attacked.\143\ 
For instance, in January 2013, a Shia pool hall was bombed.\144\ In 
January 2014, a bus carrying Shia pilgrims was also bombed. Overall, 
700 Shias were killed in Pakistan in 2014 alone.\145\ Ahmadis are 
regularly murdered in drive-by shootings.\146\ In May 2010, 94 people 
were killed and 120 injured in coordinated attacks against the 
Ahmadis.\147\ Hindus are fleeing the country because of attacks and 
forced conversions.\148\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \142\ USCIRF Report 2014, supra note 136, at 75-76.
    \143\ Id.
    \144\ Id.
    \145\ Id.
    \146\ Thomas J. Reese & Daniel I. Mark, Pakistan's War on 
Conscience, USCIRF (June 9, 2014), http://www.uscirf.gov/news-room/op-
eds/the-philadelphia-inquirer-pakistans-war-conscience.
    \147\ Rizwan Mohammed & Karin Brulliard, Militants Attack Two 
Ahmadi Mosques In Pakistan; 80 Killed, Wash. Post (May 29, 2010), 
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/28/
AR2010052800686.html.
    \148\ Id.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Violence against Christians is also widespread and frequent.\149\ 
Despite constituting less than 3 percent of the entire country's 
population, Christians are frequent targets of societal abuse, 
harassment, and terrorism.\150\ In late July 2009, Muslims burned 45 
Christian homes and killed 9 Christians in Gojra and Korian after 
allegations were made that a Christian had defiled a Quran.\151\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \149\ USCIRF Report 2014, supra note 136, at 76.
    \150\ ECLJ Condemns the Deadly Attack on the Christian Community in 
Pakistan, ECLJ (Sept. 24, 2013), http://eclj.org/Releases/
Read.aspx?GUID=a2b8b34b-8a7f-410e-8c4b-d3da680b8eb1.
    \151\ Id.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    In March 2013, a personal dispute between two men resulted in the 
Muslim man accusing the Christian of blasphemy.\152\ Within one day, 
the blasphemy accusation had instigated two large mob attacks against a 
Christian colony in Lahore, attacks that resulted in the destruction of 
over 100 homes.\153\ The government arrested few, if any, 
perpetrators.\154\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \152\ Declan Walsh & Waqar Gillani, Attack On Christians Follows 
Claim Of Blasphemy In Pakistan, N.Y. Times (Mar. 9, 2013), http://
www.nytimes.com/2013/03/10/world/asia/explosion-rips-through-mosque-in-
peshawar-pakistan.html?--r=0.
    \153\ Id.
    \154\ Id.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    On September 22, 2013, two Taliban suicide bombers detonated their 
bombs inside the All Saints Church of Pakistan at the conclusion of a 
church service.\155\ The suicide bombing at the Christian church was 
one of the deadliest attacks ever against Pakistan's Christian 
community, killing at least 81 Christians and leaving over 120 
wounded.\156\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \155\ Saima Mohsin & Emma Lacey-Bordeaux, Suicide Bombers Kill 81 
at Church in Peshawar, Pakistan, CNN (Sept. 23, 2013), http://
edition.cnn.com/2013/09/22/world/asia/pakistan-attack/.
    \156\ Id.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    More recently, on November 4, 2014, a Muslim mob in Pakistan burned 
to death a young Christian couple, Shahzad Masih and his wife Shama 
Bibi, based on an accusation that Shama, the mother of the couple's 
four children, had burned pages of the Quran.\157\ Although police were 
present during the murder, they claimed that, due to the large number 
of people, they could not intervene.\158\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \157\ Jay Sekulow, Dozens Arrested in Islamic Mob Execution of 
Christians Burned Alive in Pakistan, ACLJ, http://aclj.org/persecuted-
church/dozens-arrested-in-islamic-mob-execution-of-christians-burned-
alive-in-pakistan (last visited Mar. 4, 2015).
    \158\ Id.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Another prominent blasphemy case is that of Aasiya Noreen (also 
known as Asia Bibi), a Christian mother of five.\159\ In 2009, Asia 
Bibi was falsely accused of blaspheming Muhammad. The Muslim workers 
refused to drink from a bucket of water she had drunk from, calling it 
unclean because she was a Christian.\160\ After suffering for almost 5 
years in prison, in 2014, an appeals court upheld her 2010 conviction 
and execution sentence.\161\ Her lawyers have appealed to Pakistan's 
Supreme Court.\162\ Salman Taseer, Governor of the Punjab Province and 
a prominent advocate of blasphemy law reform was assassinated by his 
own security guard shortly after he met with Asia Bibi in an effort to 
seek a Presidential pardon for her.\163\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \159\ Jordan Sekulow, Christian Mom Asia Bibi Sentenced to Death 
Will Hang for ``Blasphemy'' Pakistan Appeals Court Says, ACLJ, http://
aclj.org/persecuted-church/christian-mom-to-hang-blasphemy (last 
visited Mar. 4, 2015).
    \160\ Id.
    \161\ Id.
    \162\ Id.
    \163\ M. Ilyas Khan, Punjab Governor Salman Taseer Assassinated In 
Islamabad, BBC News (Jan. 4, 2011), http://www.bbc.com/news/world-
south-asia-12111831.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Shortly after Taseer's assassination, Federal Minister for 
Minorities Affairs, Shahbaz Bhatti, was also assassinated by gunmen in 
Islamabad.\164\ Bhatti, who was the only Christian minister in the 
Pakistani Cabinet, had previously received death threats because of his 
outspoken calls for reform to Pakistan's blasphemy laws.\165\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \164\ Orla Guerin, Pakistan Minorities Minister Shahbaz Bhatti Shot 
Dead, BBC News (Mar. 2, 2011), http://www.bbc.com/news/world-south-
asia-12617562.
    \165\ Id.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    In 2012, a man was charged with planting blasphemy evidence against 
an underage, mentally-handicapped Christian girl named Rimsha 
Masih.\166\ Unfortunately, a year later the government dropped all 
charges against the man who had fabricated the blasphemy evidence.\167\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \166\ Id.
    \167\ Angelo Young, Judge Tosses Out Case Against Pakistani 
Christian Girl Accused of Blasphemy, Int'l Bus. Times (November 20, 
2012, 9:38 AM EST), http://www.ibtimes.com/judge-
tosses-out-case-against-pakistani-christian-girl-accused-blasphemy-
891836.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    On September 18, 2014, a liberal Muslim scholar named Muhammad 
Shakil Auj--the dean of Islamic studies at the University of Karachi--
was shot and killed in Karachi because of a supposedly blasphemous 
speech he gave during a visit to the United States.\168\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \168\ Zia ur-Rehman, A Pakistani Scholar Accused of Blasphemy Is 
Shot Dead, N.Y. Times (Sept. 18, 2014), http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/
19/world/asia/pakistan-shakil-auj-assassinated-
blasphemy-karachi.html?--r=0.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    The Organization for Legal Aid (OLA), the European Centre for Law 
and Justice's (ECLJ) \169\ affiliate in Pakistan, was created to 
provide legal assistance to the persecuted religious minorities in 
Pakistan. In the last 5 years, the OLA has represented clients in a 
variety of matters, including blasphemy, murder, torture, rape and 
trafficking, bonded labor, and illegal occupation of Christian churches 
and cemeteries.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \169\ The ECLJ is an international, Non-Governmental Organization 
dedicated, inter alia, to the promotion and protection of human rights 
and to the furtherance of the rule of law in international affairs. The 
ECLJ has held Special Consultative Status before the United Nations/
ECOSOC since 2007.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    In a recent case, Zanobia Mary, a Christian teacher, was falsely 
accused by her superiors of teaching the Bible to Muslim students. The 
principal of the school, who had resented Mary due to her Christian 
religion, suspended her. Through the timely intervention of OLA 
attorneys, Mary was reinstated to her position as teacher. However, the 
legal battle and religiously motivated threats against Mary are not 
over yet.
    The OLA is also seeking justice for Nazia Bibi, a victim of 
attempted rape by Niamat Ali, an influential Muslim landlord of Nazia's 
village. The police refused to register a criminal case against Ali. 
Lack of police intervention is common in Pakistan due to the high level 
of corruption prevalent in the country. OLA attorneys filed a petition 
for registration of the case at a Sessions Court. Subsequently, the 
court ordered the police to register a formal case against Ali. 
Nonetheless, the investigation officers declared Ali innocent in their 
report.
    Rape incidents are all too common in Pakistan. In another 
unfortunate case, OLA attorneys are representing a 7-year-old Christian 
girl, Saira Iqbal, against her Muslim neighbor, Fakhar Alam, who 
kidnapped and raped her. Two influential landlords of the village, 
Ahmed Yaar and Zulfiqar Ali, have been pressuring the family not to 
pursue the case.
    In a similar case, OLA is representing Saleem Masih, a Christian 
farmhand, who was beaten by his Muslim landlord's sons for taking two 
days off for Easter this past year. Through a petition filed by OLA 
attorneys, the court directed the police to register the case. After 
the court ordered the police to register the case, the defendants 
repeatedly visited Masih and forced him to settle the case. The police 
have yet to carry out the court's orders.
    Pressuring victims to not pursue legal action is also common in 
Pakistan. Most victims of religious persecution are poor and, hence, 
cannot afford to fight legal battles. The persecution, however, does 
not end there and is not limited to physical violence. Often times, 
Christian properties are illegally occupied by influential Muslims.
    For instance, OLA is representing the United Presbyterian (U.P.) 
Church in the city of Pasroor. The Muslim landlords of the village 
forcibly encroached upon part of the church land and annexed it with 
their house. Masih filed a suit for permanent injunction in Pasroor 
Civil Court. The court issued an order in the church's favor. The 
defendants, however, filed an appeal against this order. The court 
accepted the appeal and remanded to the trial court. OLA is currently 
waiting for the court to set the date for trial.
    OLA is also representing Ishaque Masih and three other Christians 
from Lahore who are struggling to save the graveyard where their 
forefathers are buried. The Muslim landlords, whose farm is adjacent to 
the graveyard, have encroached upon the graveyard land. In another case 
of illegal occupation of a Christian graveyard, OLA is representing the 
local Christians of Kasur. Illegally encroaching upon Christian 
cemeteries and churches is common in Pakistan.
    As illustrated by the numerous cases mentioned above, Pakistan's 
blasphemy laws are used to target religious minorities. The unjust 
blasphemy laws place Pakistan in violation of the International 
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR),\170\ a covenant to 
which it is currently a party. Pakistan's blasphemy laws violate 
articles 18 and 19 of the ICCPR, which involve freedom of religion and 
freedom of expression.\171\ Further, since 2002, USCIRF has recommended 
that the United States Department of State label Pakistan as a 
``country of particular concern'' (CPC) under the International 
Religious Freedom Act.\172\ This is due to its ``systematic, egregious, 
and ongoing violations of religious freedom or belief.'' \173\ ``In 
April 2013, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan concluded that 
Pakistan is `on the verge' of becoming an undemocratic society where 
violence is the accepted form of communication.'' \174\ As the United 
States gives nearly 2 billion dollars in military and economic aid to 
Pakistan annually, the United States should demand that Pakistan comply 
with its commitments to religious freedom.\175\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \170\ See supra note 4.
    \171\ Id. at arts. 18, 19.
    \172\ Reese & Mark, supra note 146.
    \173\ Id.
    \174\ USCIRF Report 2014, supra note 136, at 76.
    \175\ Aid to Pakistan by the Numbers, Center for Global 
Development, http://www.cgdev.org/page/aid-pakistan-numbers (last 
visited Mar. 4, 2015).
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                          vii. recommendations
    As religious persecution of Christians exponentially increases, we 
must ensure that religious liberty for all is a top priority in U.S. 
foreign policy. The fact is most countries that violate religious 
freedom pose a serious risk to U.S. national security. At best, the 
United States has sent mixed messages to the world as to our priority 
on religious liberty issues. We must not sit idly by; rather the United 
States must lead by example--show the world that religious liberty and 
human rights are the foundation of peaceful and secure societies.
    Mr. Chairman, the ACLJ and its global affiliates recommend the 
following steps be taken to ensure greater protection of religious 
liberty for all:
  --The Obama Administration, and any Executive to follow, regularly 
        fulfill the statutory requirements under Section 402b(2)of the 
        International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA), which require the 
        President to submit to Congress a list of government officials 
        or persons acting on their behalf who are responsible for human 
        rights violations and particularly severe violations of 
        religious freedom. We specifically request that the President 
        take the following ``commensurate actions'' under IRFA Section 
        405: bar from entry into the United States and freeze the 
        assets of any government officials or their agents who have 
        engaged in particularly severe religious freedom violations; 
        and work with our European allies also to ban from entry and 
        freeze the assets of government officials who have engaged in 
        particularly severe religious freedom violations;
  --Amend Sections 401-405 of the IRFA to include the actions of non-
        state actors.
