Report of USCIRF

USCIRF holds no ground to criticize other nations

In this blog we will understand why USCIRF doesn't holds no ground to criticize other nations on Religious Freedom.
First let's start by looking at What is USCIRF? What is its Role? & how it functions?

BACKGROUND

United States Commission on International Religious Freedom(USCIRF) is a US federal government commission created by International Religious Freedom act of 1998.

It was founded on 28th October 1998.

USCIRF's members known as commissioners are appointed by the President and the leadership of both parties in the senate and the House of Representatives.

USCIRF's principal responsibilities are to review the facts and circumstances of violations of Religious Freedom Internationally and to make policy recommendations to the President, the Secretary of State,and the Congress.

Structure of the Organization

The Organization comprises of 10 members

•  3 appointed by the President
•  3 appointed by the President pro tempore of the Senate [ i.e.,person chosen by the Senate to act in the absence of Vice president], of which 2 of the members shall be appointed upon the recommendation of the leader in the Senate of the Political Party that is not the Political party of the President, and 1 of the members shall be appointed upon the Recommendation of the leader in the Senate of the other Political party
•  3 appointed by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, of which 2 of the members shall be appointed upon the recommendation of leader of Political party not in power and 1 shall be appointed upon the recommendation of the leader of Political party in power.
• The Ambassador-at-large for International Religious Freedom, as a non-voting ex officio member.
  

Earlier Controversies relating to USCIRF 

• 'The Pioneer', in an editorial termed it as "fiction", "biased" and "surpassing Goebbels"(i.e., a big lie).
• It criticized USCIRF for projecting the massacre of 58 Hindu passengers(The Godhra Train Burning incident) as an accident.
• It also accused USCIRF of indirectly justifying murder  of Swami Lakshamananda Saraswati(murdered on 23rd August 2008 by a Maoist leader), a Hindu cleric and social activist.
• The Hindu American Foundation(HAF) has criticized USCIRF for lack of transparency; for defending Christian missionary groups for converting Hindus; failing to mention the plight of Hindu Kashmiri Pandit refugees and for commissioning a biased special report(current one) on India by Iqtidar Cheema. Specifically, HAF points out that Cheema is a native of Pakistan, who has been honored by Pakistani government bodies, and supports Pakistan’s foreign policy goals as well.
• Furthermore, Cheema has supported Islamic separatist movements in Kashmir, Khalistani separatism in Punjab and supports the banned Babbar Khalsa terrorist group.
• "Khalistani terrorism led to an insurgency which left tens of thousands of Hindus and Sikhs dead in the Indian state of Punjab in the 1980s. This activism took its most bizarre and dangerous turn when Cheema addressed a crowd of Sikh separatists gathered in San Francisco calling for Khalistan and shouts supporting the Babbar Khalsa, a terrorist organization banned by the UK and India," Suhag Shukla(HAF executive Director) said.
  "Shockingly, for the first time in USCIRFs history, the Commission makes the overtly Hinduphobic declaration that caste-based discrimination is rooted in Hindu scripture," she said.
• Also, USCIRF has been accused of being biased in favor of Christians several times.
• The HAF in 2018 questioned the credibility of  the commission after the appointment of Tony Perkins(who is currently the Chair of USCIRF) as a commissioner citing his past "hateful stances against non-Christians ".The Southern Poverty Law Center(a American NPO) also criticized Perkins for far-right Christian views, his anti-LGBT views, his associations with the Ku Klux Klan[a American White supremacist group that targets & spreads hate against African-American] and other White Supremacist groups, terming his evangelical organization, the Family Research Council, a 'hate group'.
   Making such a person as Chair of an organization that talks of religious Freedom itself tells you how  useless the organization is.

WHY THE REPORT,THE CLAIMS IN IT & THE ORGANIZATION IS ALL BOGUS?

These are views of 3 Commissioners of USCRIF who doesn't agree with classifying India as CPC. 

And this is Biased Report(Published on 28th April) based on Biased Findings of Iqtidar Cheema who is a person of Pakistani origin.

If you go through the report, it almost sounds the same as reports of few Pakistani news channel's report or the reports of al Jazeera, i.e., biased, full of Hate & imaginary.

