US watchdog says Afghanistan belongs on religious freedom blacklist
The US Commission on International Religious Freedom also recommended the State Department designate Syria as a "country of particular concern" and place Egypt, Iraq and Turkey on a special watchlist for religious freedom offenders.
Religious freedom conditions in Afghanistan have sharply deteriorated in the eight months since US troops withdrew from the country and the Taliban swept to power, a government watchdog said Monday.
The US Commission on International Religious Freedom, a bipartisan advisory body that monitors global religious freedom, recommended that the State Department categorize Afghanistan under the Taliban’s de facto government as a “country of particular concern.”
The designation is reserved for countries whose governments carry out or tolerate "systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom." Not since 2001 has USCIRF called for Afghanistan to be placed on the blacklist.
In its annual report released on Monday, the commission said Afghans who don’t adhere to the Taliban’s strict interpretation of Sunni Islam “are at risk of grave danger.” USCIRF has received credible reports of the Taliban harassing religious minorities and desecrating their houses of worship, as well as going door to door looking for Christian converts.
