United States Commission for International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) was created by United States Government in 1998 by the then US President Bill Clinton. As per it’s website, USCIRF is “an independent, bi-partisan US Federal Government Commission dedicated to defending the universal right to freedom of religion or belief abroad. The Commission also makes policy recommendations to the President, The Secretary of State, and Congress. USCIRF Commissioners are appointed by the President and Congressional leadership of both political parties”.
USCIRF have been publishing Annual Reports on India since 2003. Their main area of concern have been India’s anti-conversion laws enacted in various states. Anti-conversion laws affect Christian evangelicals the most. USCIRF has been quiet over evangelicals misusing Indian visas to spread and promote Christianity in India. USCIRF has never expressed concern on deteriorating human right violations on Hindu and Sikh girls in Pakistan or on the genocide of Kashmiri Hindus in 1990 and their continued human rights violations. USCIRF expressing concern over India’s Citizenship Amendment Act said:
the legislation used religion as a legal criterion to grant citizenship and is a dangerous turn in the wrong direction. It runs counter to India’s rich history of secular pluralism and the Indian Constitution, which guarantees equality before the law regardless of faith
USCIRF
The commission had also suggested that the Department of State impose “targeted sanctions” against Union Home Minister Amit Shah for the passage of the Citizenship Amendment Act which according to USCIRF violates religious freedom. The sanctions proposed by the commission included the freezing of the assets of officials involved in such acts, or barring their entry into the United States. In their Annual Report for 2020 USCIRF categorising India as ‘Country of Particular Concern’ (CPC) said:
the country was engaging in tolerating systematic, ongoing and egregious, religious freedom violations.
USCIRF Annual Report 2020
While accusing the Indian government of allowing violence against minorities and their houses of worship to continue with impunity, and also engaging in and tolerating hate speech and incitement to violence, former USCIRF Vice Chair Nadine Maenza said:
India had seen perhaps the steepest, and most alarming, deterioration in religious freedom in the past year.…….this move by the Hindu nationalist government of India was both startling and disturbing and could potentially leave millions of Muslims in India vulnerable to detention, deportation, and statelessness.
USCIRF Vice Chair Nadine Maenza
In it’s 20+ years existence, USCIRF Commissioners have been Bishops, Archbishops, Cardinals, Reverends, Christian Ministers, Pastors, Jesuit Priests, Christian activists, Board Members of various Churches, Board members of various Catholic Associations, Presidents of Evangelical organisations, Ambassadors of Christian conversion groups, Professors with links to the Vatican, Presidents of World Vision, contributors and editors to Christian magazines like Christian Post, Christianity Today, and George Soros’ Open Society Fellowship winners.
In December 2019, former USCIRF Commissioner, Ahmad “Andy” Khawaja was indicted in conspiring to conceal conduit and excessive campaign contributions to the tune of USD$3.5 million.
USCIRF past and current commissioners are regularly seen with Jamat-e-Islami front Indian American Muslim Council events. David Curry participated in an IAMC event “The Democratic Backslide in India” on July 19 2019. According to online news portal Clarionindia.net, David Curry “expressed his deep frustration with the US State Department after its failure to designate India as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC).”
David Curry was CEO of Open Doors USA, a Christian supremacist organisation seeks to Christianise the world including India. He was still the CEO of Open Doors when he was appointed as a Commissioner to the USCIRF. He split from Open Doors International to found Global Christian Relief. Since then, Curry is the founder, President and CEO of Global Christian Relief. According to their website, Christians in India are persecuted for being Christians. According to Global Christian Relief, India’s anti-conversion law is “persecution” of Christians because Hindus choose to “preserve Hindu religious identity in the face of British missionaries.” On their India profile page, Global Christian Relief write “Roman Catholicism established itself with the arrival of the Portuguese in south India in the 1500’s and still give southern states like Kerela a Christian character.” To note here, Portuguese to establish Christianity and Catholicism started an Inquisition in Goa. 100’s of Hindus were tortured, slaughtered and forcibly converted while they demolished Hindu temples to build Churches over it. According to author Haig A. Bosmajian in his book Burning Books writes “all books written in Sanskrit and Marathi, whatever their subject matter, were seized by the Inquisition and burnt on the suspicion that they might deal with idolatry”.
