Turkey slams US international religious freedom report
New Delhi
India has turned down a travel request for members of a US government panel seeking to review its religious freedom, saying such foreign agencies had no standing to assess the constitutional rights of citizens.
Since taking power in 2014, the Indian government has faced criticism for attacks on Muslims and the panel has called for the world’s biggest democracy to be designated a “country of particular concern”.
The call by the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) was made in an April report urging sanctions against officials of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government after it excluded minority Muslims from a new citizenship law.
Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said the government firmly repudiated the surveys of the commission, which had little knowledge of the rights of Indian citizens, describing it as biased and prejudiced.
“We have also denied visas to USCIRF teams that have sought to visit India in connection with issues related to religious freedom,” he told a lawmaker from Modi’s ruling group in a June 1 letter.
Religious freedom watchdog wants India on US blacklist The step was taken because the government saw no grounds for a foreign entity such as the USCIRF to pronounce on the state of Indian citizens’ constitutionally protected rights, he added.
Reuters has reviewed a copy of the letter to Nishikant Dubey, an MP who had raised the issue of the panel’s report in parliament.
The US embassy in New Delhi referred all queries to the commission-based in Washington DC, which was not immediately available to respond.
The commission is a bipartisan US government advisory body that monitors religious freedom abroad and makes policy recommendations to the president, the secretary of state, and Congress. However, these are not binding.
India would not accept any foreign interference or judgement on matters related to its sovereignty, Jaishankar added.
Turkey on Thursday criticised the US Department of State’s 2019 Report on International Religious Freedom as “written in a language far from objectivity.”
Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Hami Aksoy said in a statement that the report’s contents on Turkey included “claims without sources.”
“Without any discrimination, Turkey continues to support its goals in protecting and developing the freedoms of religion and worship for all of our citizens via concrete steps. Different religions and beliefs live in peace and harmony in our country,” Aksoy said.
Underscoring that in the last 20 years, Turkey had taken significant steps to improve the rights and freedoms of non-Muslims, Aksoy said the country had introduced legislation and governance practices for all citizens to enjoy equal rights and to prevent all means of discrimination as part of its efforts to further democracy.
Referring to the report’s stance on discussions to convert Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia and Chora Museums into mosques, Aksoy said: “Hagia Sophia and Chora are the property of the Republic of Turkey and all means of authority [on the museums] are a matter of Turkey’s internal affairs.”
“Decisions made or to be made regarding these sites are not a concern of other countries,” he added. Aksoy further stressed that all cultural and religious properties in Turkey were well protected.
Citing rising Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, racism and xenophobia in the US, Aksoy said it was “tragicomic” for Washington to use such reports to draw the world’s attention away from widespread protests in the country.
Aksoy further rejected “all inconsistencies and purposeful but baseless statements in the report” and called on the US to focus on its internal affairs on religious freedoms and human rights.—AP
