WASHINGTON: The United States on Wednesday denounced the “genocide” carried out by the Islamic State (IS) against Christians, Shias and Yazidis, as the State Department unveiled its sombre annual report on religious freedom around the world.
In its comprehensive look at the situation in more than 200 countries in 2015, the State Department singled out its usual bugbears on the issue of religious repression: ally Saudi Arabia, China, Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Sudan.
And as in previous years, the US government expressed concern at the rise of anti-Semitism and Islamophobia in Europe, against a backdrop of the continent’s migrant crisis and an uptick in jihadist attacks.
But the report denounced non-state actors like the IS and the Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram, which “continued to rank amongst the most egregious abusers of religious freedom in the world.”
The IS “continued to pursue a brutal strategy of what Secretary (John) Kerry judged to constitute genocide against Yazidis, Christians, Shias, and other vulnerable groups in the territory it controlled,” the State Department said.
Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who formally unveiled the report, recalled that Secretary of State John Kerry had in March “made clear his judgment that Daesh is responsible for genocide against religious communities in areas under its control.” “Daesh kills Yazidis because they are Yazidi, Christians because they are Christian, Shia Muslims because they are Shia,” Blinken told reporters, using an Arabic acronym for the IS.
He accused the Sunni jihadists, who control swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria, of being “responsible for crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing.”
In the two war-torn countries, jihadists were “responsible for barbarous acts, including killings, torture, enslavement and trafficking, rape and other sexual abuse against religious and ethnic minorities and Sunnis,” the report said.
Washington’s usual targets bear the brunt of the tough language, though no sanctions result from the heavily detailed report, compiled by State Department staff.
Saudi Arabia, which bans churches and all other non-Muslim places of worship, was slammed for condemning to death, prison or flogging those convicted of apostasy and blasphemy.
Riyadh’s Shiite rival Iran, which does not have diplomatic relations with the United States, was rapped for restrictions on its Christian and Sunni minorities.
In Pakistan, the United States expressed concern over an increase in the number of blasphemy charges and their use as “justification for mob justice.” Similar concerns were raised about Afghanistan.