David Curry also is a contributor to Christianity Today, The Christian Post, Religion News Service and Huffington Post. USCIRF, Global Christian Relief and Open Doors have a problem with India’s anti-conversion laws.
USCIRF Vice Chair, Frederick Davie attended an IAMC event in September 2023 where he said “Policymakers cannot ignore the foreign policy and trade implications of deteriorating religious conditions in India,”.
USCIRF Commissioner, Stephen Schneck, attended a IAMC event in February and June 2023. At the February 2023 event Schneck called for designating India as ‘Country of Particular Concern’. He said “The Indian government at the local, state, and national level continues to create policies that negatively impact Muslims, Christians, and other religious minorities…Application of these policies has created a culture of impunity for national campaigns of violence against Muslims and Christians. The U.S. must designate India a country of particular concern. We at USCIRF continue to press President Biden and congress to do so.”
Schneck’s February 2023 created controversy as he was seen holding and endorsing IAMC’s report on India. Global Strat View reached out to USCRIF who claridfied saying “The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom does not endorse any reports made by outside organizations,”.
In September 2023 USCIRF organised an event “Advancing Religious Freedom within the U.S. – India Bilateral Relationship” where they invited Sarah Yager of Human Rights Watch, Sunita Viswanath of Hindus for Human Rights along with Irfan Nooruddin, Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani Professor of Indian Politics, Georgetown University. Al Thani is the ruling family of Qatar and owner of the Hinduphobic news channel, Al Jazeera.
Disinfo Lab have exposed the nexus between USCIRF – Islamists here.
Current Commissioners are:
- Stephen Schneck – A Catholic acivist
2. David Curry – President and CEO of Global Christian Relief.
3. Frederick Davie – Vice Chair, USCIRF, a Reverend, worked with Presbyterian delegations and CIA-front Ford Foundation.
4. Mohamed Magid – former President of ISNA (Islamic Society of North America)
5. Abraham Cooper – Chair and Jewish Human Rights activist and a Rabbi.
6. Susie Gelman – Jewish Human Rights activist.
In March 2024, USCIRF spoke against India in Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission’s Congressional briefing. USCIRF’s representative spoke complete lies about India’s CAA, did not speak about 2,500 Hindus threatened by Muslims in Nuh, Haryana, supported Khalistani terrorists, Sikhs for Justice’s Gurpatwant Singh Pannun and Khalistan Tiger Force’s Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
Former Commissioners:
Chair- Gayle Manchin: Career educator, wife of former Governor and current US Senator Joe Manchin, Board of Trustee, Bethany College (liberal arts college, having an on-going relationship with Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)).
Vice-Chair – Tony Perkins: Ordained Minister, Southern Baptist, Board member-Caring to Love Ministries, President-Family Research Council, Christian Conservative policy and lobby organisation, termed Yoga as “goofy”, opposed Hindu prayer before US Senate saying:
There is no historic connection between America and the polytheistic creed of the Hindu faith.
Tony Perkins
Vice Chair – Arunima Bhargava: Open Society Fellowship winner 2016, Civil Rights activist, Indian-American, Member-Council of Foreign Relations.
Commissioner – James W.Carr: Board Member-Herald of Truth Ministries, Board of Directors-World Christian Broadcasting
Commissioner – Gary L. Bauer: Baptist, Founder-Family Research Council, President-Focus on the Family both Conservative Christian Organisations, former Washington Director- Christians United for Israel.
Commissioner – Fredrick A.Davie: Executive Vice President-Union Theological Seminary, Board Member-Interfaith Youth Core, Former Programme Officer-Ford Foundation
Commissioner – Nadine Maenza: Former Vice Chair, USCIRF, Executive Director Patriot Voices, Ex-Chairman Hardwired Global, also regular contributor for The Hill, The Christian Post, The Daily Signal, Inter Press Service, The Globe Post
Commissioner – Johnnie Moore: Reverend, Evangelical, President-The Congress of Christian Leaders
Commissioner – Nury Turkel: Uyghur Human Rights activist, Attorney, Chairman- Uyghur Human Rights Project
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