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U.S. Commission On International Religious Freedom

Latest Stories

Persecution of Christians in India

By Faith J. H. McDonnell

Nigeria’s escalating insecurity: A direct assault on religious freedom

By Dede Laugesen

Muslim worshipper Ahmed Alkhekani attends Eid al-Fitr prayer at the Islamic Institute of America in Dearborn Heights, Mich., on Friday, March 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya) **FILE**

U.S. ‘can and must do more’ to combat anti-Muslim hate, analysts say

By Mary McCue Bell - The Washington Times

Religious freedom in America and around the world illustration by Alexander Hunter/The Washington Times

Three ideas on religious freedom that would help win the fight domestically, internationally

By Frank Wolf

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo walks onstage before speaking at the Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom, Thursday, July 18, 2019, at the U.S. State Department in Washington. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

Twenty-five years of bipartisan support for international religious freedom

By Rabbi Abraham Cooper and the Rev. Frederick A. Davie

Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks at the State Department, Dec. 7, 2023, in Washington.Blinken is heading to the Middle East for the fourth time since the Israel-Hamas war erupted in October as once-abated fears about a regional conflagration are surging with attacks and assassinations in the Red Sea, Lebanon, Iran and Iraq.(AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

Religious freedom panel seeks hearings as State Dept. omits India, Nigeria from watchlist

By Mark A. Kellner - The Washington Times

A Taliban fighter stands guard at the site of an explosion in front of a school, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday, April 19, 2022. An Afghan police spokesman says explosions targeting educational institutions in Kabul have killed at least six civilians and injured over 10 others. Khalid Zadran said Tuesday the blasts occurred in the mostly-Shiite Muslim area in the west of Afghanistan's capital. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

Religious freedom commission calls on Blinken to admonish China, Nicaragua, others

By Mark A. Kellner - The Washington Times

Former Cuban President Raul Castro applauds during celebration for the 69th anniversary of the Moncada Barracks assault in Cienfuegos, Cuba, Tuesday, July 26, 2022. Cuba marks the 69th anniversary of the 1953 rebel attack led by Fidel and Raul Castro on the Moncada military barracks, considered the start of Fidel Castro's revolution that culminated with dictator Fulgencio Batista's ouster. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

Cuba cracks down on religious citizens despite constitutional ‘guarantees,’ experts say

By Mark A. Kellner - The Washington Times

Iranian Christians attend Christmas Mass at St. Grigor Armenian Catholic Church in Tehran on Saturday, Dec. 25, 2010. Iran has arrested about 70 Christians since Christmas in a crackdown that demonstrates the limits of religious tolerance by Islamic leaders, who often boast they provide room for other faiths. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi) **FILE**

Iran’s media campaign against religious minorities continues, U.S. commission says

By Mark A. Kellner - The Washington Times

In this May 11, 2019 photo, a tourist walks through a Spanish-style church at the Hermitage of Monserrate, in Matanzas, Cuba. In total, Cuba drew 4.7 million tourists in 2018, a 1.3% rise over the previous year that puts its latest goal of 5 million within reach. (AP Photo/Ismael Francisco)

Freedom of religion falls short in Cuba, new report reveals

By Mark A. Kellner - The Washington Times

Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kirill, left, leads a religion service as Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, attends a ceremony marking the 1,030th anniversary of the adoption of Christianity by Prince Vladimir, the leader of Kievan Rus, a loose federation of Slavic tribes that preceded the Russian state in Moscow, Russia, Saturday, July 28, 2018. Speaking to a crowd of thousands of clergy and believers at a huge statue of the prince outside the Kremlin, Putin said adopting Christianity was &quot;the starting point for the formation and development of Russian statehood, the true spiritual birth of our ancestors, the determination of their identity. (Mikhail Klimentyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

U.S. religious freedom watchdog warns of significant oppression if Russia gains Ukraine