  --The Obama Administration should appoint an Ambassador to lead a 
        Special Envoy to Promote Religious Freedom of Religious 
        Minorities in the Near East and South Central Asia;
  --Evaluate all foreign aid packages to countries listed as a Country 
        of Particular Concern or recommended as a Country of Particular 
        Concern by USCIRF and implement positive benchmarks for the 
        release of aid when the country makes improvements in its 
        protections of religious freedom and belief. Furthermore, 
        concerns of religious freedom should be included regularly in 
        U.S. engagements, including diplomatic exchanges, strategic 
        dialogues, and during country visits;
  --At present, according to the Government Accountability Office, the 
        Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom was the 
        lowest-positioned Ambassador at Large in the State Department 
        hierarchy. We recommend Congress legislatively elevate the 
        Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom within 
        the State Department in the bureaucratic hierarchy to allow the 
        Ambassador regular direct access to the Secretary of State. 
        Furthermore, the position should have jurisdictional authority, 
        as needed, in bureaus that cover country specific diplomacy 
        where the country has a proven record of violations of 
        religious freedom and belief.
  --Amend legislation to require the U.S. Government to address 
        Congress annually with a list of Countries of Particular 
        Concern, explaining why it has not taken any recommendation of 
        USCIRF.

    Senator Graham. Thank you, Jay.
    Tony.

                        FAMILY RESEARCH COUNCIL

STATEMENT OF TONY PERKINS, PRESIDENT
    Mr. Perkins. Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman, and members of 
the subcommittee. I am grateful for the interest that the 
subcommittee, under the leadership of Chairman Graham, has in 
this most pressing matter.
    The fact that religious freedom is deeply rooted in 
American life is beyond question. But as a Nation, we have 
recognized that religious freedom is not just an American 
right, it is a human right not granted by governments, but 
rather to be guarded by governments.
    I want to step back, going from the specific and more to 
the general here in my testimony.
    Historically, the recognition and advancement of religious 
freedom as a universal human right has been a bipartisan 
effort. It was Eleanor Roosevelt who chaired the drafting 
committee of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, 
which as Jay outlined, provides that people have the right to 
the freedom of thought, conscience, and religion.
    Additionally, following the horror of the Holocaust, the 
international community established a legally binding treaty, 
the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of 
Genocide. The treaty not only legally prohibits ratifying 
nations from engaging in genocide, but also binds them with an 
obligation to prevent genocide.
    The fundamental right to freedom of religion was again 
recognized as an inherent human right in the legally binding 
International Convention on Civil and Political Rights in 1966.
    America has not only expressed its commitment to uphold 
religious liberty through international law, but through 
Federal statutes as well. Again, in a bipartisan manner, 
Congress passed the International Religious Freedom Act of 
1998, which states that, quote, ``It shall be the policy of the 
United States . . . [t]o condemn violations of religious 
freedom, and to promote, and to assist other governments in the 
promotion of, the fundamental right to freedom of religion.''
    While this fundamental human right deserves to be guarded 
in its own right, there are other tangible benefits for 
promoting religious freedom. There is a growing body of 
research that points to nations that protect religious freedom 
as being nations that have freer economic markets and, 
therefore, greater economic prosperity and stability, which 
leads to greater political stability.
    Religious freedom should be a top priority in foreign 
policy for a multitude of reasons.
    Despite both domestic and international obligations, 
though, the United States is failing to make religious freedom 
a priority. The growing indifference toward religious freedom 
is sending a dangerous message to the enemies of human rights. 
In its latest figures, the Pew Research Center reports that, in 
2013, Christians continue to be harassed in 102 countries, 
Muslims in 99 countries, and Jews in 77 countries.
    A 2014 list catalogued by Open Doors USA shows that 
persecution is increasing around the world, reaching historic 
proportions. Approximately 100 million Christians are now 
persecuted worldwide.
    While the brutal violence that we have seen in the Middle 
East has increased, it was not increased violence that was 
primarily responsible for the record levels of Christian 
persecution, but rather increased cultural marginalization, the 
more subtle type of persecution that makes daily life harder 
and harder for Christians.
    Last year, we were involved, as we all witnessed, the saga 
of the pregnant Sudanese mother Mariam Ibrahim, being convicted 
and sentenced by her own government to die for her choice of 
faith.
    Shortly thereafter, the American public became aware of the 
murderous rampage of ISIS that targeted Yazidis because of what 
they believed, killed some Muslims because they held beliefs 
different than ISIS, and killed and persecuted Christians 
because of their religion.
    The Genocide Convention prohibits targeting a religious 
group for the purpose of killing its members, causing serious 
bodily or mental harm, deliberately inflicting on the group 
conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical 
destruction, imposing measures intended to prevent births 
within the group, and forcibly transferring children to other 
groups.
    And while one of these acts is all that is required to meet 
the definition of genocide under the Convention, ISIS has 
probably engaged in all of them with respect to the Yazidis, 
Christians, and other religious groups.
    Over 20 years ago, President Clinton hesitated to take 
decisive action to stop genocide in Rwanda, which he avoided 
defining as genocide precisely due to the concern that the 
United States would then be obligated to do something if 
genocide was recognized. As a result, more than a million lives 
were lost. Several years later, President Clinton went to 
Rwanda and admitted his error.
    The Obama administration has been relatively silent, 
failing to speak clearly and forcefully in defense of 
Christians and other religious minorities. Mothers, fathers, 
and children, whether sentenced to die for their faith in 
Sudan, impaled by ISIS in Iraq, crucified in Syria, beheaded in 
Libya, or imprisoned in Iran--they are being targeted because 
of their faith.
    As a recent ISIS video from Libya made abundantly clear, 
ISIS was not targeting 21 Egyptian citizens. It was targeting 
21 people of the cross.
    Our silence only encourages those who work actively to 
diminish or even destroy this fundamental human right. America 
has both a legal and moral obligation to speak and act on 
behalf of religious freedom. We must once again find our voice 
to speak and our courage to act.
    Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    [The statement follows:]
                   Prepared Statement of Tony Perkins
    Religious freedom is a fundamental, inherent, and international 
human right. It is not merely an American right--though religious 
freedom was foundational to the very existence of the United States. 
Additionally, standing for religious liberty is a vital component of 
American foreign policy. Defending those whose right to practice their 
faith is penalized or jeopardized wins our country friends among people 
throughout the developing world and thus enhances the security of our 
Nation. As I will note later, countries where religious liberty 
flourishes are both more stable and more prosperous.
    So, defending religious freedom is not only right in itself, but 
its benefits for our vital interests are profound.
    Yet the current administration consistently has failed to 
prioritize this fundamental international human right and give it the 
attention it deserves, especially in light of the horrific religious 
persecution we see unfolding before our eyes in the Middle East and 
elsewhere.
           international religious freedom is required by law
    The United States is obligated under international law to uphold, 
support, and promote religious freedom. In 1948, the nations of the 
world, appalled by the horror of World War II, came together to form 
the United Nations (U.N.) and adopt the Universal Declaration of Human 
Rights (UDHR) to address and lay the groundwork to prevent fundamental 
human rights violations in the future. The UDHR provides that 
``[e]veryone 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.'' \1\ U.N. Member States at that time pledged 
to secure the ``universal and effective recognition and observance'' of 
the rights in the UDHR, ``both among the peoples of Member States 
themselves and among the peoples of territories under their 
jurisdiction.'' \2\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \1\ Universal Declaration of Human Rights, G.A. Res. 217A, art. 18, 
U.N. GAOR, 3d Sess., 1st plen. mtg., U.N. Doc. A/810 (Dec. 12, 1948) 
[hereinafter UDHR].
    \2\ Id. pmbl.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Also, shortly after the horror of the Holocaust, the international 
community established a legally binding treaty known as the Convention 
on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (hereinafter 
``Genocide Convention'').\3\ The treaty legally prohibits ratifying 
nations from engaging in genocide, which it specifies as certain ``acts 
committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, 
ethnical, racial or religious group.'' \4\ The Genocide Convention also 
binds nations which are parties to it with an obligation to ``prevent'' 
genocide--an obligation the International Court of Justice has held to 
be clear and independent.\5\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \3\ Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of 
Genocide, 9 December 1948, 78 U.N.T.S. 277, entered into force 12 
January 1951, [hereinafter Genocide Convention].
    \4\ Id. art. 2.
    \5\ International Court of Justice, Application of the Convention 
on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Bosnia and 
Herzegovina v. Serbia and Montenegro), Judgment, 26 February 2007, 
available at http://www.icj-cij.org/docket/files/91/13685.pdf.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Almost 20 years later, the fundamental right to freedom of religion 
was again recognized as an inherent human right in the International 
Convention on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which explicitly 
``[r]ecogniz[es] that'' religious freedom and other ``rights derive 
from the inherent dignity of the human person.'' \6\ While the UDHR 
recognizes these same rights, it is not a binding legal instrument. The 
ICCPR is legally binding, however, and it states: ``[e]veryone shall 
have the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. This 
right shall include freedom to have or to adopt a religion or belief of 
his choice, and freedom, either individually or in community with 
others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in 
worship, observance, practice and teaching.'' \7\ The ICCPR goes 
further, noting that ``[n]o one shall be subject to coercion which 
would impair his freedom to have or to adopt a religion or belief of 
his choice.'' \8\ Seventy-four nations have signed and committed 
themselves to recognizing and upholding these religious freedom rights 
in the ICCPR, including the United States.\9\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \6\ International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, G.A. res. 
2200A (XXI), pmbl., 21 U.N. GAOR Supp. (No. 16) at 52, U.N. Doc. A/6316 
(1966), 999 U.N.T.S. 171, entered into force Mar. 23, 1976 [hereinafter 
ICCPR].
    \7\ Id. art. 18.
    \8\ Id.
    \9\ Status of ICCPR, U.N. Treaty Collection, https://
treaties.un.org/Pages/ViewDetails.aspx?src=TREATY&mtdsg_no=IV-
4&chapter=4⟨=en.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    The recognition of religious freedom in international law is also 
manifested in various regional instruments, such as the European 
Convention on Human Rights,\10\ the American Convention on Human Rights 
(from the Organization of American States),\11\ and the African Charter 
on Human and Peoples' Rights.\12\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \10\ Council of Europe, European Convention for the Protection of 
Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, as amended by Protocols Nos. 11 
and 14, art. 9, Nov. 4, 1950, ETS 5, 213 U.N.T.S. 222, entered into 
force Sept. 3, 1953 [hereinafter European Convention on Human Rights].
    \11\ Organization of American States, American Convention on Human 
Rights, art. 12, Nov. 22, 1969, O.A.S.T.S. No. 36, 1144 U.N.T.S. 123.
    \12\ Organization for African Unity, African Charter on Human and 
Peoples' Rights, art. 8, June 27, 1981, CAB/LEG/67/3 rev. 5, 21 I.L.M. 
58 (1982).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    America's obligation to uphold religious liberty is not only a 
matter of international law but of Federal statute. Confirming the 
United States' role in upholding the international human right of 
religious freedom, the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 
(``IRFA'') states that ``[i]t shall be the policy of the United States 
. . . [t]o condemn violations of religious freedom, and to promote, and 
to assist other governments in the promotion of, the fundamental right 
to freedom of religion.'' \13\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \13\ 23 U.S.C. Sec. 6401(b)(1).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
             international religious freedom is good policy
    Not only is religious freedom a fundamental, inherent, and 
international human right, and not only is the United States obligated 
to promote it, religious freedom is also good foreign policy. Religious 
freedom promotes economic growth, and suppressing it stifles economic 
growth around the world. In turn, the lack of economic growth fosters 
instability and a lack of security.\14\ One study found a positive 
relationship between religious freedom and ten of the twelve pillars of 
global competitiveness measured by the World Economic Forum's Global 
Competitiveness Index.\15\ Religious freedom is important for peace and 
security, which in turn permit economic growth and prosperity.\16\ In 
this age of globalization, we should all be more concerned about the 
connection between religious freedom and business, for the suppression 
of religious freedom elsewhere may affect economic growth at home.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \14\ Remarks by Brian Grim, President, Religious Freedom and 
Business Foundation, ``The Social and Economic Impact of Religious 
Intolerance,'' March 14, 2014, http://religiousfreedomandbusiness.org/
2/post/2014/03/the-social-and-economic-impact-of-religious-
intolerance.html.
    \15\ Religious Freedom Linked to Economic Growth, Finds Global 
Study, Religious Freedom & Business Foundation, May 29, 2014, http://
religiousfreedomandbusiness.org/religious-freedom-business.
    \16\ Id.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Religious freedom should be a central priority in U.S. diplomatic 
and strategic engagement worldwide in order to promote freedom for its 
own sake as well as for reasons of global stability, security, and 
economic growth. The United States must make religious freedom a more 
central component of its foreign policy, at least in part because 
upholding religious freedom promotes wellbeing both at home and abroad.
     international religious freedom is under unprecedented attack
    Yet religious liberty is under serious and increasing attack around 
the world today. Despite its clear legal protection and established 
social and economic benefit, international religious freedom is in 
serious decline.
    In its latest figures, the Pew Research Center reports that in 2013 
Christians continued to be harassed (by the government and social 
groups) in 102 countries, Muslims in 99 countries, and Jews in 77 
countries.\17\ The harassment of Jews, for whom this figure constituted 
a 7-year high, was much more likely to occur at the hands of 
``individuals or groups in society than by governments. In Europe, for 
example, Jews were harassed by individuals or social groups in 34 of 
the region's 45 countries.'' \18\ While certainly a number of different 
religious groups are persecuted in varying locations around the world, 
these figures alone are troubling.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \17\ Latest Trends in Religious Restrictions and Hostilities 
(released Feb. 26, 2015), Pew Research, Religion & Public Life Project, 
at 5, http://www.pewforum.org/files/2015/02/
Restrictions2015_fullReport.pdf.
