Overview
The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) is a U.S. federal government commission created by the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA) of 1998. 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.
The report is released annually and designates countries on basis of religious freedom. Ironically, US does not designate itself on the religious freedom existing within United States. In addition, it pushes a unilateral and subjective viewpoint over other nations.
The USCIRF routinely preaches to the world about religious freedom and in particular accuses Hinduism of being the most oppressive religion in the world, and Hindus of being the most violent people on earth. As if on cue, these accusations are immediately picked up by identifiable members of the media, professors in prominent universities, and activists belonging to so-called human rights organizations and perpetrated through repetition in order to make them the truth.
Neocolonialism through USCIRF
As US hegemony is decreasing in the increasingly multi-polar world, US is trying to find new ways to meddle in the affairs of foreign nations. Its Religious Freedom Report is one such tool. US presents itself as holier than thou and makes subjective judgments based on narrow and parochial views.
While within USA there is separation of State and religion, and State does not interfere in the religious matters of the people. But abroad, it wants governments to meddle in religious matters and to preach, to manage, and to reform them — which is something that the US government, paradoxically, would never do at home.
A mere 6 percent of US population belongs to religion other than Christianity and historically this population had been even lower. So for a nation with almost no religious diversity to lecture other countries with huge religious diversity running across centuries shows USA’s supremacist attitude.
It is new form of White-man’s burden and neocolonialism.
The zeal with which USCIRF reports are pursued by academicians is no coincidence. Various investigative reports have found the US intelligence agency CIA secretly recruiting academics and organising conferences. As per a Guardian report “In perhaps its most audacious and elaborate incursion into academia, the CIA has secretly spent millions of dollars staging scientific conferences around the world.” One such conference was organized in India in 2020 in University of Madras titled ‘Conference in the Study of Religions in India’.
USCIRF- A Christian Evangelical Initiative
Most of the USCIRF Commissioners have been Christians. In 24 years of its existence, USCIRF has had 65 commissioners. Among these commissioners, there have been bishops, archbishops, cardinals, president and associates of Baptist Churches, Evangelical associations and proselytising Christian organisations. It was only in 2015 that USCIRF appointed its first non-Christian ambassador. No Hindu has ever been appointed as USCIRF Commissioner. A Commission lacking any semblance of genuine religious diversity (notwithstanding a small handful of non-Christian Commissioners through the years) and an agenda that has overwhelmingly sought to promote and further Christian missionary and conversion activities globally over the past two decades.
USCIRF’s zealous pursuit of religious freedom has been motivated by a not-so secret agenda of promoting Christian evangelical interests abroad, all the while carrying the weight and imprimatur of the U.S. government. In fact, USCIRF’s foundational roots lie firmly in a grassroots evangelical Christian movement which took shape in State department after Bill Clinton addressed the National Baptist Convention in Orlando and promised “to build the kingdom of God here on Earth”. Two months after the convention in November 1996, Advisory Committee on Religious Freedom Abroad was created by the State Department under Bill Clinton.
This committee had 20 people on it of which a total of 12 Christians representing various denominations and every one of them was associated with proselytising organisations, two were Muslim, one Bahai. Not only were Hindus kept out of this advisory committee, but people with a reputation of being India-baiters like Barnett Rubin were included on it. It was clear from the outset that the committee’s goal was to exclude Hindus so that targeting India for conversions could be incorporated into the State Department’s official foreign policy.
In early 1997, in an admission that the committee’s aim was to propagate Christianity around the world, their report used the title “United States Policies in Support of Religious Freedom: Focus on Christians”. The recommendation of this advisory committee resulted in the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA) leading to creation of USCIRF in 1998.
Out of the 65 commissioners, over 35 have been Christians and these were no ordinary Christians as can be seen from the list below. Each one of them has been an overt activist associated with at least one proselytising church or organisation involved in converting the world into Christianity. That leaders of Christian organisations have been in majority on the commission at all times and every Christian commissioner of USCIRF has belonged to an aggressive proselytising organisation is no accident.
Misplaced Moral Superiority
One the Most Reverend Theodore McCarrick, who was part of the advisory committee and was a USCIRF Commissioner from 1999-2002. He has been criminally charged with child sex crimes. He is not the only USCIRF Commissioner who has been charged for heinous crimes.
Andy Khawaja, a USCIRF Commissioner for two years, has been indicted for illegally funneling money from his close associate George Nader, who is now in federal custody for trafficking a 14-year old boy from Europe and raping him. Khawaja has already paid a fine of $110 million to the federal government for aiding, in the words of Associated Press, “pornographers, debt collectors and offshore gamblers access the international banking system, by using dummy foreign corporations and fake websites to disguise the underlying business using dummy foreign corporations and fake websites to disguise the underlying business.”
