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Washington D.C., Aug 10, 2016 / 03:10 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Among the biggest threats to religious freedom worldwide are blasphemy laws, the State Department said in its annual religious freedom report, released Wednesday.

“I want to highlight this year the chilling, sometimes deadly effect of blasphemy and apostasy laws in many places of the world, as well as laws that purport to protect religious sentiments from defamation,” the Ambassador at-Large for International Religious Freedom David Saperstein said at the release of Wednesday’s report.

Every year, the State Department publishes a report on the state of religious freedom worldwide, as mandated in the 1998 International Religious Freedom Act. It documents the religious liberty situation in almost 200 countries and territories, reporting the worst abuses while noting positive steps taken to protect the rights of citizens.

“The purpose of this annual report is not to lecture,” Antony Blinken, Deputy Secretary of State, said Wednesday while introducing the report. “It is to inform, to encourage, and ultimately to persuade.”

Religious freedom “is written into the founding DNA of the United States, renewing and strengthening our nation with every generation,” he said.

“Every country has an obligation to respect religious liberty and freedom of conscience,” he added. “Societies tend to be stronger, wealthier, safer, and more stable when their citizens fully enjoy the rights to which they are entitled.”

The 2015 report, released Wednesday, highlighted the threat posed by blasphemy laws and apostasy laws to the religious freedom and human rights of citizens.

Blasphemy laws are particularly pernicious because, in the worst cases, they are punishable by death and may require no evidence or trial to convict, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom said.

Thus, they have a “chilling, sometimes deadly effect” Ambassador Saperstein explained, because religious minorities are targeted under these laws by mobs acting with impunity. Or minorities are victims of their own government, cracking down on their religious practice under the guise of prohibiting blasphemy.

“Governments have too often failed to take appropriate steps” to stop violence done in the name of these laws, Saperstein continued. “These government failures weaken trust in the rule of law.”

Around one-quarter of countries today have blasphemy laws and other laws prohibiting acts like apostasy, Ambassador Saperstein said, citing a recent Pew Research report.

Pakistan has the highest number of blasphemy convictions worldwide, most notably in the case of Asia Bibi, a mother of five who was accused by a neighbor of insulting the prophet Mohammed in 2009, convicted in 2010, and is currently on death row.

“Iran continues to execute prisoners of conscience for their beliefs,” Ambassador Saperstein stated at the press conference introducing the report, noting that at least 20 persons charged with “enmity against God” were executed in 2015, and almost 400 members of minority religions are in jail, including Shi’a Muslim leaders who have spoken out against the government.

In Saudi Arabia there are “lengthy prison sentences and lashings” for blasphemy charges, without even a conviction in court, he continued. The report noted the case of Palestinian poet Ashraf Fayadh who was sentenced to death stemming from a 2013 arrest for allegedly making “disparaging remarks about Islam.” He had previously been sentenced to eight years in prison and 800 lashes.

The report also pointed to the continued atrocities inflicted on religious minorities in 2015 by “non-state actors” like the terror groups Boko Haram and Da’esh, or ISIS.

The State Department ruled in March that ISIS had committed “genocide against groups in areas under its control, including Yezidis, Christians, and Shia Muslims.” Deputy Secretary Blinken noted on Wednesday that “naming these crimes is important. But our goal is to stop them.”

The report noted its continued violence towards these groups in 2015 – “including killings, torture, enslavement and trafficking, rape and other sexual abuse against religious and ethnic minorities and Sunnis.”

Boko Haram, meanwhile, kept targeting Christians in Nigeria, as well as Muslims who opposed their actions. “Boko Haram claimed responsibility for scores of attacks on churches and mosques, often killing worshippers during religious services or immediately afterward,” the report said.

A “Global Terrorism Index” report published last fall said that Boko Haram “has become the most deadly terrorist group in the world,” killing more people than ISIS.

Meanwhile, in Syria, “as the insurgency increasingly became identified with the Sunni majority,” the government “targeted” areas with Sunni Muslims for bombardment. Terror groups like ISIS and al-Nusra continued to attack religious minorities there.

There have been some global signs of hope for religious freedom, however, Saperstein noted.

For instance, Iceland “abandoned its 75 year-old blasphemy law.” And when synagogues were threatened with violence in Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, youth – including some Muslims – banded together to physically protect the synagogues.

Muslims in France “showed their solidarity” with Catholics in attending the funeral Mass of 84 year-old Fr. Jacques Hamel, recently murdered in church in Rouen by ISIS sympathizers, Saperstein noted. In May of 2015, Muslims protected their Christian neighbors from a mob accusing them of blasphemy.

There was also the Marrakesh Declaration calling for “protecting religious minorities in Muslim-majority countries,” signed by hundreds of Muslim leaders.

“In closing, the protection and promotion of religious freedom remains a key policy priority for the United States,” Saperstein concluded.

 

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Austin, Texas, Aug 10, 2016 / 05:23 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- In Texas, two scheduled executions could kill innocent men, Catholic and other Christian leaders have warned.

“In both cases, there are strong indicators that the defendants may be innocent. A gross misuse of justice does not serve the victims, our society or those who have been sentenced to death,” the Texas Catholic bishops said Aug 3.

They urged Texans to write to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and the Texas Board of Pardon and Paroles regarding Jeff Wood and Robert Pruett. Wood is scheduled for execution Aug. 24.

“Jeff Wood has not ever killed another person. He was not even in the building when the murder for which he is sentenced took place,” the bishops said. “His mental health and the witness of a now-discredited psychiatrist seem to be the primary reasons for his capital punishment.”