By Mark A. Kellner - The Washington Times

In this April 10, 2018, file photo, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifies before a joint hearing of the Commerce and Judiciary Committees on Capitol Hill in Washington. Last spring, as false claims about vaccine safety threatened to undermine the world's response to COVID-19, researchers at Facebook wrote that they could reduce vaccine misinformation by tweaking how vaccine posts show up on users' newsfeeds, or by turning off comments entirely. Yet despite internal documents showing these changes worked, Facebook was slow to take action. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

U.S. commission dings Facebook in report calling for social media to fight religious hate speech

By Mark A. Kellner - The Washington Times

In this file photo, Shiite Muslims participate in a demonstration to condemn Friday's deadly suicide bombing at the Fatimiya Mosque in the Afghan province of Kandahar, in Karachi, Pakistan, Sunday, Oct. 17, 2021. A fact sheet released on Oct. 27 by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom found that members of minority Muslim religious communities in Afghanistan — as well as non-Muslims, atheists and converts to Christianity — are “at grave threat” under the Taliban’s rule. (AP Photo/Ikram Suri) **FILE**

Afghans have less religious liberty under new Taliban regime, U.S. watchdog group says

By Mark A. Kellner - The Washington Times

In this May 29, 2010, photo, people from a minority Muslim Ahmadi community stand guard as others prepare to bury the victims of an attack by Islamic militants, in Rubwah, 93 miles northwest of Lahore, Pakistan. President Joe Biden has appointed philanthropist Susie Gelman to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, the White House announced Friday. (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed) **FILE**

Non-Sunni Muslims face persecution in Africa, U.S. report says

By Mark A. Kellner - The Washington Times

The cover art for an October 2021 report on "Uzbekistan's Religious and Political Prisoners" published by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom is shown here. (www.uscirf.gov) [https://www.uscirf.gov/sites/default/files/2021-10/2021%20Uzbekistan%20Report_0.pdf]

More than 2,000 religious prisoners languish in Uzbekistan, U.S. agency reports

By Mark A. Kellner - The Washington Times

In this file photo, Chen Ying-hsuan, right, holds Li Li-chen's hand during a military mass weddings ceremony in Taoyuan city, northern Taiwan, Friday, Oct. 30, 2020. Two lesbian couples tied the knot in a mass ceremony held by Taiwan's military on Friday in a historic step for the island. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying) **FILE**

U.S. academics: Sanction Finnish prosecutor for charging Christians opposing gay marriage

By Mark A. Kellner - The Washington Times

A Chinese national flag flutters against the office buildings in Shanghai, China. (AP Photo/Andy Wong) **FILE**

China sanctions evangelical leader Johnnie Moore, former Trump liaison

By Mark A. Kellner - The Washington Times

A Christ statue stands without tourists milling about, amid a lockdown affecting tourism to curb the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in Havana, Cuba, Thursday, June 18, 2020. For state-run tourism, Cuba's success so far in controlling the coronavirus is becoming part of some companies' marketing plans. (AP Photo/Ismael Francisco)

U.S. commission: Cuba releases Christian pastor from jail

By Christopher Vondracek - The Washington Times

An Indian Muslim man prays in a Mosque during the nationwide lockdown to prevent the spread of new coronavirus in Gauhati, India, Monday, April 27, 2020. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom is urging that the State Department add India to its list of nations with uniquely poor records on protecting freedom to worship, while proposing to remove Sudan and Uzbekistan from that list. (AP Photo/Anupam Nath)

Religious freedom watchdog pitches adding India to blacklist

By ELANA SCHOR - Associated Press

A woman lights a candle during a religion service celebrating Orthodox Easter at the Rogozhsky spiritual center of the Russian Orthodox Old-Rite Church in Moscow, Russia, late Saturday, April 18, 2020. For Orthodox Christians, this is normally a time of reflection, communal mourning and joyful release, of centuries-old ceremonies steeped in symbolism and tradition. But this year, Easter, by far the most significant religious holiday for the world's roughly 300 million Orthodox, has essentially been cancelled. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko Jr)

Federal commission: Add India, Russia, Syria to list of countries violating religious freedom

By Ryan Lovelace - The Washington Times