    \18\ Id.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    In 2014, there was more persecution of Christians than at any other 
time in the modern era.\19\ When advocacy organization Open Doors USA 
compiled its annual list of the top 50 persecutors of Christians, the 
level of persecution and hostility demonstrated by these 50 nations was 
higher than ever before.\20\ Approximately 100 million Christians are 
now persecuted worldwide.\21\ While the brutal violence we have seen in 
news reports is serious and obviously must be addressed, it was not 
``increased violence'' that was primarily responsible for the record 
levels of Christian persecution in 2014, ``but rather increased 
`cultural marginalization' ''--the more subtle ``squeeze'' type of 
persecution that makes `` `daily life . . . harder and harder' for 
Christians.'' \22\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \19\ ``Persecution of Christians Reaches Historic Levels, 
Conditions Suggest Worst Is Yet to Come,'' Open Doors USA, Jan. 7, 
2015, https://www.opendoorsusa.org/newsroom/tag-news-post/persecution-
of-christians-reaches-historic-levels-conditions-suggest-worst-is-yet-
to-come/.
    \20\ Id.
    \21\ Id.
    \22\ Sarah Eekhoff Zylstra, `` `Not Forgotten': The Top 50 
Countries Where it's Most Difficult to Be a Christian,'' Christianity 
Today, Jan. 7, 2015, http://www.christianitytoday.com/gleanings/2015/
january/not-forgotten-top-50-countries-world-watch-list-open-
doors.html?paging=off.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Last year, the saga of pregnant Sudanese mother Mariam Ibraheem 
being convicted and jailed for her choice of faith \23\ preceded the 
reports of the horrors of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham 
(``ISIS'') across Iraq and Syria. Over the past year, ISIS has murdered 
Yazidis because of what they believe, killed Muslims because they do 
not hold what ISIS believes are the correct beliefs, and killed and 
persecuted Christians because of their religion.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \23\ Sudan court frees woman sentenced to death for changing faith, 
Reuters, June 24, 2014, http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/06/24/uk-
sudan-ruling-idUKKBN0EY2GW20140624.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    After ISIS recently attacked Assyrian Christian villages on the 
Khabour River and destroyed their homes and churches, a pastor reported 
that the main question families struggle with is: ``Shall we wait to be 
killed or shall we leave the country?'' \24\ He said people wonder, 
``[w]here are the Western countries, churches, organizations and the 
politicians? \25\ Where are their voices and acts?'' The pastor 
continued, ``[i]t was very hard for me to have answers or solutions, 
except trying to help by praying and telling the people to continue to 
be faithful and to wait for God's direction for their families.'' \26\ 
These persecuted individuals deserve not merely our attention, but 
protection. They haven't relinquished their internationally-recognized 
right to freedom of religion.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \24\ Syria: Christians in Aleppo Search for Answers in Wake of IS 
Assault, Open Doors USA, Mar. 2, 2015, https://www.opendoorsusa.org/
newsroom/tag-news-post/syria-christians-in-aleppo-search-for-answers-
in-wake-of-is-assault/.
    \25\ Id.
    \26\ Id.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    The Genocide Convention prohibits targeting a ``religious group'' 
for the purpose of ``(a) Killing members of the group; (b) Causing 
serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; (c) Deliberately 
inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about 
its physical destruction in whole or in part; (d) Imposing measures 
intended to prevent births within the group; (e) Forcibly transferring 
children of the group to another group.'' \27\ While only one of these 
acts is required to constitute genocide, ISIS has possibly engaged in 
all of them with respect to Yazidis, Christians, and other religious 
groups.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \27\ Genocide Convention, supra note 4, art. 2.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Over 20 years ago, President Clinton hesitated to take decisive 
action to stop genocide in Rwanda, which he avoided defining as 
genocide precisely due to the concern that the United States would be 
obligated to do something if genocide was recognized as taking place in 
Rwanda. As a result, more than a million lives were lost. Several years 
later, President Clinton went to Rwanda and admitted his error. Now, in 
the Middle East, the United States has an obligation to prevent 
genocide.\28\ It must not fail to do so again.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \28\ This conclusion is shared by the former U.S. Ambassador to 
Croatia, among others. See Peter Galbraith, The Obama Doctrine, The 
Blog, Huffington Post, Aug. 8, 2015, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/
peter-w-galbraith/the-obama-doctrine_2_b_5663778.html.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    In Nigeria, Boko Haram continues its rampage of terror, killing and 
kidnapping at will. Recently, a Christian woman from Nigeria named 
Damaris Atsen described how her husband was killed by Boko Haram 
militants during the group's advance.\29\ Damaris's husband was helping 
a blind man find his way on a public street as Boko Haram approached 
their location. Boko Haram stabbed Damaris's husband, and he died of 
his injuries. Damaris considered suicide, but her church comforted and 
prayed with her. Through the incredibly difficult ordeal of her 
husband's senseless murder, she was sustained by the grace and power of 
God. While Damaris's story has elements of hope, people like her also 
deserve our support--they deserve to have their government, and our 
Government, standing up for their religious freedom.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \29\ Open Doors USA, World Watch List Press Conference, published 
Jan. 20, 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oi9Rmzodp2U (see video 
from 19:45 onward).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
   the united states must do more to uphold international religious 
                                freedom
    In the face of unprecedented worldwide religious persecution, the 
United States has been relatively silent--indeed, it has been 
shamefully silent.
    The Obama Administration failed to speak clearly and forcefully in 
defense of Mariam Ibraheem last year, and only spoke out after 
significant attention had been brought to the matter.
    More recently, after ISIS beheaded 21 Egyptian Christians, and 
identified them in its own video as ``[t]he people of the cross, 
followers of the hostile Egyptian church,'' \30\ the Obama 
Administration still failed to identify them as Christians (instead 
calling them ``Egyptian citizens''), despite the fact that ISIS itself 
stated it was targeting them because they are Christians. \31\ These 
are but two of numerous failures of the United States to maintain its 
moral voice on religious freedom. Our silence encourages those who work 
actively to diminish or even destroy the exercise of this fundamental 
human right.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \30\ Ahmed Tolba and Michael Georgy, ``Sisi warns of response after 
Islamic State kills 21 Egyptians in Libya,'' Reuters, Feb. 15, 2015, 
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/02/15/us-mideast-
crisis-libya-egypt-idUSKBN0LJ10D20150215.
    \31\ Jennifer Rubin, Morning Bits, Wash. Post, Feb. 19, 2015, 
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/wp/2015/02/19/morning-
bits-532/; see also Graeme Wood, ``What ISIS Really Wants,'' The 
Atlantic, Mar. 2015, http://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2015/
02/what-isis-really-wants/384980/.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    The United States has also failed to send the message that it 
values this right. While the role of U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for 
International Religious Freedom has been filled, the position remained 
vacant for a total of 36 of the first 72 months of the Obama 
Administration. In part due to this lack of effort on the part of the 
administration, Congress passed legislation to establish a Special 
Envoy to Promote Religious Freedom of Religious Minorities in the Near 
East and South Central Asia, where the region is in turmoil. Yet 
despite what is ongoing in the Middle East, this position still remains 
vacant.
    The International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 requires that the 
United States prioritize religious freedom in its foreign policy, but 
our Government has failed to prioritize this issue and consistently and 
courageously condemn recent international religious freedom violations. 
The international legal framework upholding religious freedom is firmly 
in place, and the evidence showing religious freedom is good policy is 
also apparent, yet religious freedom is being neglected in the world 
today and our Nation's support for it is paltry. We should be ashamed 
at such developments, especially when one considers the important U.S. 
role in elevating that right's international legal recognition since 
1948.
    Our moral voice and supporting actions have been increasingly and 
noticeably absent with regard to international religious freedom. We 
must once again find that voice. The world urgently needs it. Our vital 
interests and security demand it. All people everywhere will be better 
for it.

    Senator Graham. Thank you.
    Rabbi.

                          DEPARTMENT OF STATE

STATEMENT OF HON. DAVID N. SAPERSTEIN, AMBASSADOR-AT-
            LARGE FOR INTERNATIONAL RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
    Ambassador Saperstein. Mr. Chairman and Senators, I am 
really honored and pleased to be here, to have an opportunity 
to appear before you. This hearing could not come at a more 
critical time, as it elevates the urgent importance of 
religious freedom and its links to serious security challenges 
we face.
    Religious freedom has always been a bipartisan concern, and 
this subcommittee has always been ready to assist in 
highlighting its central role in our foreign policy.
    Around the world we see, as President Obama said at the 
National Prayer Breakfast, how religion is twisted and 
distorted, used as a wedge, or, worse, sometimes as a weapon. 
We see how the repression of religious freedom is a cynical 
tool in the hands of the powerful, sowing conflict and violence 
among peoples of different faith, employed sometimes out of 
shear hatred or prejudice, but often for the subjugation of 
political opposition and the control of the politically weak.
    Around the globe, we are working to build tolerance, 
reconcile fractured communities, empower minority groups to 
better advocate for their rights. The Office of International 
Religious Freedom has long been actively promoting religious 
freedom and challenging repression across the world. We today 
have a staff of 20, annually, at least 5 percent of the Bureau 
of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor's human rights and 
democracy fund, about 5 percent is $3.5 million in resources 
dedicated to support religious freedom, operating in 16 
countries.
    But we also draw on many other funds including, Economic 
Support Fund, Migration and Refugee Assistance and USAID 
funding, to advance our religious freedom goals.
    And the work that we do combined in terms of relief and 
humanitarian assistance to beleaguered communities, as well 
direct religious freedom work, we are talking about $239 
million in Iraq and Syria this year for these displaced 
communities, a sizable percentage of which are religious 
communities.
    Since I began this job 2 months ago, the attacks in Paris, 
in Copenhagen, the destruction of Baga in Nigeria by Boko 
Haram, the capture and displacement of Assyrian Christians by 
DAESH in northeast Syria, and so many other incidents that have 
not made the front pages, have reinforced for me that the 
promotion of religious liberty is urgently needed. And it is 
absolutely essential for security and stability, countering 
violent extremism and conflict resolution both here and abroad.
    With your permission, let me focus now on Iraq and Syria. 
When I testified at my confirmation hearings, I made clear that 
the fate of those communities was of the utmost priority for 
me. We have a gifted team of officers focused on these 
countries and these communities who work day in and day out.
    Accordingly, I traveled as my first trip, substantive trip, 
to Iraq, which highlighted just how complex the questions of 
religious identity, protections of rights, regardless of belief 
and security, can be.
    All those not ascribing to extremist brand of Sunni Muslim 
ideology, including Shia, Alawites, Christians, Ismailis, Jews, 
Yazidis, Shabbat, and others, have faced mass killings, rape, 
forced conversions at gun point, kidnappings, crucifixions, and 
other atrocities. Some of the world's most ancient religious 
communities have been displaced, enslaved, and are in danger of 
losing the option for shear survival. Noncombatants are the key 
targets.
    And what did Iraqis from vulnerable groups ask us in our 
meetings? Above all, they want the removal of DAESH. While 
displaced persons, in addition to shelter, want schools for 
their children and health care for their families, or they are 
not going to try and wait until their historic communities can 
be restored. But they want clear plans to rebuild those 
historic communities so they can return to their homes.
    And they asked for assured security when they went back, 
requiring them and their local security forces be involved and 
integrated with the overall security apparatus of justice for 
the victims of these brutalities during this past year; and 
changes in the climate and culture and the commitment of the 
government, to ensure that religious tolerance is being taught 
and modeled in that country.
    These are serious challenges for us and, sadly, intolerance 
and discrimination against individuals on the account of 
beliefs transcend borders. People of all faiths are subject to 
this. The recent Pew study indicated, again, 77 percent of the 
world's population lives in countries with serious restriction 
on religious liberty.
    We are watching the increase in anti-Semitism, the increase 
in Islamophobia. We are watching countless rises of Christian 
communities being targeted across the globe, one of the 
greatest rises in Sub-Saharan Africa on this issue.
    These are central challenges for us, and we must address 
them. My office and I personally remain deeply committed to 
vigorously fulfilling our mandate under IRF, and working 
closely with the Commission on International Religious Freedom, 
and with you, with the Congress of the United States.
    Promoting international religious freedom requires a whole-
of-government approach, and I am pleased to say I have found 
many willing partners since joining the administration. I 
deeply appreciate Congress' support for international religious 
freedom and look forward to working with you and to answering 
your questions.
    [The statement follows:]
             Prepared Statement of Hon. David N. Saperstein
    Chairman Graham, Ranking Member Leahy, and members of the 
subcommittee,

    I am honored to have this opportunity to appear before you today. 
This is my first hearing since arriving at the State Department in 
January, and it could not come at a more critical time. Thank you for 
taking the time so early in your calendar to elevate the critical 
importance of religious freedom and its links to the serious security 
challenges we face. Religious freedom has always been a bipartisan 
concern, and this committee has always been ready to assist in 
highlighting its continuing relevance to foreign policy.