Hinduphobic Commissioners
Not only the Commission has over the years lacked any genuine Hindu representation, its appointed Commissioners have anti-Hindu bias. Instead of attempting to dispel any notions of bias, however, USCIRF’s government patrons have doubled down on its evangelical roots with the appointments of several overtly far-right and controversial evangelical Christian leaders in recent times.
The most prominent of those is Tony Perkins, the current President of the Family Research Council, a Christian lobbying organization designated as a hate group. He described a U.S. Marines yoga and meditation program for PTSD prevention, rooted in Hinduism and Buddhism, as “goofy” and an obstacle to creating a personal relationship with God. According to Perkins, only the Christian faith could do that.
In 2007, Perkins criticized the first Hindu prayer before the U.S. Senate, when he stated that, “No one can legitimately challenge the fact that the God America refers to in the national motto and other places is the monotheistic God of the Jewish and Christian faith. There is no historic connection between America and the polytheistic creed of the Hindu faith.” That such an individual who is both religiously bigoted and religiously illiterate (Hinduism is not a polytheistic creed) was tasked with monitoring religious freedom internationally on behalf of Americans is mind boggling. Ironically, it was Tony Perkins who headed the USCIRF in 2020, when India was designated as CPC by USCIRF after several years. Perkins’ appointment is not isolated. In addition to Perkins, three other evangelicals were appointed– Gary Bauer, Johnnie Moore, and Nadine Maenza.
Gary Bauer previously served as President of the Family Research Council and has long been involved with other evangelical Christian organizations. Upon his appointment to USCIRF, Bauer even tweeted that his focus would be on Christians.
Johnnie Moore is on Board of Directors of World Help which has described Nepal’s Hindu temples as “constant reminders of this country’s deep spiritual darkness” and indicates that there are many Hindus in Nepal “searching for the truth, praying to deaf idols because they know no other way.”
In its 2013 report USCIRF admitted that till date the IRFA provision to ban a person from US entry has been invoked only once. It was to ban then Gujarat CM Narendra Modi. Further it itself admits that no individual officials from any Country of Particular Concern (CPC) has ever been identified over all these years for violation of religious freedom. So over its history, USCIRF has recommended ban of only one individual while at the same time projecting the death of 58 Hindu passengers in Godhra incident as an accident. This exposes the inherent anti-Hindu bias within USCIRF and its purposeful targeting of India.
USCIRF- Islamic Influence
In 2013 as the political tide was shifting in India with rising popularity of Bhartiya Janta Party and Narendra Modi and Congress falling into the abyss over its corruption charges. It was evident that BJP will come to power. Around the same time in 2013-14 USCIRF became the target of a well-orchestrated influence operation from the Islamist influenced groups (IAMC/ICNA) to target India through USCIRF Reports. In 2014 USCIRF Report changes India’s map, therein removing portions of Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh from India. The organization did not explain the changes. It was clearly done to dent the aspirations of a rising India. After several years, by the time BJP government was re-voted to power in India, the Islamist organisation had well penetrated USCIRF. And in its 2020 report, as if almost on cue, the USCIRF designated India as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC).
The 2020 report was voted on by nine USCIRF Commissioners. In India’s case three of the nine commissioners voted against designating India as CPC. Among the rest six commissioners were: Tony Perkins (Chairman), Nadine Maenza (Vice Chair) and Anurima Bhargava (Indian American). The controversial profile of Tony Perkins with his Hinduphobic and Christian evangelical views has already been covered. The penetration of Islamists into the USCIRF and their influence can be judged from the profile of Nadine Maenza and Anurima Bhargava. These two individual are closely associated with Islamist organisation Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC) and its shadow organisations like
India America Center of Social Justice (IACSJ).
Nadine Maenza has financial interests with the Islamist organisations. She is the President of Patriot Voices (a US Lobby Agency) since 2012. The organisation has Terry G. Allen as its National Field Director and Senior Advisor. Now, Terry G. Allen is Founder president of a US Lobbying firm named Fidelis Government Relations (FGR).
FGR was hired by IAMC in the years 2013 and 2014 to lobby USCIRF. Its lobbying was successful as it succeeded in persuading USCIRF to change India’s map to exclude Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (PoK) from India and to include it in Pakistan.
FGR was also given lobbying contract from IAMC founder Shaik Ubaid, under the banner of Burma Task Force from 2018-21, the years when Nadine Maenza was on the bench of USCIRF Commission and USCIRF saw a turnaround and designated India as CPC. Through Burma Task Force, Shaik Ubaid paid an amount in excess of USD 400,000 over 2018-2020 to FGR. BTF is one of the several fronts under an umbrella organization called Justice for All (JFA) which is ‘powered by’ Chicago based company “Sound Vision” founded by Abdul Malik Mujahid in 1988.
