WASHINGTON — Human rights violations would likely vanish if all nations responded to them as vigorously as America has to U.S. abuse of Iraqi prisoners, incoming University of Utah President Michael K. Young said Wednesday.

Young is chairman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, which released its annual report about global abuses against religious freedom just as world headlines scream about prisoner abuse. Such abuse has created worldwide questioning about whether America has the moral authority to call others to reform.

When asked about that, Young said, "If every country responded as vigorously as our Congress has to human rights abuses in their countries, our report (listing worldwide problems) would probably be enormously shorter."

Young, current dean of the George Washington University law school, was named a week ago to head the U.

"We are calling on other countries to respond to abuses in their countries in the way in which we hope our country responds," he said.

Young said the U.S. abuses are repugnant but "should not blind us to the fact, however, that there are tens of thousands of people throughout the world who are having their fingernails pulled out, who are having electric shocks attached, who are being beheaded or who are being tortured and killed in prison simply for their expression of their religious beliefs."

His comments came a day after images of an American civilian being beheaded in Bagdad were displayed by Islamic militants who said the execution was in retaliation for mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners in U.S. military custody.

Fellow commissioner Richard Land wondered if the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by the U.S. military would have been news had it been going on in a Chinese or North Korean prison, then said, "Hardly; far worse goes on all the time, and we know it. We're calling the world to the standard that we espouse and the standard that we normally practice, of which this is an aberration."

The commission reported that practicing religion is extremely dangerous in vast parts of the world, with thousands harassed, imprisoned, tortured and killed each year.

In fact, Land said, "Perhaps more people have been martyred for their faiths — different faiths — in the 20th century than any century of humankind. And the situation . . . is getting worse, not better."