    Around the world, we see, as President Obama said at the National 
Prayer Breakfast, how religion is ``twisted and distorted, used as a 
wedge--or, worse, sometimes used as a weapon.'' We see how the 
repression of religious freedom is a cynical tool in the hands of the 
powerful, sowing conflict and violence among people of different 
faiths, employed sometimes out of sheer group hatred seeking to repress 
or eliminate those differing beliefs and practices, but often for the 
subjugation of political opposition and the control of the politically 
weak. Our work is to advance the protection of those who suffer such 
repression, whether by governments, such as North Korea, Uzbekistan, or 
Saudi Arabia, or by nongovernmental actors, such as the Islamic State 
of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or Da'esh), Boko Haram, or militant 
Buddhist groups in Burma.
    Around the globe, we are working with governments and religious and 
civil society actors to build tolerance, reconcile fractured 
communities, and empower members of minority groups to better advocate 
for their rights and interests. Since long before my arrival, the State 
Department's Office of International Religious Freedom (IRF) has been 
actively promoting religious freedom and challenging repression of 
religious freedom around the world. Today, we have a staff of 20 and 
annually approximately 5 percent of DRL's Human Rights and Democracy 
Fund resources (approximately $3.5 million) are dedicated to support 
religious freedom programs currently operating in 16 countries. In 
fact, DRL has recently vetted five new programs using fiscal year 2014 
funds worth $3.5 million that will begin operations in the coming 
months. Since I began this job 2 months ago, the attacks in Paris and 
Copenhagen; the destruction of Baga, Nigeria by Boko Haram; the capture 
and displacement of Assyrian Christians by Da'esh in northeastern 
Syria; and many other incidents that may not have made the front pages 
have only reinforced for me that the promotion of religious freedom is 
absolutely essential for security, stability, countering violent 
extremism, and conflict resolution both here and abroad. Ensuring 
respect for basic freedoms, and religious freedom in particular, is not 
just a moral and ethical mandate, but a national security imperative. 
Without religious freedom, there can be no real democracy and no 
lasting security.
    When I last testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee 
during my confirmation hearings, I made clear that the fate and well-
being of minority and oppressed majority religious communities in the 
Near East would be among my most urgent priorities. Accordingly, I 
recently returned from a trip to Iraq, which highlighted just how 
complex and interrelated questions of religious identity, protection of 
rights regardless of belief, and security can be--not just for a 
particular group, but for an entire nation. Politics, laws, and 
government practices for years have encouraged divisions between people 
according to their religious identity.
    The discrimination and abuses faced by Shia Muslims under Saddam 
Hussein and by Sunni Muslims over the last few years have fueled 
resentment and divisions in Iraqi society that have undermined the 
government's position vis-a-vis Da'esh. We see now the result. In 
extremist-controlled areas in Syria and Iraq, all those not ascribing 
to the extremists' brand of Sunni Muslim ideology--including Shia 
Muslims, Alawites, Christians, Ismailis, Druze, and others--have faced 
mass killings, rape, forced conversion at gunpoint, kidnappings and 
other atrocities. Some of the world's most ancient religious 
communities have been displaced and enslaved. Non-combatants are 
targets. All of this has served to confirm once again the importance of 
the protection of human rights in the fight against ISIL, al-Nusra, and 
all forms of violent extremism.
    And what did Iraqis from vulnerable religious groups ask for in our 
meetings? The removal of Da'esh and assurances of security so that they 
could return to their homes, of course. But also resources and policies 
to fight intolerance and discrimination like removing religious 
identity from ID cards and help in raising awareness about other faiths 
among religious leaders.
    Countering the rise of intolerance has become my top priority 
because we know that religious repression both drives conflict and 
fuels the grievances that in turn drive violent extremist recruitment. 
Violent extremism thrives in the absence of good governance and of 
rights--including freedom of religion--that democratic, open, and 
inclusive governments can preserve and secure. As President Obama said 
at the recent White House Summit on Countering Violent Extremism, 
``When governments oppress their people, deny human rights, stifle 
dissent, or marginalize ethnic and religious groups, or favor certain 
religious groups over others, it sows the seeds of extremism and 
violence. It makes those communities more vulnerable to recruitment. 
Terrorist groups claim that change can only come through violence. And 
if peaceful change is impossible, that plays into extremist 
propaganda.'' That's why we are working to counter the messages of hate 
that violent extremists carry, to alleviate or prevent the social and 
political repression that give those messages the false perception of 
legitimacy, and to protect those most vulnerable to extremist attacks 
and recruitment.
    For years, members of my staff have routinely met and maintained 
contact with members of Syria and Iraq's religious communities, 
including Christians and Yezidis. When ISIL invaded Ninewah in June and 
Sinjar in early August, IRF officers became a unique and critical 
pipeline between the Departments of State and Defense and the victims 
of ISIL's atrocities in real time. That work, which continues, has been 
essential to ensuring better protection for these communities as well 
as to ensure humanitarian aid reaches those who need it most. We have 
been able to gather a great deal of detailed information, coming to us 
from the rich network of diaspora and advocacy groups that have done 
incredible work over the years to highlight the needs of Christians, 
Yezidis, and others in the Middle East. We have developed direct links 
with key nodes to our military's anti-ISIL effort and used those 
connections to assist in ensuring that the security conditions of 
vulnerable populations are understood and, wherever possible, 
addressed. We're also facilitating access to the highest levels of our 
government for representatives of these communities. My team and our 
many partners across the interagency have also worked in other ways to 
support the victims of ISIL's predations, including the 5,000 or more 
Yezidis whom we estimate remain as ISIL captives. Among other things, 
we have supplied medical care and counseling services for escaped 
captives, many of whom are victims of sexual violence.
    Most recently, we have been consumed by the horrific attacks 
against Assyrian Christians in northeast Syria. On the morning of 
February 23, ISIL launched an offensive against a string of 
predominantly Assyrian villages along one side of the Khabour River 
northwest of Hasakah city. An estimated 3,000 to 5,000 people were 
displaced, and upwards of 370 were taken captive. Assyrian fighters, 
with the help of Kurdish fighters and others, repelled the attackers 
from advancing on the villages on the other side of the river and are 
still holding the line there. A week after the initial attack, 23 
captives were released, but we remain very concerned for those who are 
still in captivity, and we are again making our lines of communication 
accessible to affected communities as we monitor these developments 
with ongoing attention. A number of our humanitarian partners on the 
ground are currently providing assistance to those displaced by these 
attacks.
    But the Middle East is not the only region where religious freedom 
is threatened. In recent years around the globe, millions of 
Christians, Muslims, Hindus, and others representing a range of faiths 
have been forced from their homes on account of their religious 
beliefs. Out of fear or by force, entire neighborhoods are emptying of 
residents. Communities are disappearing from their traditional and 
historic homes and dispersing across the map. In conflict zones, in 
particular, this mass displacement has become a pernicious norm. For 
such communities to persevere, and they must, the governments and 
people of the countries in which they live must commit themselves to 
inclusive governance, to ensuring minority communities enjoy the same 
rights and privileges as their fellow citizens, with the security they 
require. When historical communities are driven out of their ancestral 
homelands, their entire countries are deprived of the rich histories 
and cultures of tolerance that diversity brings. And the world is a 
lesser place.
    Sadly, intolerance and discrimination against individuals on 
account of their beliefs transcend borders--it is confined to no 
region. People of all faiths--and people of no faith at all--are 
vulnerable. Just two weeks ago, the Pew Research Center released its 
latest global religious freedom report affirming once again that, 
``more than three-quarters of the world's people--77 percent--live in 
nations where religious restrictions of some kind . . . are either high 
or very high.'' As Secretary Kerry observed at my swearing in, ``Our 
generation prides itself on its modernity, and yet we are still 
grappling with rivalries that have their roots in the distant past.''
    But my role is not only to address such acute crises such as those 
I've described--though we will never turn away from one. We also must 
take the long view. Behind each crisis are months, years, and even 
decades of poor governance, human rights violations, discriminatory 
laws, neglect, and inter-group tensions. So we are also deeply engaged 
in the indispensable work of changing the landscape for religious 
freedom in places where it is needed most. These long term efforts are 
where we hope to see benefits in years to come.
    You cannot have freedom of religion if you are not free to express 
religious views with which others might differ or even find anathema. 
You cannot follow the dictates of your religious conscience if you can 
be punished for choosing the religion that best reflects your 
conscience. Yet blasphemy and apostasy laws are growing alarmingly 
common all over the world. In places like, Indonesia, Poland, Ireland, 
Russia and Turkey, a conviction for blasphemy, ``insult to religion,'' 
``insult to the religious feelings of believers,'' or similar charges 
carries penalties of steep fines or incarceration. And in countries 
such as Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Iran, such ``crimes'' carry the 
death penalty.
    These and similar laws and policies carry real consequences. Among 
the other issues we work on, none is perhaps more personal, more deeply 
affecting than what we do to ensure that prisoners of conscience and 
belief--those detained and imprisoned because of their religious 
affiliations and commitments or lack thereof--are given a voice and a 
chance for freedom. Raif Badawi is a young Saudi Arabian blogger and 
activist for reform. Originally charged with apostasy, Badawi was 
convicted after months of court proceedings of the lesser charge of 
``insulting Islam'' and sentenced to 1,000 lashes and 10 years in 
prison. His crime was simply speaking his mind about his country, his 
government, and his religion.
    Meanwhile, Saeed Abedini, an Iranian-American Christian pastor, 
remains jailed in Iran after more than 2\1/2\ years. The President met 
with Pastor Abedini's wife, Naghmeh, in January, and, less than 2 weeks 
ago, I met with her and with Pastor Abedini's mother. Although this 
hearing is focused on religious freedom, I want to note that the United 
States remains deeply committed to the need for freedom for the four 
American citizens detained or missing in Iran--Saeed Abedini, Amir 
Hekmati, Jason Rezaian, and Robert Levinson. Our top officials are 
directly engaging with top Iranian officials on this and we have 
engaged our international partners to advocate on their behalf. Beyond 
Pastor Abedini, of course, we remain deeply concerned about religious 
freedom broadly in Iran, for all Iranians of all religions--recognized 
and unrecognized--including Sunnis. The execution rate for Sunnis is 
the highest among any group in Iran.
    International advocacy for religious freedom can work. Last year, 
those efforts led to the release of Meriam Ibrahim Ishag, a Christian 
woman convicted of apostasy in Sudan. This is why we cannot stay 
silent. Meriam's case also exemplifies the reinforcing efforts between 
government and civil society. Religious leaders across the globe 
campaigned along with us for Meriam's release. Prior to joining the 
State Department, I was part of a coalition of Muslim, Christian, and 
Jewish leaders who lobbied the Sudanese ambassador to the United States 
and the foreign minister on her behalf.
    We continue to demand the release of all prisoners of belief and 
conscience. For 20 years, three Jehovah's Witnesses, Paulos Eyassu, 
Negede Teklemariam, and Isaac Mogos, have been imprisoned by the 
Eritrean Government for refusing to participate in military service. 
They have never been charged or convicted, but remain jailed for 
following their religious conscience. In the DPRK countless individuals 
are detained in the country's notorious political prison camp system, 
where human rights abuses are systematic and widespread, for engaging 
religious activity. In some instances, repatriated refugees are 
detained in labor camps for simply having contact with religious 
groups.
    In some countries, the very real threat of terrorism is used as a 
pretext by many authoritarian, and even some democratic, governments to 
constrain human rights and religious freedom out of fear, sometimes 
unwittingly helping to foster the very violent extremism they mean to 
counter by alienating entire segments of the population. What many 
governments don't seem to fully grasp is that laws and regulations that 
criminalize or inhibit peaceful religious activities on the pretext of 
preventing ``extremism'' simply substantiate extremist narratives about 
bad governance and discrimination, providing grievances that violent 
extremists can use to radicalize and recruit from vulnerable 
communities.
    In multilateral fora, at events such as the recent Countering 
Violent Extremism (CVE) Summit, in our bilateral diplomacy, and through 
our programming, we are working to convince governments such as those 
in Burma, Central Asia, Egypt, Africa, that countering violent 
extremism can, over the long term, only be effective in open and 
diverse societies that allow dissent and protect the rights of members 
of minority groups, preserve the rule of law and view civil society as 
a credible partner. As ever, the worth of a government can often be 
best judged by how it treats and protects those who are most 
vulnerable. Religious freedom, as well as the broader spectrum of human 
rights, remains a priority not as a matter of principle, but also 
because it makes for a more secure world.
    Not all restrictions on religious freedom are justified as 
countering terrorism. Some are just about control. To address over-
burdensome regulatory schemes that inhibit religious freedom now and 
over the long term, my office is assessing their global reach and 
variability. We intend to formulate diplomatic and policy guidance, as 
well as targeted and effective programming to develop best practices 
and reduce overregulation of religious communities.
    Societal intolerance--grown, often, from the seeds of governmental 
neglect, sectarianism, and favoritism--is an issue we continue to work 
on from a variety of angles, including programming. The attack on 
Charlie Hebdo took place on the very day I started work as Ambassador-
at-Large, followed 2 days later by the anti-Semitic terror attack on a 
kosher market in Paris, and the February 14 shooting at a synagogue in 
downtown Copenhagen. They underscore the fact that, in addition to 
facing increasing societal anti-Semitism, some Jewish communities are 
now actively targeted by violent extremists. This past month, the Pew 
survey affirmed what we have found in our work--that anti-Semitism is 
rising across the globe. Not only are individual lives at stake, but 
the viability of some Jewish communities in Europe is threatened as 
members come to believe they are no longer welcome in their own 
countries.
