KABUL (SW) – The Islamic Emirate has rejected a recent US report on religious freedom that showed Afghanistan in a bad light.
Zabihullah Mujahid, spokesman for the Islamic Emirate, said in response to a US State Department report on violations of religious freedom in Afghanistan that all the rights of religious minorities in the country were protected.
Mujahid wrote on Twitter on Sunday that the US State Department report on this issue is incomplete and based on incorrect information. Mujahid added that the Islamic Emirate rejects this report. “All Sunni, Shiite, Sikh and Hindu compatriots in Afghanistan practice their religion freely,” he said.
The US State Secretary of State Antony Blinken and ambassador-at-large Rashad Hussain offered their assessments of the global state of the right to believe and practice faith in presenting the State Department’s 2021 Report on International Religious Freedom. The report, which is required each year by a 1998 law, evaluated the condition of religious liberty in nearly 200 countries and territories.
Afghanistan, Burma (Myanmar), China, Eritrea, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia are examples of countries where religious freedom is violated, Blinken told reporters at a briefing. Also, the rights of religious minorities “are under threat” in such countries as India, Nigeria and Vietnam, he said.
Yet, Iraq, Morocco, Taiwan and Timor-Leste are among the countries where “notable progress” was achieved, Blinken said.
Afghanistan has experienced both oppressive governance by the Taliban and increasing attacks against religious minorities by the Islamic State-Khorasan Province (ISIS-K) since the full U.S. withdrawal in August 2021, it said.
ENDS
