Iraq's religious rights called worsening

Even with U.S. troops in Iraq, religious rights there are deteriorating so quickly that America's official watchdog for religious freedom has added that country to its "watch list" of repressive governments.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom called the situation in Iraq "alarming and deteriorating" this week in an annual report to the State Department that looks at religious freedom globally.

The report also included a few mentions, praising or warning governments for their treatment of the Utah-headquartered Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The report said the Iraqi government is tolerating "pervasive and severe violence and discrimination at the hands of both government and non-government actors" against Sunni minorities and some Christian groups.

It said that not only are insurgents who are Sunnis arrested, held for extended periods without due process, sometimes killed and tortured, but it is also happening against "ordinary Sunnis who are targeted on the basis of their religious identity."

It also said the government is tolerating attacks by armed Shi'a factions that include abductions, beatings, executions, torture and rape. The commission said it may recommend declaring Iraq a more serious "country of particular concern" next year if conditions do not improve.

Meanwhile, the commission said religious freedom conditions also "remain increasingly problematic" in another country where many U.S. soldiers are stationed: Afghanistan.

It was added to the watch list last year. The new report said flaws in the country's new constitution do not clearly protect religious rights. It said the government's inability to exercise authority outside Kabul also "contributes to progressively deteriorating situation for religious freedom and other human rights."

The commission recommended that the State Department declare 11 nations as most serious "countries of particular concern": Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.

The commission also has its own less serious "watch list" of eight countries: Afghanistan, Iraq, Bangladesh, Belarus, Cuba, Egypt, Indonesia and Nigeria.

Of local note, the report included a few specific praises and warnings for a couple of countries and their treatment of the LDS Church.

For example, the report praised the nation of Georgia — which was recently removed from the watch list — for cracking down on violence against minority religious communities.

It also praised a 2005 law that allowed religious communities to register as non-commercial organizations, to give them some rights even though the Georgian Orthodox Church is the only religious community to have full legal status there.