ICC Note: Last week, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) warned that the risk to Pakistan’s minorities, including Christians, has reached crisis level. “An array of repressive laws, including the much abused blasphemy law… foster an atmosphere of violent extremism and vigilantism,” Knox Thames, the Director of Policy and Research at (USCIRF), writes for Foreign Policy. “We have concluded that the situation in Pakistan is one of the worst in the world.”
By Knox Thames
4/30/2013 Pakistan (Foreign Policy) – Today, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) issued its 2013 Annual Report, focusing on Pakistan and 28 other countries around the world, including Afghanistan.  As an independent U.S. government advisory body separate from the State Department, USCIRF’s Annual Report identifies violations of religious freedom, as defined by international conventions, and provides policy recommendations to the President, the Secretary of State, and the Congress.
Based on our monitoring over the past year, we have concluded that the situation in Pakistan is one of the worst in the world.
The report found that “sectarian and religiously-motivated violence is chronic, especially against Shi’a Muslims, and the government has failed to protect members of religious minority communities, as well as the majority faith.”  An array of repressive laws, including the much abused blasphemy law and religiously discriminatory anti-Ahmadi laws, foster an atmosphere of violent extremism and vigilantism.  The growth of militant groups espousing a violent religious ideology that undertake attacks impact all Pakistanis and threatens the country’s security and stability.
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