[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 20 (Thursday, February 5, 2015)]
[Senate]
[Pages S839-S840]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         SUBMITTED RESOLUTIONS

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SENATE RESOLUTION 69--CALLING FOR THE PROTECTION OF RELIGIOUS MINORITY 
                     RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS WORLDWIDE

  Mr. INHOFE (for himself, Mr. Thune, Mr. Wicker, Mr. Boozman, Mr.

[[Page S840]]

Portman, Mr. King, Mr. Rubio, and Mr. Lankford) submitted the following 
resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations:

                               S. Res. 69

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

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