Cover Story

The U.S. Department of State released its eighth annual International Religious Freedom Report 2006 on September 15. The 2006 report examines 197 countries’ commitment to advancing religious freedom, from July 1, 2005, to June 30, 2006.


The International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 requires an annual review of the status of religious freedom worldwide. The report to Congress, documents governments’ actions that could be a barrier to religious freedom, including repressing religious expression, persecuting people for their beliefs or tolerating violence against religious minorities. The report also lists governments that respect, protect and promote religious freedom.


In addition, the Act requires designating countries that have “engaged in or tolerated particularly severe violations of religious freedom” as a “country of particular concern (CPC).” In November 2005, Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Vietnam were designated as CPCs. Among the CPCs, Vietnam was cited for improving its overall respect for religious freedom during the 2006 reporting period. The 2006 report considers a government broadly repressing peaceful religious expression, as abusive. Additionally, the report states, “countries and situations in which authorities’ over-zealous actions taken against observant believers suspected of extremism have had the principal effect of restricting religious freedom.”


Events over the past year, including the incidents surrounding the printing of cartoons depicting Prophet Muhammad (Pbuh) in European newspapers, “have shown the need to go beyond the protection of religious freedom in law to a concerted effort to create the conditions for harmony”, said Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom, John Hanford.


Many governments are taking important steps to improve religious freedom, according to Hanford. For example, in Afghanistan the government is seeking to uphold constitutional guarantees of religious freedom despite a long-standing culture of intolerance. In Turkmenistan, additional religious groups have been able to obtain legal status.


The report also documents governments that routinely suppress religious freedom, including those of Eritrea and China, which use repressive registration laws as a means of restricting non-approved religions or outlaw certain faiths entirely, Hanford said. The report cites countries that have enacted legislation favouring the majority religion and discriminating against minority religions. (Log on to on http://usinfo.state.gov for full text of the 2006 report)

A Muslim-American film-maker has directed a new and unique film about the American Muslim experience in the holy fasting month of Ramadan in order to counter the negative stereotype in the mainstream media and to meet the growing demand for positive Muslim content. “Our goal essentially was to show American Muslims in realistic light,” said Naeem Randhawa, a first time film-maker. “We want to show Muslims in their real world that we don’t often get to see in mainstream media or Hollywood,” he added. Islam had been lampooned in movies, writings and TV shows in the United States, including “JAG,” “24,” and Arnold Schwarzen-egger’s “True Lies.”

Trying to build bridges between all faiths, the film shows the personal stories of five American Muslim families observing their faith in Ramadan with commentary by a Jewish rabbi, Christian doctor and a Muslim scholar. “We want to show that Muslims are much more than that. We also want to show that Muslims are a very diverse group,” said Randhawa, who was born in Pakistan and raised in Canada. The movie is also addressed to non-Muslims whom Randhawa believes need to see the right picture of Islam.

“For non-Muslims, they get something a little bit different out of it. For them it is really an exploration of what true Muslims are, what true Muslims look like, talk like, live like and the fact that they are not these foreigners who are stereotyped in mainstream media,” insists the filmmaker. Randhawa’s documentary will be screened around the nation and will enter into film festivals in the US and abroad. It will be aired on PBS-Dallas, Link TV, KRA and other networks world-wide. The film has already been awarded official Selection status by ‘Dallas South Asian Film Fest’ and ‘Dallas Video Fest’, the first two fests that it was submitted to.

(Islamonline.net)