    Increasingly, Muslim communities in Europe are also facing a 
hostile climate. They are seen as outsiders--and in many cases this is, 
once again, a result of poor policies and planning as well as social 
discrimination. Many Muslims, like Jews, are afraid to report attacks 
and discrimination to the authorities where they live. With anti-Muslim 
hate crimes on the rise in parts of Europe, we have urged greater 
outreach to Muslim groups through projects such as OSCE expert meetings 
on combating hate crimes against Muslim communities. And in our 
programming efforts, we have piloted bilateral training programs (using 
experts from the Department of State, Department of Justice and 
Department of Homeland Security) to work with police in other countries 
on how to effectively address, reduce, and respond to hate crimes.
    My office, and I personally, remain deeply committed to vigorously 
fulfilling our mandate under the International Religious Freedom (IRF) 
Act and working closely with the United States Commission on 
International Religious Freedom. The threats to religious freedom and 
the resources required to meet that threat are more than one person or 
one office can do alone. Promoting international religious freedom 
requires a whole-of-government approach, and I am pleased to say that I 
have found many willing partners since joining the administration and 
have the honor of serving a President who is a true leader on this 
critically important issue. I deeply appreciate Congress' support for 
international religious freedom and look forward to continuing to work 
with you. I look forward to your questions.

    Senator Graham. And they all said amen. That was very good.
    I think, Mr. Ambassador, you are the right guy for the job.
    Ambassador Saperstein. Thank you, Senator.
    Senator Graham. To all of you, that was excellent.
    Before I ask questions, and we will get started here now, I 
want to put in context the dilemma we have as a Nation.
    As these atrocities increase, as religious persecution runs 
rampant, as genocide is on display, we and most of the free 
world are beginning to reduce our military capabilities to 
historic lows. I have never seen more organizations with the 
capability, manpower, weapons, and will, radical Islamic 
organizations ready to attack us here at home, than I have any 
time before 9/11. This problem is getting worse, not better, 
and the Congress has to find a way to fix sequestration.
    We will have the smallest Army since 1940, the smallest 
Navy since 1915. A Marine Corps--I know, Mr. Perkins, that you 
care much about--that can only do one contingency at a time.
    All I can say, Bishop, you can't solve this problem 
militarily alone, but if you don't have a capable military, you 
are never going to solve this problem. These people will not be 
negotiated with. They will not be convinced to abandon their 
ways. They have to be captured or killed. And once they are 
captured or killed, you have to rebuild the communities they 
have destroyed.
    So we are in for a generational struggle. The President was 
right about that.
    The foreign assistance account is about 1 percent of the 
budget. This is the account that everybody likes to showcase, 
as if you just got rid of this account, we wouldn't have to do 
the other things to balance the budget.
    This account is subject to a lot of demagoguery. ``Why are 
we building roads and schools over there when we need them here 
at home?'' We do have a budget problem here at home. We do need 
better schools and roads here at home.
    But my belief is that if we are not involved over there 
constructively, it is just a matter of time before they come 
here.
    So to all of you, thank you for coming today and shedding 
light on this problem and supporting this account. I am a 
conservative Republican. Senator Leahy is on the other side of 
the aisle. We are trying to get our colleagues to stop 
sequestration, regarding this account, because our ability to 
protect Embassies and Consulates is going to be compromised as 
our diplomats serve in harm's way. Our ability to provide 
development aid, refugee assistance, is going to be gutted, at 
a time when we need this account to supplement the military, 
because, Bishop, you are right. This is not just about killing 
people who are terrorists. It is about building up those who 
would fight back.
    The good news is that most people in the region are not 
buying what these guys are selling. Most fathers do not want to 
give them their daughters.
    All things being equal, the Christian community in Syria 
has thrived until this recent event. The same is true in Iraq. 
The Mideast is going through a transformation as to who should 
govern and how they should govern. Young people are demanding 
more rights. They are refusing to live in dictatorships for our 
convenience. And I don't blame them.
    There is a fight for the heart and soul of Islam. This is a 
religious war, and we need to take sides. I will take side with 
those in the faith that will allow me to live peacefully and 
co-exist peacefully.
    Our goal is to build those people up over there who will 
take the fight to the radical Islamists, so they don't come 
here. That is a labor-intensive effort far beyond military 
might.
    America needs to understand, in my view, that this is a 
generational struggle, that we will have troops forward 
deployed for the rest of my life and beyond, to keep this 
problem from getting back here. And if we do not invest in 
building up the communities they are destroying, it will repeat 
itself over and over again.
    Please understand how this ends. We win; they lose. The 
only thing unknown is how many people must die between now and 
then.
    My view is that the sooner we can bring about their demise, 
the safer we are here. It will save lives. It will save money. 
Wishing it away and hoping that it would stop is not going to 
work.
    So this is one hearing in a series of efforts by the 
Congress to look ourselves in the mirror and accept some 
responsibility for this and try to do better.
    Mr. Ambassador, are you adequately resourced, given the 
challenge you have? And if not, what do you need that you don't 
have?
    Ambassador Saperstein. I don't know any office that works 
so diligently, as I see it, in the State Department, and I am 
sure it is true in the other bureaus as well, that can't use 
more resources. We have a very strong staff. I am, day in and 
day out, really impressed with the staff.
    Senator Graham. Aren't you overwhelmed? I mean, this 
problem is getting worse, not better.
    Ambassador Saperstein. Yes, we absolutely are.
    We have to cover the entire globe, 199 countries. It is 
different than most Ambassadors, who have daunting challenges 
covering the single countries that they must cover.
    If I had additional resources, we are structured currently 
the way much of the State Department is, on a regional basis, 
with expertise in different regions, including the Near East 
region, as I talked about.
    There are special projects I would love to run, projects 
addressing blasphemy laws and conversion laws, which are so 
important; the role of religious freedom in national security, 
counterterrorism.
    Senator Graham. Because we are running out of time, could 
you provide me and the subcommittee sort of a wish list, 
realizing you can't have everything you want, but prioritize 
what you need that you don't have, so that we could make you 
more effective? Could you get that to us, please?
    Ambassador Saperstein. I would do that. Allow me just to 
add that the great fear of good people at the State Department 
ever answering that question is we don't want it to come from 
other vital functions in the State Department.
    Senator Graham. I got that. You can't rob Peter to pay 
Paul. And that gets us to the bishop. Because you used that 
phrase.
    Bishop Cantu. Am I Peter or Paul?
    Senator Graham. You choose. You are a man of God, and we 
are glad to have you.
    So the bottom line is, how does a non-governmental 
organization successfully operate in the security environment 
that exists today in Syria and Iraq?
    Bishop Cantu. Well, very carefully, and working with the 
local organizations there.
    Caritas Iraq has been tremendously helpful. They know the 
area. They know the culture. And the wonderful people of 
Catholic Relief Services operating in Kurdistan have 
wonderfully employed those tremendously talented young students 
who fled Mosul.
    Senator Graham. So you feel like there is some security, 
anyway?
    Bishop Cantu. There is. While I was visiting there in the 
region, I never felt a lack of security.
    Senator Graham. That is good.
    Very briefly, I don't want to go over too long here, could 
you inform the American people, based on what you have seen on 
the ground, what awaits the world to reconstruct these 
communities? Is it a massive effort that we are going to have 
to undertake?
    Bishop Cantu. Absolutely. And as I sat down with the local 
bishops there, the Archbishop of Erbil, he asked most urgently 
for aid, for humanitarian aid, for development, and for 
protection of the religious minorities.
    Senator Graham. Mr. Sekulow, do you believe that the 
international law that applies against religious genocide in 
support of religious freedom is in violation by ISIL?
    Mr. Sekulow. Absolutely. There is no doubt about it, 
Senator.
    And something that you said, which has struck me personally 
today, as I think about it, when you talk about the inter-
generational conflict, I just became a grandfather, and the 
idea that my grandson could be fighting this conflict.
    And the fact is that ISIS not only ignores any rule of law 
with regard to religious freedom, they, certainly, don't in any 
way comply with the laws of armed conflict, as you would know 
very well. This is an organization that has to be crushed, as 
you said. There is not a negotiating point. It has to be 
crushed, eliminated.
    And they are growing. And the fact Boko Haram has just 
pledged an allegiance to them I think is even more troubling.
    Senator Graham. What would you recommend this subcommittee 
do regarding the nation-states that you mentioned, that you 
believe are involved in persecution?
    Mr. Sekulow. Well, especially to the nation-states that are 
allies to the United States, I would urge Congress to take 
concrete action, and that is funding, which is the lifeblood of 
a lot of these governments, put with a precondition. And that 
precondition is there has to be an affirmance and a compliance 
with international charters that they have signed, whether it 
is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights or other 
international obligations, and that we have the ability to deny 
those funds if, in fact, the government does not comply.
    Senator Graham. Mr. Perkins, do you agree with that? And 
what would you suggest we do?
    Mr. Perkins. I do. I agree wholeheartedly. And I think you 
are taking a great first step. I don't want to, in any way, 
undercut the value of this subcommittee hearing.
    Last year, when Mariam Ibrahim, the Sudanese Christian 
woman, was being detained, we worked with members, and then the 
House Committee on Foreign Affairs hearing was held to 
highlight her situation and what was happening in Sudan. And 4 
hours later, she was finally released.
    So I think just the fact that you are holding this hearing 
is sending a message that this issue is one of great 
importance.
    Now, I agree with you. I think we cannot underestimate the 
influence of a strong, trained, well-equipped military. I think 
the best diplomatic corps has a military that is ready and 
waiting in the wings. We have to address that aspect of this. 
You are absolutely right.
    But we do have the diplomatic aspect, and we have the 
Special Envoy position, the bill that Senator Blunt moved 
through, that remains vacant. We need to have that position 
filled. We need to have all the players on the field if, in 
fact, we want to prevail in this.
    Senator Graham. Thank you all very much.
    Senator Murphy.
    Senator Murphy. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Thank 
you all for being here today.
    Ambassador Saperstein, I wanted to talk to you about the 
disturbing trend line of events in Europe.
    Surrounding the Israeli intervention in Gaza, there were a 
number of riots and attacks against Jews and against Jewish 
communities. We saw 18,000 people gather in Dresden, Germany, 
to protest the influence of Islam on the West.
    In the European parliaments today, you have a greater 
number of nationalist representatives. Many of them have 
campaigned on or are part of parties who condone anti-Semitism 
and anti-Islam activities.
    Can you talk a little bit about your office's role is in 
reaching out to our European partners, specifically reaching 
out to this newly constituted European parliament, to make sure 
that we collectively are taking the steps necessary to crack 
down on all of this behavior that we have seen running in the 
wrong direction recently?
    Ambassador Saperstein. These are significant problems. I am 
glad you put them on the table.
    In some ways even worse, we had visiting imams in large 
mosques in Germany calling for the extermination of Jewish 
people. We have seen for the first time since the end of the 
period before World War II mob attacks on synagogues, people 
being assaulted on the streets, shootings at Jewish schools, 
laws that affect both Muslims and Jews that would restrict the 
right of religious slaughtering practices and circumcision.
    So we are working with all of them. We have a robust 
program with a special envoy dedicated to combating anti-
Semitism. Ira Forman, he and I worked together on an ongoing 
basis, our staffs, day in and day out. We travelled all over 
that area. He has been incredible in doing that.
    Working with the Organization for Security and Cooperation 
in Europe, working with the European parliament, we have 
encouraged them to have a special envoy, like him, devoted to 
this issue.
    Many of the countries have responded after Paris in ways 
that hadn't been true before. It was an alarm bell that woke 
them up.
    We are going to continue to be vigilant, covering every one 
of those countries and lining up international support to 
address these issues.
    Senator Murphy. Turning our attention south to the African 
continent, a number of nations there have passed onerous and, 
in my view, unconscionable laws criminalizing homosexuality; 
condoning looking the other way, at best, when it comes to 
intimidation, retaliation, beatings of individuals who are gay, 
lesbian, transgender.
    What does the United States do when a country is using an 
argument connected to religious freedom in order to 
discriminate against a minority group, like lesbian, gay, 
bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals? What is our 
approach to a country that is raising that very important flag 
that we believe in, of religious freedom, and then under that 
umbrella, using it to either carry out attacks or look the 
other way when attacks are happening on these populations?
    Ambassador Saperstein. We have a range of steps that we can 
take sometimes, the kind of sanctions you talked where human 
right abuses are involved. But we engage in multilateral 
efforts and bilateral engagement efforts to try to get these 
policies changed. We have programs through the Bureau of 
Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (DRL), the human rights 
division, and now a special envoy on LGBT concerns, who invests 
in programs to help civil society respond to protect 
beleaguered minorities. There are visa bans in the areas 
dealing with human rights law and religious freedom law.
    So there is a range of steps we can take. We use all of 
those tools, as we are engaging with countries on any kind of 
human rights violations, any kind of discrimination against 
minorities. And that is equally true with the LGBT community.
    Senator Murphy. All right.
    Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
    Senator Graham. Senator Lankford.
    Senator Lankford. Chairman, thank you very much for the 
work that you do all the time on this issue and continue to 
raise it.
    I have a philosophical statement that I want to make, and 
want to be able to get from you, then I want to get some very 
practical things on it.
