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US now champions freedom of religion worldwide
The United States is urging countries from around the world to join hands in protecting religious freedom.
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United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks during the opening of the second Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom held in Washington DC, on Tuesday. (Courtesy of/US Department of State)
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he United States is pushing for freedom of religion or belief worldwide and it is urging other countries to join hands in ensuring that people around the world are free to embrace whatever faith they choose and are free to practice it.
The US State Department held this week a three-day conference that it billed as the largest gathering on freedom of religion ever held in the world, with more than 1,000 participants from more than 130 countries.
US President Donald Trump may not cut it as a freedom of religion icon, but Secretary of State Mike Pompeo does, and as he was opening the conference, he was introduced as “a former Sunday school teacher and tank commander.” The Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom, the second after its inauguration last year, is indeed his initiative.
There is no shortage of bipartisan support for this new foreign policy tool. Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi may have had more than her share of fights with Trump but the veteran congresswoman has long championed freedom of religion. She made an appearance on the first day of the conference on Tuesday.
“All people from every place on the globe must be permitted to practice their faith openly in their home, in their places of worship, in the public square and believe what they want to believe,” Pompeo said. “America’s commitment to religious freedom will never waver, we stand with you and for you in each stage of this fight.”
If in the 1990s the US government was pushing for human rights as part of its foreign policy, that now seems to be back on the front burner but with religious freedom taking priority.
“Where religious freedom is protected, many other freedoms are protected,” Sam Brownback, the ambassador at large for international religious freedom, said.