Nadine Maenza has been actively involved in various events organised by Justice for All (JFA) and IAMC. Not only is she involved, she rather speaks the language of these Islamist organisations when it comes to India. The events are organised by the complex web of these islamist organisations under various banners to make India a talking point for sustained duration.
Nadine Maenza was evidently the first follower of the Twitter page of India America Center of Social Justice (IACSJ), a sister organisation of IAMC. The facebook page of IACSJ was handed over to it by IAMC, showing it be just another front of IAMC. Now comes the best part, the twitter handle, instagram and facebook page of IACSJ no longer exists, its website has also been pulled down.
Nadine Maenza also shared an organisation ‘Hardwired Global’ with Angana Chatterji in 2017-18. Chatterjee has been a close aide of the ISI mole Ghulam Nabi Fai, who was jailed in 2011 for concealing the transfer of US $3.5 million from the US to Pakistan, and has been lobbying for pro-Pakistan Kashmiri Muslim separatists.
Another USCIRF Commissioner who was one of the key person behind the 2020 report on India was Indian-American Anurima Bhargava. She was involved in many anti-Hindu ‘Congressional Briefings’ to designate India as ‘Country of Particular Concern’. Anurima Bhargava runs a strategic advisory and consulting firm ‘Anthem of us’. The firm lists a number of partner organisations. One of them – George Sorors’s Open Society Foundations. Bhargava herself is a OSF Fellowship winner.
Anurima Bhargava also frequents IAMC and Justice For All events as a key speaker to further the anti-India narrative amongst the global fora.
India Specific Concerns
How cancelling the license of the NGO which does not fulfill FCRA regulation can be consider as repression of religious freedom. These allegations made by NGOs such as United Christian Forum, United Against Hate, the Association for Protection of Civil Rights etc.
But in reality the license of NGO’s was cancelled due to violation of the FCRA act.
The Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan American think tank based in Washington, D.C. It report show that every religion in India have a freedom to practice their religion. It is significant to note that the report on religious freedom is based on inputs given by US Embassy top officials and staff, who in turn interact with the local government officials, NGOs, civil society, media etc. to collect information. Bare facts without the background knowledge of local social, economic and political environment and practices cannot be taken as final truth.
Freedom of Religion or Belief (FORB) Victims list is used to prepare the International Freedom report by USCIRF. The report consider Siddique Kappan, Khurram Parvez and Stan Swamy as the victims of freedom of Religion or Belief. But truth is entirely different.
Report claims that Indian government illegally arrested muslim human rights advocate Khurram Parvez, who has reported on abuses in Jammu and Kashmir. But in reality, as per NIA, Parvez worked as Lashkar's operator for recruiting OGWs. Pervez even called Amarnath Yatra a militarized pilgrimage showcasing his hatred towards other religion.
Siddique Kappan was arrested in the money laundering case under PMLA act. The ED said it was revealed during the probe that Rs 1.38 crore was given to PFI members to disturb communal harmony after the Hathras case. Kappan allegedly helped the PFI members to convert this black money into white.
Stan Swamy was the key conspirator in the Bhima Koregaon Elgar Parishad case of 2017. As per NIA, Stan Swamy was a ‘hard-core CPI (Maoist) activist’ who had received funds from other Maoists for furthering the activities of the banned outfit. He was also the convenor of PPSC, an organisation that was alleged to be a front organisation of CPI(M).
This data clearly represent the biasness of the USCIRF. They claims that the Muslim community have the highest number of victim of religious discrimination and persecution followed by Christians. They have included just 2 incident in case of Hindu.
USCIRF take in to account the inputs from report BREAKING WORLDS: Religion, Law and Citizenship in Majoritarian India: The Story of Assam” which is authored by a team of researchers led by Dr. Angana Chatterji.
Angana Chatterji works for separation of Kashmir from India. She is known to be closely associated with ISI-operative Ghulam Nabi Fai. Fai was convicted by United States for bribing officials and lawmakers money channelled via Pakistan’s ISI for raking up Kashmir issue. Fai was member of Kashmir American Council. Sandeep Balakrishnan in The Deadly Jihadi Network of “Mary” Angana Chatterji mentions that Chatterji was codenamed ‘Mary’ who was to meet the then Pakistan’s ISI’s Security Directorate Major General Mumtaz Ahmad Bajwa.
In her testimony to US House of Representatives on 22nd October 2019 on Human Rights in South Asia:Focus on Kashmir, Chatterji has called India “authoritarian, Hindu majority state where non-Hindus are seen as adversary”. She also went to say
She is widely known as a provocateur, known for inciting communal passions. Her husband Richard Shapiro was barred from entering India in 2010 for engaging in political activism in Kashmir valley. Her own radical views, with acute Hinduphobia, have earned her a notorious reputation across the political spectrum.