USCIRF exists for the sole purpose of fanning religious feelings around the world.
The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), an arm of the US State Department, has equated Israel with Hamas and accused the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) of striking seven mosques. This while underplaying Hamas’ misuse of these mosques for military purposes by describing the fact merely as IDF’s “claim.” USCIRF’s statement has also quoted one of its Commissioners, Mohamad Magid, as saying, “Claims that violent terrorists represent the whole of Islam—or the Palestinian people seeking their fundamental human rights—are ill-founded.”
While he may be right in not equating a religion with a terrorist group, that quote is ironic, as USCIRF attempts to deny the role of religion and ethnicity in politics even though USCIRF itself exists, as its name suggests, for the sole purpose of fanning religious feelings around the world. Historically, religions have played a central role in politics, whether it was in the creation of Israel, the Protestants fleeing the Catholics and Anglicans for America, the partition of India, the passage of the first and second amendments of the US Constitution, or the setting up of the governments of Islamic countries as theocracies.
Religion continues to play an important role, and within the US, the terms “conservative” and “right wing” are primarily used by the so-called “liberals” to label the white Protestants. They also use the terms “right wing,” “extremist” and “nationalist” as slurs to describe the members of various religions and ethnicities around the world that they oppose.
Apart from the white Protestants, such groups include Hindus, Mizrahi and Sephardic Jews who defend the policies of Israel, Shia Muslims, and the members of the Russian Orthodox church. They also do not shy away from naming the religions and ethnicities of the people whom they use as their tools to achieve political goals. Such groups are used as shields behind whom the leadership of the “left” hides, while falsely accusing their opponents of racism, while Wahhabis are weaponized and used as the sword of the “left” to wage wars. Despite the US State Department and the leaders of the “left” using religions and ethnicities to label their political opponents in order to extract political gain, they have carefully ensured that their own theologies and ethnicities are not part of any political discourse.
Instead, they hide behind terms such as “liberal,” “progressive,” “left wing” and “human rights advocates” to identify themselves. There are also a few people in the United States and elsewhere who sympathize with the violent Maoist groups around the world and label themselves “liberals,” but they too are irrelevant as they too are not permitted to shape any policies and are expected to fall in line with whatever is told to them in exchange for money that flows to them from the non-governmental organizations.
The US State Department is focused on the singular objective of destroying Russia and the Russian Orthodox Church. They oppose any stumbling blocks in their quest to build an anti- Russian coalition with other groups. The same objective plays a dominant role in the politics of the European Union too, with the Eastern Orthodox church being treated as a mortal enemy that must be destroyed.
In the past few decades, the US State Department and the American intelligence agencies have ensured that American politics is stringently anti- Russian. Even universities such as Georgetown University and Johns Hopkins University that coordinate with the US on foreign policy. US President Joe Biden, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Under Secretary of State Victoria Nuland, and former Secretaries of State John Kerry and Madeleine Albright, all of whom had either a Roman Catholic or an East European origin, have been hawkish on Russia.
On the other hand, Protestants like James Baker and Warren Christopher who served as Secretaries of State, and President Richard Nixon, argued for Russia to be integrated into Europe at the end of the cold war. This schism has defined American politics and global geopolitics for more than a hundred years. For its part, the USCIRF was set up to use religions as political weapons around the world, and its Commissioners, who always belong to the religions of the “left”, fan the flames of religious wars outside USA. They routinely make absurd claims like India not being a democracy, and its primary output has been to generate propaganda against Hinduism and portray Hindus as the most violent people in the world.
The USCIRF uses religious tests to appoint its commissioners and staff, and every single person who has been a commissioner has been hostile towards Hinduism. It is for this reason that India refuses to grant visas to its commissioners. India’s refusal to become a proxy in the US State Department’s war against Russia has infuriated them even more. The State Department’s views on Israel vary depending on the state of Israel-Russia relations.
The more friendly Israel becomes with Russia at any point of time, the more hostile the State Department becomes towards Israel. Additionally, the US State Department routinely supports the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and portrays the country as a victim of human rights violations. The US State Department backtracked after initially expressing support for Iranian women who were fighting for their freedom in 2022 and early 2023. When the Iranian women expanded their fight and sought liberation from the religious clerics, the US State Department pulled its support and issued a statement defending Islam, leading to the tragic murders of these brave women by the Iranian government.
The “liberals” routinely make false accusations of racism and violence against their political opponents, and have perfected the art of divide-and-rule. They manipulate people into supporting their foreign policy by making false claims that Christians are being slaughtered around the world including by Hindus in India, while they tell the Hindus in America that the evangelicals are to blame for racism in USA.
The rest of the world needs to acknowledge that religion and race are central to politics, especially in the US where the “left” treats every religion and race as either its ally or its enemy. Just as the “liberals” use religious and ethnic labels against their opponents, others too must identify the “liberals” by their religions and ethnicities, and accurately describe their political positions as manifestations of their loyalties to their religious and ethnic coalition.
The weapons of the “liberals” should be dealt with in an appropriate manner. Specifically, any theology that preaches violence and hatred and lends itself to be used as a weapon of the “liberals” must be described in an honest manner, and the world should ensure that religious freedom including the right to multiculturalism, democracy, freedom of expression, and the right to immigrate be brought to the countries where the favoured religion of the “liberals” is remaining in power.
The author is an immigrant from India who lives in the United States and can be reached at arvindk@uchicago. edu