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               US Cites Vast Terrorist Abuse of Religious Groups

   by Ken Bredemeier

   The U.S. State Department said Wednesday that a range of terrorist
   organizations and other non-state groups have inflicted "harsh and
   hateful treatment" on religious groups throughout the Middle East,
   sub-Saharan Africa and Asia.

   In its 17th [1]annual report on international religious freedom, the
   State Department said that as religious groups have been targeted for
   abuse and discrimination in the three regions, "religious intolerance
   and hostility, often combined with political, economic and ethnic
   grievances, frequently led to violence."

   The report said that governments have stood by, "either unwilling or
   unable to act in response to the resulting death, injuries and
   displacement."

   Islamic State

   The State Department singled out the Islamic State for its abuse of
   religious freedom in Iraq and Syria.

   It cited one instance in Mosul, Iraq, where an insurgent ripped a
   three-year-old girl from the arms of her Christian mother and forced
   the mother back on to a bus under the threat of being slaughtered if
   she did not obey his command. The report said the mother was "never to
   know what became" of her daughter.

   The report also cited abuses by Shi'ite militias in Iraq, the al-Nusra
   Front in Syria, Boko Haram in Nigeria, the Lashkar i Jhangvi in
   Pakistan, anti-Semitism in France and Germany and discrimination
   against the Rohingya minority in Myanmar, also known as Burma.

   In releasing the report, David Saperstein, the U.S. ambassador at large
   for international religious freedom, said, "There is an absolute and
   unequivocal need to give voice to the religiously oppressed in every
   land afraid to speak of what they believe in; who face death and live
   in fear, who worship in underground churches, mosques or temples, who
   feel so desperate that they flee their homes to avoid killing and
   persecution simply because they love God in their own way or question
   the existence of God."
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   [2]http://www.voanews.com/content/us-cites-vas-terrorist-abuse-of-relig
   ious-groups/3005657.html

References

   1. http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2015/10/248196.htm
   2. http://www.voanews.com/content/us-cites-vas-terrorist-abuse-of-religious-groups/3005657.html