In January 1996 Wood, then 22, waited in a car while Daniel Runeau robbed a Kerryville convenience store. Runeau shot and killed the clerk, Kriss Keeran, the Texas Tribune reports. Wood was charged with capital murder under a Texas law that says a person can be charged with a crime if he helps commit another crime or should have anticipated that other crime as a result.

The Texas Catholic Conference’s executive director Jennifer Carr Alimon, in an Aug. 3 letter to Gov. Abbot and the Texas Board of Pardon and Paroles, said his original sentencing hearing was “prejudiced by the false and perjured testimony” of a discredited psychiatrist.

“The jury also did not hear evidence that might have caused it to spare Mr. Wood’s life,” Alimon’s letter said.

Wood’s mental illness should have made him incompetent to stand trial, but he had instructed his attorneys not to present evidence on his behalf or cross-examine witnesses,” Alimon added. “It is extremely rare for any person in the history of the modern death penalty to have been executed with as little culpability and participation in the taking of a life as Mr. Wood.”

A group of Evangelical leaders also called for a halt to the execution of Wood and asked for a new sentencing hearing.

“Our faith compels us to speak out in this case, where a looming execution date threatens the life of an individual with significant mental impairments who never should have been sentenced to death,” they said in an Aug. 8 letter.

The letter’s signers included Rev. Sam Rodriguez of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, Willow Creek co-Founder Lynne Hybels, Dr. Antipas Harris of Regent University School of Divinity, and Jay Sekulow of the American Center for Law & Justice.

Regarding the case of Robert Pruett, who is seeking clemency, the Texas bishops said there is “no physical evidence tying him to his alleged crime and possibly false testimony.”

Pruett was convicted of murdering Texas prison guard Daniel Nagle in prison in 1999.

He has always denied he killed the guard. Only witness testimony from other inmates, not physical evidence, links him to the crime. He has claimed he was framed by the killers, who were worried Nagle was about to expose corruption in the prison.

Pruett had been serving a 99-year sentence as an accessory to murder. He was tried as an adult at the age of 15 after his father stabbed and killed their neighbor. Prosecutors said Pruett had gotten into a fistfight with the neighbor earlier that night, the web magazine Fusion reports.

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IMAGE: CNS photo/Toru Hanai, Reuters

By Lise Alves

RIO DE JANEIRO (CNS) -- Glued to the improvised screen set up on the patio of the Caritas house, the refugees yelled and they cried. But most of all, they cheered. They cheered for their two Congolese colleagues, Popole Misenga, 24, and Yolande Mabika, 28, who were competing in judo as part of the United Nations' Refugee Olympic team.

"They represent all of us today," said an emotional Mirelle Muluila, also from Congo. "They represent the strength it takes to come from nothing and being considered a 'nobody,' to becoming a champion," she cried out as others around her agreed.

Muluila studied international relations in her country, but here in Brazil, where she has lived for the past 23 months, she continues to struggle with the language and the lack of opportunities.

"We want to tell the world that we are somebody. ... We are doctors and engineers and teachers," she said, "we have education but had to flee our countries, not because we wanted to, but because we were forced to."

Serge Shindano agreed: "This team is the victory scream of all refugees. People believe that we don't belong anywhere, but we do ... we belong to the world and the world belongs to all."

Most of the refugees sitting Aug. 10 at the Caritas house, located five minutes away from the famous Maracana soccer stadium, understood the historic significance of the first-ever refugee team at the Olympics.

"This team will start to break the barrier. It will show the other peoples of the world that we are able to do lots of things. We can compete and win just like anyone else," said Mariama Bah of Gambia adding, "Refugees are not bad people, we are good people."

Even the younger refugees, who have completely integrated into Brazilian society, understood the significance of these athletes.

"It is wonderful to see them compete," said Jean Nzuzi, 16, who fled Congo when he was 6. Nzuzi speaks perfect Portuguese and seems totally adapted to the "Brazilian way" but concedes that it is not always easy for some of the others.

"I don't have the same problems the older refugees have in Brazil, like the language and the culture, but I understand their frustration and their "saudade" (homesickness) for the country they left behind. This (Olympics) is the chance to say to the world, 'We exist, we do good things.'"

All at the watch party said Misenga and Mabika, as well as the other eight refugees who make up the Refugee Team, are heroes, even if they do not win a medal.

"It is a great victory just participating," said Renata Pretti of Caritas, the church's charitable agency. Pretti noted the two judo athletes had approximately a year to practice, after receiving the invitation from the U.N. refugee agency, UNHCR. "They are an example for both the international and Brazilian communities that if you give people a chance, they are able to fulfill their dreams."

According to Caritas officials, the two refugees now living in Brazil were living in a center for displaced children in Kinshasa, Congo, when they discovered their love for judo. Their perseverance in the sport paid off, and soon they were members of the nation's national judo team. In 2013, however, after years of being mistreated by coaches when they did not win medals, they came to Brazil for a tournament and decided to seek asylum.

Today, Misenga lives in one of Rio's largest favelas, Complexo da Penha, and has a Brazilian wife and son.

At a young age, Mabika was separated from her parents. "I have never made money from judo, but it has strengthened my heart. The sport helped me to have a better life," she was quoted as saying to reporters before the start of the Olympics. "My message to the refugees is that they do not give up, believe and have faith in their heart."

Mabika lost in the round of 32; Misenga won his first match but lost in the round of 16.

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