RFI’s Miles Windsor wrote an op-ed for Newsweek on the need to restore American leadership on international religious freedom. Windsor argues that at a time when religious persecution is on the rise around the world, “the U.S. is not meeting the standard it has set for itself or fulfilling the role the rest of the free world has come to expect.” He writes:

In February, following President Donald Trump‘s inauguration, I was in a packed International Religious Freedom (IRF) Summit auditorium when Vice President JD Vance gave an speech, describing IRF as “a topic whose importance grows with each passing moment.”

He was right, and the landscape of oppression and persecution continues to deteriorate internationally. Regimes, often in the press for their heinous violations of human rights, destabilizing global order and peace, are some of the worst offenders. Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran, leading a rogues’ gallery of autocratic villains, constantly attack people of faith and places of worship in order to undermine any allegiance that is devoted to a power higher than their own. Additionally, deadly waves of violent extremism in places like Nigeria and India are devastating whole communities and going unchecked.

There are both humanitarian and deeply strategic reasons for prioritizing international religious freedom in foreign policy. Where such freedoms are safeguarded, democracy is more robust, local and regional conflicts are less likely, cross-border migration is reduced, and prosperity and the prospect of lucrative business and trade opportunities abound. Regimes that do not respect or properly defend the inalienable rights of their citizens to exercise their religious beliefs in freedom are not contributors to international peace and prosperity, and they are not reliable partners. When the United States champions this cause, it strengthens relationships with emerging democracies, builds trust with civil societies, and counters the influence of dictatorships that use religious repression as a weapon of control.

President Trump in his first administration demonstrated resolute leadership in prioritizing religious freedom in foreign policy, founding the International Freedom of Religion or Belief Alliance (IRFBA), establishing and hosting annual ministerial conferences to advance the issue with governments around the world, engaging forcefully with nations that violated this right, and advocating for the release of prisoners of conscience. In his address at the IRF Summit, Vance acknowledged that effort, stating, “The first Trump administration took critical steps to protect the rights of the faithful by rescuing pastors persecuted by foreign regimes or bringing relief to faith communities facing genocidal terror from ISIS.”

While the comments of JD Vance, and the appointment of Marco Rubio as secretary of State—a long-devoted champion of the cause—served as encouraging indicators of the new Trump administration’s commitment to advancing this issue in foreign policy, the U.S. is not meeting the standard it has set for itself or fulfilling the role the rest of the free world has come to expect.

Read the full article: “It’s Time to Restore American Leadership on International Religious Freedom.”