State Department report on religious persecution accuses Islamic State of genocide

Washington —  Rejecting criticism that it has sidelined human rights in U.S. policy, the State Department on Tuesday accused Islamic State of trying to commit genocide of Christians and other minorities as it sought to build an Islamist caliphate in Iraq and Syria.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the armed extremists targeted Christians, Yezidis and Shiite Muslims for rape, kidnapping, enslavement and death.

“The protection of these groups — and others who are targets of violent extremism — remains a human rights priority for the Trump administration,” Tillerson said as he released the department’s annual report on international religious freedom.

Islamic State “is clearly responsible for genocide” as well as “crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing” against those groups and, in some cases, against other Muslims and Kurds, Tillerson said.

The Sunni extremist group swept out of northern Syria into neighboring Iraq in early 2014 and quickly captured much of Iraq’s west and north. A U.S.-led coalition, including Iraqi troops and Kurdish guerrillas, has steadily pushed the militants back, last month recapturing the crucial city of Mosul.

American officials claimed last week that U.S.-backed Syrian militias also have recaptured half of Raqqah, Islamic State’s self-declared capital in Syria, although fighting there remains intense.

The report, which is mandated by Congress, was compiled in 2016 and reviews religious freedom around the world. Although last year’s report also accused Islamic State of mass atrocities, the language this year sought to “remove previous ambiguity,” Tillerson said.

Human rights groups have accused President Trump of ignoring human rights abuses during his talks with several major leaders, including Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan, China’s Xi Jinping and Egypt’s Abdel Fattah Sisi.

They also criticized Tillerson for not personally releasing the State Department’s annual human rights report in March, as most of his predecessors have done, lowering its profile. The report is an accounting of the torture of political prisoners, efforts to stifle a free press and other abuses around the globe.

Instead, the administration appears to be highlighting more specific causes that appeal to conservative voters.

In June, Tillerson and the president’s daughter, Ivanka Trump, appeared together to release a report on human trafficking. Tuesday’s report on religious freedom also got a high-level rollout.

Tillerson said 80% of the world population faces restrictions on or hostility to the free practice of religious beliefs.

He singled out seven countries for egregious practices, including U.S. allies Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Turkey and Pakistan, as well as Iran, China and Sudan.

He declined to say if the report would change White House efforts to change policy to cut in half the number of refugees allowed into the country, from 100,000 to 50,000.

Michael Kozak, senior advisor at the State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, said Department of Homeland Security officials would use data in the report to help evaluate refugee applications.

“Unfortunately, every year, there are way, way, way more refugees than what any one country can take in,” he added.

The report also voiced concern for the repression of Shiite Muslims by Islamic State but also by Saudi Arabia and other Sunni Muslim countries, saying they deserved greater protection.

Critics highlighted the disconnect between the report’s concern for religious repression and White House efforts to ban travel from a half-dozen Muslim-majority nations earlier this year.

“Does US still have moral influence on this topic?” Farah Pandith, who served as State’s special representative to Muslim communities from 2009 to 2014, asked on her Twitter account. “US must b example 2 fortify report.”

The report cited improvement in the tolerance of religious minorities in Vietnam, Uzbekistan and Tunisia.

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