    One is, talk me through--and I am going to ask each of you 
to just make a quick comment on this, and I will begin with the 
bishop first and work my way across to the Ambassador--the 
difference between freedom of religion and freedom of worship, 
because that is becoming a much-discussed issue in the days 
ahead.
    What is the American value? Is this about freedom of 
religion or freedom of worship? Any thoughts that you have on 
that philosophical question, and I am going to come back for 
some practical things as well.
    Bishop.
    Bishop Cantu. We need both. And freedom of worship is much 
more limited. If we might have a visual, it is within the 
walls. Freedom of religion, religion is practiced 7 days a 
week, not just on whichever day we are within the walls of the 
temple or the church or the synagogue.
    Senator Lankford. Thank you.
    Mr. Sekulow.
    Mr. Sekulow. Senator, I think the best thing to do is look 
at the Universal Declaration of Human Rights Article 18, which 
states that everyone has the right to freedom of thought, 
conscience, and religion. That would assume both freedom of 
religion and freedom of worship.
    And then the individual international documents, 
international obligations, that these governments have signed 
on have also protected religious worship.
    I also add that in addition to our view in the United 
States of religious freedom, that it subsumes also religious 
worship, the European Court of Human Rights, where we have 
litigated cases, they recognized religious freedom and worship 
go together.
    So I think that trying to separate those two, I think they 
are part and parcel of the same.
    Senator Lankford. Okay, thank you.
    Mr. Perkins.
    Mr. Perkins. With Jay Sekulow to the right of me, there is 
not much left for me to say.
    I think we go back to international law and the Universal 
Declaration of Human Rights. It sums it up, that religious 
freedom is the ability to live it out.
    Freedom of worship is a truncated view of the freedom of 
religion. The freedom of religion is the ability to live your 
life not just within the four walls of your church or the four 
walls of your home, but to be able to take it into the 
marketplace, to be able to take it into the broader culture. 
That is what America has long stood for and protected both here 
and abroad.
    And that is what is at risk we see both domestically and 
internationally.
    Senator Lankford. Right.
    Mr. Ambassador.
    Ambassador Saperstein. Freedom of religion is absolutely 
central. Freedom of worship is absolutely central. It doesn't 
cover freedom to educate your children, freedom to speak out on 
your religious beliefs, freedom to proselytize, freedom to get 
together in group activities beyond worship. It doesn't include 
the right of people to choose the faith that they want or chose 
not to believe, if they want, or the right to convert. All of 
those are covered under international accords by freedom of 
religion. It's very important.
    I was delighted that the Secretary at my swearing in used 
freedom of religion. The President has used freedom of 
religion. It is important that that be the message going out to 
the world.
    Senator Lankford. The Secretary was in front of one of the 
other committees just a few weeks ago, and that was highlighted 
to him and it was appreciated, actually, by Senator Blunt as 
well, to publicly acknowledge the fact that he used freedom of 
religion, which we believe is the appropriate and also the 
constitutional term on being able to practice. That is 
important not only in our country, which is a beacon to the 
world, that when Navy chaplains are told what they can and 
can't do, when the individual state schools shut down, to be 
able to practice your own religion on campus, these become 
serious challenges to our example to the world of living out 
freedom of religion.
    So when that gets diminished here, it becomes a serious 
issue of trying to shine that beacon in other places as well.
    I do want to ask some pragmatic things.
    Mr. Ambassador, talk me through, in your beginning months 
here, as you look at the list of options in your tool kit on 
being able to promote religious liberty around the world, what 
are the tools you see as the practical levers of power that you 
can pull to help spread this value and this dignity to humanity 
worldwide?
    Ambassador Saperstein. Senator Lankford, I began to 
actually list some of them. We have the countries of particular 
concern (CPC) designation.
    Senator Lankford. Right, which I have some questions about.
    Ambassador Saperstein. Okay. And they are important in 
terms of naming, and they are important in terms of sanctions, 
when the sanctions are applied under those rules. Secondly, we 
have the bilateral engagement that goes on, day in and day out, 
on behalf of religious prisoners of conscience, on behalf of 
the groups that were discriminated against. All across the 
globe, we are constantly speaking to governments, encouraging 
them to withdraw bad laws that they may be considering, to 
changing law to allow for more freedom of religion.
    We do have visa bans. One of the things that I have done, 
they have not been used enough. I have instructed my staff to 
look for a more robust set of recommendations that we can make 
on behalf of this.
    And we have the power of the pulpit of the world, the 
ability to speak out and to inspire others and to convince them 
that this is not just good in and of itself, but it is good for 
the kind of stability, openness, and tolerance that will create 
a better society for their own citizens as well.
    Senator Lankford. Let me ask, is your staff being consulted 
or have you been engaged at all in the early days of this 
process of trade negotiations with Asia? There is a lot of 
conversations going back and forth right now.
    Vietnam is one of those nations that is in the middle of 
this conversation, obvious religious liberty issues there. Has 
your staff or you been involved in any conversations about any 
trade negotiations?
    Ambassador Saperstein. The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) 
negotiations, we have not been consulted on, per se, but we 
been involved with all the offices that are involved with those 
negotiations on the general role of considering religious 
freedom in our bilateral relationship.
    Senator Lankford. Have you had enough access in that 
conversation?
    Ambassador Saperstein. Again, we have not been consulted 
directly on that, but we have had more than adequate access to 
the offices that are dealing with it in our general work.
    Senator Lankford. Okay. You mentioned before the countries 
that are of particular concern, the CPC. Obviously, there are 
quite a few countries that are not on that list, Vietnam being 
one of them, Pakistan being one of them, Syria actually being 
one of them.
    What is the process for that right now, to be able to move 
that along?
    Ambassador Saperstein. With every country that we consider, 
and we get a lot of recommendations from the U.S. Commission of 
International Religious Freedom, from outside organizations 
like those represented at the table here. And all of that is 
considered. Every country is analyzed. Recommendations are 
made. There may be countries that have serious problems but 
don't quite reach the legal definition of egregious, systemic 
forms of persecution, whether they are on the CPC list or not.
    All of those countries, if they made it to the point where 
we would be considering them, all of those countries get our 
attention and concern, and we develop plans on how to move them 
in a better direction.
    But ultimately, it is the President, designated over to the 
Secretary, who will make the final decision, once reviewing all 
the materials we have put together.
    Senator Lankford. Do you have the freedom of access to be 
able to make those recommendations, say we have real concerns 
and we would encourage this elevation of this conversation?
    Ambassador Saperstein. Both the office has the freedom of 
access, and I personally have that freedom of access, as the 
Secretary has testified publicly.
    Senator Lankford. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back.
    I ran out of time, but I do hope that one of the other 
panelists will talk about the vacant position on the envoy for 
religious liberties issues in the Middle East.
    And I yield back.
    Senator Graham. Thank you.
    Senator Kirk.
    Senator Kirk. Mr. Ambassador, I wanted to raise the case of 
Mavash Sabet. This is Mavesh right here. I got the laser beam 
on her, over there on the right.
    She's a 67-year-old Baha'i who has been in prison in Tehran 
for just being a Baha'i leader. These people that you see are 
all of the Baha'i faith.
    I wanted to tell the subcommittee that I am going to be 
doing what I can to make sure that Mavash Sabet is a poster 
child for all the prisoners of conscience that we see in Iran.
    I would hope, because you are a member of the 
administration, given the delicate negotiations that we have 
with Iran, that we would be full-throated in our ability to 
advocate for the religious freedom of Baha'is.
    Ambassador Saperstein. Senator, it's always awkward, I am 
never supposed to speak as an individual here, but let me just 
say that anyone who has worked with me over the years knows the 
close relationship I have had with the of Baha'i community, 
having spoken out for years on these issues.
    Now inside the government, I am delighted to see that 
inside the government, the situation of the Baha'is who are 
being persecuted and discriminated against terribly in Iran, 
but in so many countries in that region, are actually a group 
of great concern within the State Department. There is a lot of 
support for speaking out, and acting on and engaging on behalf 
of easing some of these restrictions on the Baha'is and 
protecting prisoners of conscience.
    Senator Kirk. Thank you.
    Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    Senator Graham. Thank you very much.
    Senator Moran.
    Senator Moran. Mr. Chairman, thank you very much.
    Thank you to our panelists for being here.
    In the course of history, is there an ebb and flow of 
religious persecution? It increases at points in time, 
decreases at others? And what would be the cause and effect, 
the factors that change the nature of the amount and intensity 
of religious persecution around the globe?
    Mr. Sekulow. I think an example, and the Secretary of State 
brought this up in testimony just a few days back, where he 
said, if you look at the violence that occurred through the 
last century, that it is safer now than it was in the last 
century. Well, the last century was the Holocaust, where 6 
million Jews and 6 million others were killed.
    The ebb and flow tends to be with the rise of nationalism, 
with a disregard of anyone being different, or anyone being 
different being deemed the enemy. And it starts in the 
education process. I know this is something that Ambassador 
Saperstein has been concerned with.
    If you teach hatred, you breed hatred. And I think this 
also goes back to what Senator Graham said. We have to 
understand nation building here--I know that is not a popular 
word here--but we have to engage it.
    With regard to this kind of ebb and flow, I think we are at 
a point in history right now, if we look at what is taking 
place just in the Middle East, I am not even going to include 
most of North Africa, just in Middle East, there is a 9/11 
every single day, every single day, and some days much worse, 
just the sheer numbers of people being killed.
    That includes the Baha'is. That includes Yazidis. That 
includes Christians. And, of course, with some other groups, 
that includes Jews.
    And I think we are at a point in history where they may not 
have the lethality yet, in the sense of the systematic approach 
of the Nazis, but they are certainly marking people because of 
what they believe in for extermination. And that does not bode 
well for the people.
    Senator Moran. Is it that you believe something different 
than those in power?
    Mr. Sekulow. Certainly, and I think the Islamic state is a 
perfect example this. ISIS, now called ISIL, now just called 
the Islamic state, has a view that if you are Muslim that 
disagrees with them, you are an infidel.
    In fact, in one sense, they are worse than other religious 
groups. So that is why you are seeing this mass destruction 
within the Muslim community.
    I was talking with a friend of mine, Canon Andrew White, 
who is the vicar of Baghdad for the Anglican Church in England. 
He is now in Jordan. And he said that if you look at the 
indiscriminate nature of ISIS, they have a very narrow view of 
their version of Sunni Islam, but you now have this pledging of 
allegiance by these other groups.
    No one likes to say you are in a religion war, but we are, 
Senator, as you said. No one wants to say we are in a war with 
Islam. Well, tell that to Caliph Ibrahim.
    It may not be the Islam that most of the people support, 
granted. But it is this version and this version is as toxic as 
the Nazis. And I lost a lot of family members in Nazi Germany, 
so I don't say that lightly. I had a whole side of my family 
wiped out in Nazi Germany.
    But it is that same kind of systematic approach.
    Senator Moran. I think my choice of words ``ebb and flow'' 
is unfortunate, in a sense. It is not that causal. I don't mean 
to down play that it is just some force beyond our control.
    But the answer to that question I think helps determine 
what the response is to fight religious persecution.
    Mr. Sekulow. One of the things, Senator, you mentioned, I 
think this exactly applies, Senator. Under the International 
Religious Freedom Act right now, nonstate actors aren't 
covered. But if we include nonstate actors in that, and I think 
we have to, ISIS is operating like a state first of all, if you 
include nonstate actors, all of the sudden, we can freeze 
assets, we can deny access, we can deny entry, we can move on 
visas, we can move on passports.
    And when you have U.S. recruits, we need to put nonactors 
inside the International Religious Freedom Act. That needs to 
be an amendment authorized by the Congress.
    Senator Moran. Thank you very much.
    Ambassador, as we know, we have ongoing negotiations with 
Iran currently related with nuclear weapons. Is there a 
conversation, a discussion, negotiations going on directly with 
Iran related to religious persecution? And if you could bring 
me up-to-date on Pastor Saeed and the latest efforts, our 
efforts, to see his release?
    Ambassador Saperstein. Lend me 20 seconds to just add to 
what Jay Sekulow said?
    Senator Moran. Please.
    Ambassador Saperstein. In our International Religious 
Freedom reports on 199 countries, every one of them has a 
section about social hostilities. Every one of them has a 
section on nonstate actors. So we are fully reporting and 
engaging on it.
    And what we test in that is, does the government respond to 
it? It is failure to respond. It isn't just complicity. It 
isn't just what they're acting on. They are complicit if they 
let it happen and they don't act. So there is at least some 
engagement on those issues.
    Yes, look, there are limits when we don't have diplomatic 
relations with a country. But around the sidelines, I think 
this is well-know. Around the sidelines of the nuclear talks, 
Wendy Sherman has engaged over Saeed Abedini. There have been 
extensive conversations.
    We have used the Swiss and other international partners who 
have better relations to deal with American prisoners of all 
kinds, religious and nonreligious. But that includes religious 
prisoners of conscience who are American citizens, and some who 
are not, on these issues as well.
    But there are limitations. But Saeed Abedini, that has go 
on, we do know.
    And I know I want to commend the American Center for Law 
and Justice on their extraordinary work for the Abedini family. 
I have learned from them that his father is now allowed to 
visit him again. That is encouraging, but nothing is going to 
be satisfactory to the family or America until he is released.
    Senator Moran. Let me raise one other country and that is 
China.
    Bishop, let me address this to you. I think Pope Benedict 
and now Pope Francis has made efforts at outreach to China to 
reestablish a relationship. Is there any tangible progress that 
is being made in the protection of Christians and others in 
China as a result of the pope's efforts?
    Bishop Cantu. Well, I haven't seen anything or monitored 
that, as far as progress. But we are allowing the Vatican to 
take the lead on that, so we don't want to disrupt that 
process. And it's, certainly, one of dialogue and building some 
trust. But, obviously, there are tremendous challenges in the 
situation there with the underground church and the official 
church.
    But we want to encourage. We don't want to do anything that 
would disrupt or harm that dialogue that the Vatican has 
reached out to.
    Senator Moran. I appreciate that you are halfway around the 
globe, but I do appreciate the Vatican's efforts, in China and 
elsewhere. They have been an ally of the efforts to reduce 
religious persecution and promote religious freedom. And I 
appreciate that very much.
    Bishop Cantu. Absolutely.
    Senator Moran. Mr. Chairman, thank you.
    Senator Graham. Yes, sir.
    Senator Blunt.
    Senator Blunt. Thank you, Chairman.
    And thanks to all of you for what you do for this cause. It 
actually seems to be a bigger and bigger problem all the time. 
I think as we step back, this problem just gets bigger. That is 
why I was so pleased the other day, as Senator Lankford 
mentioned. In another hearing we had, Secretary Kerry was at 
least using ``religious freedom'' as the term he was using. I 
think his predecessor often talked about the freedom to 
worship, seldom if ever talked about religious freedom. I was 
pleased with all the answers.
    And most importantly, Ambassador, I was pleased with your 
answer. In fact, when I looked at your testimony, I just 
started going through circling the times I saw ``religious 
freedom'' used before Senator Lankford even brought that 
question up. Eventually, I decided that I was satisfied that 
religious freedom was coming up as what you are focused on and 
what you do.
    As you know, I supported your nomination and was pleased 
to. At the time, we talked about the special envoy for Near 
East and Central Asia, that the only way we would get it passed 
was to leave some flexibility to the administration. Rather 
than ``shall appoint,'' it says ``may appoint.'' That was 
August of 2014. I don't see an appointment yet. I would like to 
hear from you that you're advocating for that or don't think 
you need it. I think I heard earlier you had more than you 
could do.
    We have given you a real opportunity to get someone to help 
you in this critical spot. What are you doing about that?
    Ambassador Saperstein. Again, the internal deliberations I 
need to take a pass on. But let me just say the following, 
before you came in, I talked about the fact that we have a 
very, very strong team on Near East who are working, day in and 
day out, on these communities and these countries.
    If the White House is going to make a decision, should it 
select a special envoy, it will certainly be of help to us. As 
I indicated in response to Senator Graham's question, there are 
a number of specialized, urgent tasks that have to be 
developed, that if we had the staff, we could really do 
something about them. That would be clearly an addition.
    One of the challenges is I don't believe in the legation 
there is funding for the special envoy. If I am right about 
that, here again the robbing Peter for Paul on this. If it is a 
value-added, anyone specializing on any one of the urgent 
countries you heard about or regions would be of immense help 
to us.
    Senator Blunt. I think in all that the State Department 
faces, if any of them have grown dramatically in need in the 
last couple years, it is this one, and shifting resources also, 
if you do have this incredibly capable team that you just 
described, surely one of them would benefit from the imprimatur 
of special envoy.
    That is all you have to do, if one of them is that good. If 
one of them is not that good, I suggest you replace him with 
somebody who is that good and make them the special envoy. This 
should not be a budget discussion.
    This is either important or it is not important. You can 
find the money to do this, if you want to do it. You can let 
somebody go who you currently got working on these issues, if 
they are not good enough. If they are good enough, you can make 
them the special envoy and let them carry that into every room 
with them where they are trying to get something done.
    And on Pastor Abedini, as Mr. Perkins mentioned, last year, 
we did see a good result of the discussion on Mariam Ibrahim, 
from this discussion. As you mentioned, nobody has been more 
vigorous in trying to pursue this issue than Mr. Sekulow and 
his group.
    I just find it hard to believe that in all the things that 
we have done with the Iranians, that this has really been the 
kind of focus it should have been. We have given them millions 
of dollars of money back that we've held onto since 1979, just 
asking if they would talk to us for another 60 days. That was 
the last deal made.
    That had to be an interesting proposition for them, just 
continue to talk for 60 days and we will give you several 
hundred million dollars back we've held onto since 1979.
    And in that process, we couldn't get one person out of 
prison that nobody in this country believes should be there?
    Mr. Sekulow. I will say, this, Senator, Ambassador 
Saperstein within weeks of being sworn into office took a 
personal interest in Saeed Abedini's case, not only willing to 
meet with the family but working on multiple fronts, because 
there are these periphery discussions that take place. And we 
are not disclosing anything that is not known.
    Frankly, and I want to be careful on this, but, frankly, 
the discussions help keep him alive. I think we have to 
realize, just the discussions--this hearing helps keep him 
alive. Comments from the President of the United States saying 
something about Saeed Abedini keeps him alive. Your testimony, 
your statements keep him alive. These sideline discussions keep 
him alive.
    It doesn't answer the question of how we got to this place 
in the first place. In other words, where we are going to sit 
down with the Iranians and didn't have some kind of 
preconditions. It's not just Saeed Abedini, but get these 
Americans out of jail.
    Having said that, there is nothing we can do about that 
right now. But what we can do is this: Insist that, apart from 
any deals with Iran, any structured arrangements with Iran, 
that Saeed Abedini and his family are reunited, as other 
Americans need to be from Iran.
    And I do want to say, again, that Ambassador Saperstein has 
taken a unique and important interest in this case, at a level 
that we haven't seen previously. There has been support within 
the Ambassador's office and his predecessor, but this is at a 
whole new level. And a lot of that is because of relationships 
and willingness and a commitment to this issue, for which we 
are very appreciative.
    And the fact that the President met with Naghmeh Abedini, 
someone asked me how significant that is. They said, well, they 
are a different political party, the other side of the 
political isle here. I said, well, it is the President of the 
United States talking about someone who is held captive in 
Iran. It helps keep him alive.
    And right now, until he's released, we have to keep him 
alive.
    Thank you, Senator.
    Senator Blunt. I appreciate that. I wonder, Mr. Sekulow, 
since the Ambassador probably can't talk about this--and by the 
way, Ambassador, I am very pleased to hear others working on 
this having the sense that you are headed in the direction that 
I thought you would be whenever I stood in the well of the 
Senate and as members came up and asked, ``Why are you voting 
for him?'' I said because I think he's committed to get this 
job done. And I am glad to hear that.
    I do wonder why, in a country that appears to have so much 
at stake, or not--I am not sure how serious the negotiations 
are--why the message of the level of good faith this would 
create doesn't get through to them, when the President of the 
United States is doing this.
    Do you have any idea why he is that important to them?
    Mr. Sekulow. You would think as a confidence-building 
measure in discussions like this, that they would release the 
American, just as a confidence-building measure. But I think we 
are looking at that through our eyes and not through the eyes 
of their own experience within a regime that is controlled in a 
different way. It is not a real judiciary. It's not really an 
elected legislative body. It is run by the Revolutionary Guard 
and the ayatollah. And that is the reality of what we are 
dealing with.
    And I think we tend to look, Senator--it is puzzling to all 
of us. Why would you not release this American?
    We actually saw the documents upon which charges had been 
made against people like Saeed Abedini. We've seen these in 
other cases, too. And they'll say, they're an enemy of the 
state because of their religious belief.
    They do the same thing to the Baha'is, as was said earlier 
by the Senator. It is the same kind of thing.
    Why they picked on the American, I hope it is not as a 
bargaining chip. But right now, if it is involved in the 
political process, and that is helping to keep him alive, then 
my job as his advocate is to do that.
    Thank you, Senator.
    Senator Blunt. Thank you, all.
    Senator Graham. Senator Daines.
    Senator Daines. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    I am very pleased to be here today, discussing this very 
important topic of religious freedom. My great, great 
grandmother--in fact, my mom told me this as a child. She said, 
why did she come to America? They left Scandinavia for economic 
freedom, but also for religious freedom. And that is why our 
family came to the United States years ago, and it was the 
government interference in the church affairs, the whole free 
church movements. So I am grateful to be discussing religious 
freedom here today.
    I know, as I travel around Montana, you talk about the 
Second Amendment and guns, the phones light up. It is an 
important issue for us back home. But when you ask high school 
students what the First Amendment is about, you usually hear 
about freedom of speech and freedom of the press, but they 
forget about the very first part, which you all know, this 
distinguished panel, freedom of religion. I am grateful for 
that, for our country.
    So in light of that, Mr. Perkins, thank you for being here, 
and for your testimony. In your view, has the current 
administration shown moral clarity on issues of religious 
freedom?
    Mr. Perkins. Thank you, Senator.
    Now I obviously don't know everything that is going on, but 
the fact that for 36 months the Ambassador's spot remained 
vacant sent a message that we did not put a priority as an 
administration, as a country, on religious freedom. I am 
grateful that the Rabbi is now there, because I agree, I think 
he is doing a good job, and I look forward to working with him 
in that post.
    But there is so much more that can be done. And this is not 
a one-size-fits-all approach to this religious liberty and 
freedom threat. The Middle East is one aspect. You look at what 
is happening in North Korea. China has been mentioned.
    We haven't mentioned India. After their elections, 
religious freedom has slipped in that country. We need to be 
watching very closely what is happening not just with 
Christians but all religious minorities there in that country.
    Under the International Religious Freedom Act, this is to 
be a priority in our foreign policy. Our training for our 
Foreign Service Officers is to be a priority. Diplomats, it 
requires diplomats to meet with NGOs to promote religious 
freedom.
    Now, you probably have had more interaction with 
Ambassadors than I have, but I have met with foreign 
Ambassadors. In my conversations, this has never been a topic 
that has been brought up to them as a priority in our foreign 
policy. In fact, it has been contrary.
    So to answer your question, Senator, I would say, no, they 
have not spoken with clarity. It has not been a priority that 
has been put forth by this country, this administration.
    As a result, we see record levels of religious persecution. 
And according to the experts that track this, it's not about to 
crest. It's continuing to rise. And the foreseeable future does 
not look good.
    Senator Daines. Thanks, Mr. Perkins.
    A question for the bishop, and I say this in the context of 
having spent 6 years living in China back in the 1990s. I was 
an ex-pat with a Fortune 20 company there, launching operations 
to sell products into a Chinese market.
    In light of the Catholic Church's difficulties with the 
Chinese Government regarding the appointment of bishops and 
freedom of worship, has the United States Government played a 
positive role for the church and pressed the Chinese Government 
to allow the Vatican to appoint its own bishops?
    Bishop Cantu. I am not an expert in diplomacy. I am a 
pastor. But the fact that, as I mentioned earlier, that we want 
to allow the Vatican to take the lead in this, and if anything 
we want to open up some space, yes.
    Senator Daines. Are you getting help from the U.S. 
Government?
    Bishop Cantu. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. But just as a 
good physician----
    Senator Daines. ``I'm not sure'' would, certainly, not be a 
yes.
    Bishop Cantu. That is not a yes.
    Senator Daines. Okay.
    Bishop Cantu. As a good physician, first, you do no harm. 
And so we want to be sure that we don't do harm in opening up 
some space for dialogue.
    Senator Daines. And I understand it is a sensitive topic, 
having lived there for 6 years. But I hope we are doing all we 
can, in terms of government here, to help the cause there, the 
freedom of the Catholic Church.
    Bishop Cantu. I appreciate it.
    Senator Daines. You bet.
    Mr. Perkins, we have talked a lot about religious freedom 
abroad today, but as Matthew 7:5 tells us, we want to be 
careful that we are not looking at the speck in our brother's 
eye when we have a log sticking out of our own.
    Is the U.S. in a position today to be talking about 
religious liberty overseas when we clearly have a lot of work 
to do in our own country?
    Mr. Perkins. I think that's an excellent question, Senator. 
And I think the lack of priority on religious freedom that we 
have placed here domestically in our policies does send a 
message internationally. I think there is a correlation between 
the growing intolerance of religious freedom (not the freedom 
of worship, we had that discussion a moment ago). But the 
growing intolerance toward religious freedom here at home--
i.e., in the marketplace--is giving rise to persecution abroad.
    And the reason I say that is because when we no longer make 
it a priority here domestically, that sends a message to bad 
actors abroad that America no longer puts a high priority on 
religious freedom, so we don't have to worry about them acting 
against us or moving against us, based on that.
    I mean, you look at the case of the U.S. Department of 
Health and Human Services mandate in the Hobby Lobby case, 
which had to go all the way to the Supreme Court to give 
privately held businesses the right to exercise their religion 
under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
    So I think to your question, Senator, absolutely. We need 
to do a better job here at home.
    Senator Daines. All right. Thanks, Mr. Perkins.
    Mr. Sekulow, do you have a thought on that?
    Mr. Sekulow. Senator, I want to be careful and put this 
into perspective. I don't think we can compare a situation in 
the United States, which I would classify as acts of religious 
discrimination that do exist, and Hobby Lobby was, in my view, 
an example, as Tony shared the same thing.
