In Saudi Arabia in 2010, the government restricted access to the Internet.... The official Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC) ... blocked sites, including pages about Hinduism, Judaism, Christianity, and certain forms of Islam deemed incompatible with Sharia law and national regulations....Secretary Clinton also announced the creation of a new website, humanrights.gov that offers "one-stop shopping for information about global human rights from across the United States Government."
In Pakistan, religious freedom violations and violence and discrimination against religious minorities continued. The blasphemy laws were used to harass religious minorities as well as vulnerable Muslims or Muslims with minority views. (In the first two months of 2011, two senior government officials who publicly challenged these laws were brutally killed.) In Saudi Arabia, there were severe restrictions on religious freedom and discrimination on the basis of religion was common. In China, the government continued to demonize the Dalai Lama and harshly repress Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang and Tibetan Buddhists. There were reports of increases in anti-Semitic acts around the world, including the desecration of cemeteries, graffiti, and blood-libel rhetoric, as well as Holocaust denial, revisionism, and glorification. There have also been spikes in expressions of anti-Semitism during events in the Middle East.
Saturday, April 09, 2011
State Department Releases 2010 Country Reports On Human Rights Practices
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton yesterday released the State Department's 2010 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices. The reports cover in detail human rights conditions in over 190 countries. The introduction has the following to say about religious freedom around the world:
