US report criticizes Turkey, Russia, Iraq on religion

By Tony Czuczka May 2, 2007, 14:09 GMT

Washington - Religious freedom is lagging in Turkey, under pressure in Russia and under attack in Iraq from the country's own government, a US congressional watchdog group said Wednesday.

The US Commission on International Religious Freedom added Iraq to its 'watch list' in its 2007 report, saying the Shiite-led government was contributing to violence and abuses through actions of its security forces and by tolerating armed Shiite militias.

In blunt criticism of the US-backed Iraqi government, the panel said Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's administration bore blame for 'egregious violations of religious freedom.'

The panel, set up by the US Congress in 1998, monitors religious freedom worldwide. Its reports go to US lawmakers and the government.

Victims of Iraqi security forces include not just suspected Sunni insurgents but also ordinary Sunnis 'targeted on the basis of their religious identity,' the report said. Meanwhile, armed Shiite factions kill, beat, torture, kidnap and rape, it noted.

Non-Muslims in Iraq, including Christians and Yazidis, suffered 'pervasive and severe violence and discrimination,' the report said.

The panel urged the US government to step up pressure on Iraq's leaders to curb the violence, in part by bringing perpetrators to justice.

Turkey, a secular Muslim country and NATO alliance member that is seeking European Union membership, still has 'significant problems' in ensuring religious freedom for all citizens, the report said.

'More needs to be done to ensure that religious freedom and other human rights will be protected in Turkey,' the report said.

Religious minorities are hampered because they are not legally recognised, the panel said. But it also raised concern that Turkey's enforcement of secularism bars Muslims from wearing certain religious dress, such as headscarves, in public buildings and universities.

'At the same time, concerns must be addressed that a lifting of the ban on headscarves might jeopardize the rights of women,' the report said.

The panel also expressed concern about violence against minorities, especially Greek Orthodox community, Roman Catholics and Protestants, and growing anti-Semitism in some Turkish media.

When commission members visited Turkey in November, representatives of all communities told them EU membership would be the best way to advance religious freedom and human rights, the report said.

On Russia, the panel cited a broad range of concern about human rights, democracy and religious intolerance.

President Vladimir Putin's government has failed to tackle a growing number of violent attacks and other hate crimes rooted in xenophobia and ethnic and religious intolerance, the report said.

Russian anti-terrorist actions lead to harassment of individual Muslims and Muslim communities, and restrictive new laws on non- governmental organizations also risk squeezing religious groups, the panel said.

'Political authoritarianism ... is jeopardizing the human rights of Russia's citizens,' the report said.

In many areas of Russian life, 'it is increasingly a particular group's or community's relationship to the state - rather than the rule of law - that defines the parametres on freedom to engage in public activities,' it said.