They have the audacity to look at Removal of Article 370 & Passing of CAA from a Religious Freedom point of view. Only Intellectually Paralyzed kind of People & Organizations can see Removal Art370 from Religious Freedom angle, it doesn't at all dilutes Religious Freedom only thing it does is it gives an opportunity to integrate J&K and its people to an even greater extent with INDIA and the fact they never spoke about rights of Kashmiri Pandits during Kashmiri Pandits Exodus speaks volume about the level of their hypocrisy.

  Now as far as seeing CAA from Religious Freedom point of view is concerned, that too is wrong way to look at it cause it does not affect Religious Freedom of any Indian, all it does is provide justice to Persecuted Minorities of a rogue country called "Pakistan" and few other countries. 

If USCIRF really stands for Religious Freedom then why it couldn't stop minority persecution & their Human Rights Violation in Pakistan.
This should have been USCIRF's duties to provide justice to Religious Minorities of Pak, but an Organization for name sake has failed in its duties. 
It is an organization with dubious standards, made with the purpose of pressurizing other countries especially those whose progress may bother the US.

As far as anti-conversion laws are concerned, I know why they are 'pained' by it, cause now they(American funded NGOs) cannot succeed in their vicious plans of converting large population of India to Christianity, thereby getting greater hold on India as a Society.

The Fact that most members are Christians in the Organization, many including the Chair Tony Perkins having links or themselves are Christian missionary explains a lot about the Credibility, the unbiasedness of the Organization. 

Let's look into so called "Religiously Free" comments of Tony Perkins-

• On May 17,2001, Perkins gave a speech to the Loisiana chapter of the Council of Conservative Citizens(CCC),  a White supremacist group that has described black people as a "retrograde species of humanity".
• In 2007, Perkins opposed the first ever Hindu prayer before the United States Senate saying that "There is no historic connection between America and the Polytheistic creed of the Hindu faith". He also Opposed a US Marines yoga and meditation program, terming the Hindu and Buddhist practices as "goofy".
• In 2017, Perkins was accused of covering up a 2015 sexual  assault by Wesley Goodman.

Such a man with no qualities of Religious Freedom and liberalism in him, made the Chair of USCIRF, an Organization that on paper aims to ensure Religious Freedom itself highlights the fact that how Compromised the Organization has become.

HOW MINORITIES ARE DEALT IN AMERICA? and WHY SITUATION IN AMERICA IS PARTICULARLY CONCERNING?

               

Many such  articles/Reports show the extent to which Racial/Ethnic discrimination is deep rooted in American Society.US President Donald Trump imposed travel ban on Muslims, does that not violate Religious Freedom,but USCIRF was quite on it & hasn't placed US in CPC[Countries of particular Concern] Now, the obvious question to be asked is "Why USCIRF who claims to be champion in Religious Freedom did not put their own country(US) in list of CPC"? The Answer to that is pretty simple, an organization funded by US government would not go against the government itself and an organization currently led by a man(Tony Perkins) who himself is involved in these discriminatory acts, why would he go against himself.
In another Report published in Physician's Weekly on 28th April, "Racial/ethnic discrimination is experienced by a large proportion of non white residents in general surgery training", according to a research letter published on  April15th in JAMA surgery.

INDIA's RESPONSE
INDIA's response has been exactly the way it should have been , India has Debunked the trash Report of an useless Organization- "Biased and Tendentious comments against India are not new but on this occasion, its misrepresentation had reached new levels. It has not been able to carry its own Commissioners in its endeavor. This US Organization is of particular concern & will treat it accordingly"-Spokesperson of Ministry of External Affairs(MEA) said.
The significance of such a statement is pretty high, USCIRF had put India in list of Countries of Particular Concern(CPC) so in response Spokesperson of MEA has called the very organization as an organization of Particular concern and also labelled its report as biased and a report that aims to push controversial & baseless anti-India point of views in the world.


CONCLUSION

So an Organization funded by a particular country(US), led by 9 members 6 of which are connected with Christian missionary activities in the US, the Chair of the Organization being a man with a tainted past far from being unbiased., if such an Organization issues a report then that report has absolutely ZERO credibility . 

It is about time that Indians should stop seeking Validation from the West especially the US.

USCIRF as an organization is a failed organization because-

• It is funded by US government so it cannot ever be unbiased towards US and therefore cannot and has not called out "US" for all the wrong goes in the United Stated of America.
• It comprises of majority of members strongly affiliated with a particular religion(i.e., Christianity) and a particular ideology(i.e., White supremacy) so this also points towards that they can't be unbiased & objective in their reporting.