Editors’ Note: In an effort to foster a more open and honest American dialog, Breitbart convened “The Uninvited” panel at CPAC 2013. This post is a part of a series continuing that dialog with the Breitbart News readers.
Nina Shea, Director of the Center for Religious Freedom and a Hudson Institute Fellow, told Breitbart’s “Uninvited” panel at CPAC on Saturday that “religious persecution is the gravest human rights crisis of our day.” She added that “Christians are as a group the most persecuted, out of sheer numbers, across the world. This means they are being killed, tortured, imprisoned and eradicated …sent into exile for their beliefs.”
The crisis of global persecution of Christians has been largely ignored by the mainstream media. Ms. Shea told Breitbart News in an exclusive interview on Tuesday that “since A.M. Rosenthal at the New York Times passed away [in 2006], this issue has not been covered at the level it deserves, so I was very happy that Breitbart gave me the opportunity on the panel to promote the issue of global persecution of Christians.” Rosenthal, the former executive editor and columnist at the Times from 1977 to 1999, wrote dozens of columns on the problem of global Christian persecution in the 1990s.
Ms. Shea pointed to several recent examples of violent persecution of Christians in the Muslim world. “Last week alone,” she said, “we saw in Libya a Coptic Christian from Egypt tortured to death. Fifty of his co-religionists were imprisoned and some are still there.”
Ms. Shea’s complete remarks to “The Uninvited” panel can be seen in this video clip:
In Tuesday’s interview with Breitbart News, Ms. Shea singled out the Obama administration’s failure to defend Christians in Muslim countries. American policy, she said, should be to use its moral authority, and the power of its foreign aid purse to influence Muslim countries to stop persecuting Christians.
According to Ms. Shea, the Obama administration should be “using the bully pulpit, speaking out about this.” She added that “it’s important that the world know about this extreme intolerance. Some lives will be saved by this.” But, she noted, the Obama administration has been “silent” on the issue of global Christian persecution, and she had little hope of improvement. “I have every expectation this problem will become worse between now and the end of the Obama administration.”
As an illustration of the Obama administration’s indifference to the global persecution of Christians, Ms. Shea pointed to Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom at the State Department, Suzanne Johnson Cook, who has statutory responsibility to speak out on religious freedom, but “never talks about this issue.”
The persecution of Christians is one of the consequences of the Arab Spring. “[The] Arab Spring has resulted in Islamist governments in Egypt and North Africa and possibly Syria,” she said. “I see the trend [of increased persecution of Christians] continuing to intensify and it’s evident in Egypt. After the adoption of an Islamic constitution we’re seeing stories of religious police imposing Islamic law.”
Shea singled out the United States’ relationship with Egypt, a country where Christians are being persecuted. “The United States has a lot of influence with foreign aid in Egypt. We’re about to give them $10 billion in aid, in direct military aid, and in approval for IMF loans . . . and we don’t draw a red line [with them] for the protection of Christians and Christian rights.”
There are trials going on now in Iran of Christians. In Iraq, seventy Christian churches have been blown up, and its Christian population has been all but driven out of the country. “Syria may be next,” Ms. Shea said, and “under the cover of chaos and war, Christians are being targeted.”
The persecution has spread to Africa, “Churches are attacked on a regular basis in Nigera now by Boko Haram, whose name means ‘Western education is a sin’. Their aim is to religiously cleanse northern Nigeria so it’s entirely Muslim. Northern Sudan right now is waging a crackdown against the remaining Christians there.” Muslims are destroying “Christian churches that have been established for hundreds if not thousands of years.”
The symbolism is we are completely and utterly indifferent to the fate of Christains in Egypt
Egypt is the largest pop of Christians 8 to 10 million
If Christians start leaving in Eguypt it will be devastating to the presence of Christians in the Me and they are starting to leave
I think unless we Americans, any Americans who care about human rights, demand our elected officials address this issue …. drawing redlines saying christians deserve protection unless that happens were’ going to see the end of the indigenous christian chuirch presense in the middle eastern”
“it’s bad for america, it’s bad for the west.”
Middle East Christians, she said “believe in western education… they believe in human rights.”
that will be a radicalizing effect that wont be good for our strategic relationships.”
Why are we giving tanks?
The symbolism is we are completely and utterly indifferent to the fate of Christains in Egypt
Egypt is the largest pop of Christians 8 to 10 million
If Christians start leaving in Eguypt it will be devastating to the presence of Christians in the Me and they are starting to leave
I think unless we Americans, any Americans who care about human rights, demand our elected officials address this issue …. drawing redlines saying christians deserve protection unless that happens were’ going to see the end of the indigenous christian chuirch presense in the middle eastern”
“it’s bad for america, it’s bad for the west.”
Middle East Christians, she said “believe in western education… they believe in human rights.”
that will be a radicalizing effect that wont be good for our strategic relationships.”
xxxxxxxxxxxxx There are trials going on now in Iran of Christians Iraq 70 churches blown up the christian pop has all but been driven out of iraq syria may be next under cover of chaos and war Christians are being targeted
What is the end game?
churches are attacked on a regular basis in Nigera now by Boka Haram whose name means western education is a sin. their aim is to religioulsy cleanse northern nigeria so it’s entirely muslim
northern sudan right now is waging a crackdown against the remaining christians there
these are churches that have been established for hundreds if not thousands of years
and then there’s the new churches that’s who’
She said that American foreign policy under President Obama has been inadequate.
The Obama administration knew about it, reported in their annual report did nothing and said nothing about it at the time
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Nina Shea has dedicated her life to stopping religious persecution throughout the world. Fresh out of law school, she spent seven years working as an international human rights attorney. In 1986 she founded the Center for Religious Freedom, which is now housed at the Hudson Institute.
Ms. Shea was an instrumental leader in the movement in the late 1990s to end the mass murders of Christians in what was then the southern section of the country of Sudan. Along with such religious leaders as the late Charles Colson, Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention, and Father Richard Newhouse, Ms. Shea helped bring the issue to the attention of President George W. Bush. In September, 2001, just days after the 9-11 attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center, President Bush named former Senator Richard Danforth as his Special Envoy to Sudan, with a mission of stopping the murders of Christians–which some have estimated were as many as two million in the preceding decade.
Using the bully pulpit and influence of America’s moral and budget authority, Danforth’s efforts succeeded. In 2005 a referendum was held that ultimately led to the 2011 establishment of the independent country of South Sudan, one that now allows complete religious freedom. Religiously based killings of Christians or any other religious group have ended.
In an exclusive interview with Breitbart News on Tuesday, Ms. Shea said “”Since A.M. Rosenthal at the NY Times passed away, this issue has not being covered at the level it deserves, so I was very happy that Breitbart gave me the opportunity on the panel to promote the issue of global persecution of Christians.”
Rosenthal, the former executive editor at the New York Times from 1977 to 1988, wrote a column for the Times from 1988 until 1999 in which he became an unexpected and fervent champion of Ms. Shea’s cause of religious freedom and end to persecution of Christians in Sudan. Rosenthal died in 2006.
“This movement fell apart because we had a successes int rel freedom act of 1998 requires reports us international commission b. the reports on religious freedom 2. the Sudan comprehensive peace agreement that was in 05 . effort began 01. Bush’s apptmt of special envoy sept 01 country independent 2011political success getting bush to pay attention appoint danforth.” Since then, Ms. Shea said “many of the importnat leaders have either retired or passed away.”
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