    But that is not on the same level of religious persecution 
where people are having their throat slit, being crucified or 
beheaded. So I think the question is, even when we get Supreme 
Court cases we disagree with the Supreme Court on, I would not 
trade the U.S. system for any system in the world. And I still 
think we have the ability, because of the constitutional 
framework that we have and that we do protect--at the end of 
the day, we protect religious freedom. It may take court 
action, but at least we have a court action you can take to do 
it. These countries don't have that.
    So I am always careful to compare. I don't want to conflate 
religious discrimination with religious persecution. But I 
don't ever want it to be perceived that the United States of 
America does not have the moral clarity to move forward on this 
because my grandfather, like your family, came from Russia. He 
was a fruit peddler in Brooklyn, New York. And his grandson, 
despite Supreme Court cases in between that he probably would 
have agreed with or not agreed with, but his grandson gets to 
appear before this distinguished subcommittee and argue cases 
at the Supreme Court of the United States.
    I think we have the best system in the world, even with its 
faults.
    Senator Daines. I completely agree, and I am out of time, 
and how can I top that?
    Senator Graham. Senator Boozman.
    Senator Boozman. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    And thank you all so much for being here.
    Mr. Ambassador, one of the things that I hear about, right 
at the top of the list at home, is the concern that we have all 
of this stuff going on overseas but the administration just 
simply, for whatever reason, won't verbalize what is actually 
happening.
    I will give you an example. When the administration 
publicly responded to the beheading of 21 Egyptian Coptic 
Christians in Libya, they failed to mention that their faith, 
their religious belief, was the primary motivator of their 
murders. As the Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious 
Freedom, can you explain why the administration simply refuses 
to call by name the religious persecution of Jews and 
Christians by ISIS?
    Again, that is just basic. If we don't understand the 
problem, and we don't identify the problem, we don't talk about 
it, I don't see how you can solve the problem.
    Ambassador Saperstein. The administration was absolutely 
clear that the people who were killed were Copts, and that they 
were killed because of their religious identity.
    The controversy was about one time in I think an L.A. Times 
op-ed, in which the President referred to them just as 
Christians, which also raises the religious identity as a 
defining aspect here.
    But he himself and others in the administration and 
throughout the State Department have talked very openly about 
the fact that these were Copts, and we have spoken out on 
behalf of the Coptic community over and over and over again. It 
is a priority for me.
    Senator Boozman. Do you agree, then, that they were killed 
because----
    Ambassador Saperstein. I think it is clear that that was 
the reason. I think it is clear that that is the reason a lot 
of the minorities that they kill are killed, because of their 
religious identity and belief, and that includes the Christian 
communities of the Near East and the Coptic community of those 
in Egypt who were working in Libya.
    Senator Boozman. Good, because, you know, us on the 
subcommittee, because of being on the subcommittee, have 
travelled a lot. We have all been in the Middle East many, many 
times. And I don't think I have ever sat down with an 
Ambassador or somebody in one of those countries that they 
wouldn't readily admit the same thing. I mean, this is foolish 
to tread so lightly.
    After Egypt and the United Arab Emirates carried out 
airstrikes in Libya in response to the beheading of 21 Coptic 
Christians, a spokesman for the Department of Defense said that 
the U.S. did not support these efforts. Again, should we 
publicly be condemning our allies that are basically trying to 
support their people of their country trying to protect their 
religious beliefs?
    Ambassador Saperstein. That is a statement that I am not 
familiar with. You would have to address it to the Department 
of Defense.
    Senator Boozman. But would you agree with that?
    Ambassador Saperstein. With?
    Senator Boozman. Do you agree that we should come out and 
say that we don't support the Egyptians for trying to protect 
their people and their religious beliefs?
    Ambassador Saperstein. I think that Egypt should protect 
their citizens, their religious beliefs. I think Sisi, who has 
many problematic actions in the broader human rights field, has 
made some progress in terms of confronting extremist 
interpretations of Islam, and calling on Islamic religious 
leaders to begin to push back very hard about that, and he has 
been more open to the Coptic community than his predecessors. 
But there are still problems, and we are dealing on an ongoing 
basis with the Egyptian Government over the problems that 
exist, over the rights of the Coptic community to live openly 
and freely with equal protection in Egypt.
    Senator Boozman. Right. So I guess what I am saying is it 
is not one thing, it is just thing after thing. The delay in 
your nomination, the fact that that was vacant so long. The 
fact that we still don't have the special envoy to promote 
religious freedom of religious minorities.
    Again, and I think you would agree it's lots of tiptoeing 
around these statements that come out as to what is going on. 
It is just one thing after another.
    And as a result, I think Americans are very, very concerned 
about, again, not identifying a problem and treading so lightly 
as to calling a spade a spade.
    Ambassador Saperstein. I think there is legitimacy to 
different narratives and another narrative would be this 
President in India dealing with religious freedom as bluntly as 
he has done, at the National Prayer Breakfast being so 
forceful, in terms of the imprimatur that the administration 
has given me to empower me in the work that I am doing, the 
fact of how open the entire State Department has been to this 
religious freedom agenda as a crucial agenda.
    Whether it is a change or just different things going on at 
the same time, I actually think there is a legitimate narrative 
that says that this is an administration and Secretary of State 
and a President that cares deeply about this issue of religious 
freedom.
    Senator Boozman. Right. No, I understand. And yet, again, 
as I travel about Arkansas and other States, the average person 
hasn't understood that narrative.
    Ambassador Saperstein. Well, if that is the case, then we 
have work to do to help bring what is a very real aspect of the 
work of the United States Government more clearly to the 
American people. So I take that challenge seriously.
    Senator Boozman. Thank you.
    Ambassador Saperstein. May I just have 10 seconds to 
respond to the bishop and your colleague here?
    In addition to everything we have done on Uighur Muslims 
and Tibetan Buddhists and the Falun Gong, and all the other 
religious groups, in every report, and back to when I chaired 
the commission, the first commission, everything that they have 
done, we have spoken out over and over again about the rights 
of the church to name its own bishops. We have spoken out on 
behalf of Bishop Ma. It has been a consistent message that we 
have done.
    So I want to reassure you that there has been a very strong 
positioning of the United States Government on behalf of the 
rights of the Catholic community to choose to work with the 
Vatican as their organizing religious authority.
    Senator Boozman. Okay, I am going to take my 15 seconds 
back.
    Senator Graham. You can take it all.
    Senator Boozman. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    Let me just close with a question for the bishop and Mr. 
Sekulow and Mr. Perkins. You all have highlighted various 
things about the United States' obligation under international 
and domestic law to uphold and protect our religious freedoms. 
If you just had one thing, a message to us as to what you feel 
like Congress needs to be doing, could you talk to us for just 
a second about that?
    Bishop Cantu. Sure.
    And just reiterating the message, as I visited the 
displaced persons in Kurdistan, I promised them that I would 
bring their stories back to the U.S. And so I hope to do that, 
and I brought their message here today, protection, protection 
for the religious minorities in that part of the world, and 
Iraq; aid, humanitarian aid; and development; health care; and 
education.
    Mr. Sekulow. Senator, we would request that the 
subcommittee and through the Congress amend the International 
Religious Freedom Act to include nonstate actors, and that as 
part of that, that section 405 would bar from entering the 
United States and freeze the assets of any government officials 
or their agents who have engaged in particular acts of 
religious persecution and violations; work with our European 
allies to ban from entry and freeze assets of government 
officials who have engaged in these types of activities. I 
think that choking off the money would do a lot.
    Mr. Perkins. I would, again, say that today is a 
significant step forward in sending the message that the 
Senate, along with the House that has been holding hearings on 
related matters, is taking this seriously. Now, in DC, in the 
city of meetings, it might not mean a whole lot. 
Internationally, though, the fact that you have called a 
hearing on this topic is sending a strong message.
    In addition to what Mr. Sekulow said, I don't think we need 
new laws, necessarily, at this point. But I would urge you, as 
you hold further hearings on this, that you call members of the 
State Department forward, the Secretary, and just ask as to 
whether or not the International Religious Freedom Act is 
actually being followed.
    There is no evidence to suggest that it is being followed 
by the letter of the law.
    Senator Boozman. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    Senator Graham. Mr. Ambassador, you are the right guy at 
the right time. Whatever problems we have had in the past, 
let's try to correct them in the future.
    A hearing without action is just a meeting. I didn't 
convene a meeting. I want a result and action.
    Thank you all. This has been one of the most impressive 
hearings I have ever attended. I think I am better off for it, 
and I hope the subcommittee will take your suggestions to 
heart, and I predict we will.

                     ADDITIONAL COMMITTEE QUESTION

    If there are no further questions this afternoon, Senators 
may submit additional questions for the record. We will keep 
the record open until Friday, March 13, and request the 
Department of State's response within 30 days.
    [The following question was not asked at the hearing, but 
was submitted to the Department for response subsequent to the 
hearing:]
             Question Submitted to Hon. David N. Saperstein
                Question Submitted by Senator Mark Kirk
    Question. Assyrian Christians, including women, children, priests, 
and the elderly are being driven from their homes, kidnapped, violently 
attacked and in many cases killed by the Islamic State or ISIL in Iraq 
and Syria. Further, ISIL is destroying and eliminating ancient cities 
that are thousands of years old. I understand you have recently met 
with leaders from the Assyrian Christian community who expressed their 
desperation. In addition, the Assyrian community in Iraq as well as in 
the U.S. has requested a safe haven to protect hundreds of thousands of 
refugees.
    What steps has the U.S. taken to protect the Assyrian Christian 
community in Iraq and Syria? Specifically, is the Department of State 
considering supporting the establishment of a safe haven for the 
protection of Assyrian Christians against ISIL?
    What is the U.S. policy on preserving the cultural and religious 
heritage of Iraq and its indigenous people?
    Answer. The State Department is intensely focused on the safety and 
rights of members of Iraq's and Syria's vulnerable populations, 
including religious and ethnic minorities. Protecting these communities 
in the face of the existential threat the Islamic State of Iraq and the 
Levant (ISIL) poses is a part of our regular diplomatic engagement, as 
well as one of the priorities of our counter-ISIL strategy and of the 
62-nation international counter-ISIL Coalition.
    The U.S. Government has regular and ongoing contact with leaders of 
these groups in the United States and throughout the Middle East region 
to discuss their wellbeing and needs. Our contacts include leaders and 
activists of Christian, Yezidi, Sabean, and other communities, civil 
society and clergy members, minority diaspora, and advocacy groups. On 
March 9, Assistant Secretary for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor Tom 
Malinowski and I met with bishops from the Assyrian Church of the East 
to discuss ISIL's attack on the Assyrian villages on the Khabour River. 
. We are closely monitoring the ongoing fighting between ISIL and the 
Assyrian and Kurdish forces for control of villages on the northeast 
bank of the Khabur River. We relay information being shared with us 
from all sources about this fighting to all appropriate entities within 
the U.S. Government so that it can be analyzed and evaluated for 
appropriate action. In recent days, the Coalition conducted multiple 
airstrikes in Hasakeh province in order to degrade ISIL capabilities 
there. We are also concerned about the several hundred people that were 
taken captive. We also understand that 4,000 to 5,000 people fled the 
fighting and are currently displaced, and we are working with our aid 
implementing partners to address their humanitarian needs.
    In Syria, the United States will continue to work toward a 
negotiated political solution that produces a stable, inclusive Syria 
for people of all ethnic and religious identities, free from the 
tyranny of the Asad regime and the terror of ISIL. We support programs 
to empower religious and ethnic minorities and promote tolerance and 
reconciliation to counter rising sectarian tensions; for instance, we 
have hosted multiple Syrian interfaith events that featured prominent 
Syrian clergy of all backgrounds with large followings.
    In Iraq, we are working with the Government of Iraq, the United 
Nations, and our Coalition partners to create the conditions for the 
displaced to return to their homes as soon as possible, and we will 
continue to press the Government of Iraq and support its efforts to 
this end. This includes support for efforts to devolve power from the 
Federal Government to provincial and local authorities as a mechanism 
for protecting the rights of all Iraqis and to preserve the unity and 
long-term stability of Iraq. We are also supporting Iraq in its efforts 
to create a National Guard, which would provide a stable mechanism for 
local communities, including minority communities, to take more 
responsibility for their own protection while receiving the resources 
and training needed to do so.
    ISIL has sought to erase the heritage of any person or group 
contrary to the monolithic vision it claims as its ideology. Recently, 
the world watched in disbelief as ISIL bulldozed the ancient remains of 
the citadel of Nimrud, dating back to the 13th century BC. On February 
26, ISIL also released a video of its fighters destroying Mosul museum 
artifacts from the Assyrian and Akkadian empires, an offense against 
the cultural heritage of the entire world. In our efforts, we will 
remain dedicated to preserving the rich cultural and religious heritage 
of Iraq from the incursion of ISIL.
    In both Iraq and Syria, we will continue to degrade and ultimately 
defeat ISIL, and we will work to support the development of stable, 
inclusive societies that respect diversity and governments that 
guarantee human rights to all individuals, including religious and 
ethnic minorities.

                          SUBCOMMITTEE RECESS

    Senator Graham. The subcommittee stands in recess, subject 
to the call of the chair.
    [Whereupon, at 3:30 p.m., Wednesday, March 11, the 
subcommittee was recessed, to reconvene subject to the call of 
the Chair.]