Religious freedom harmed by government-fostered lies

WASHINGTON (BP)—When Russia attacked Ukraine in 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed the invasion was to “denazify” Ukraine.

Putin asserted President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who is Jewish, is a Nazi hellbent on committing genocide against Russians and Russian-speaking Ukrainians.

In Iran, the government regularly disseminates misinformation on state-linked media channels about religious minorities, including statements that Christian converts from Islam are part of a “Zionist” network that poses a national security risk.

China uses several tactics to “manipulate global opinion about its ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity targeting predominately Muslim Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples in the Xinjiang region.”

They include favorable fake grassroots campaigns on social media and fabricated positive news stories, according to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.

Misinformation hinders religious freedom

Such government-fostered misinformation and disinformation are hindering religious liberty in several places globally, the commission stated in an August factsheet, and spreading societal religious persecution including violence.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom defined misinformation as a claim that is false or inaccurate, and disinformation as a false or inaccurate claim that the government deliberately disseminates.

“Increasingly, governments are promoting both misinformation and disinformation through campaigns targeting religious communities and by denying the existence of official policies targeting such groups,” the commission stated Aug. 8 in releasing the report, “Misinformation and Disinformation: Implications for Freedom of Religion or Belief.”

“Governments are increasingly using such tactics to threaten, harass, intimidate, and attack individuals and communities on the basis of their religious beliefs. The U.S. government, collaborating with like-minded governments, should continue to develop strategies to counter governments using misinformation and disinformation to encourage or justify restrictions on FoRB (freedom of religion or belief).”

Propaganda campaigns amplify intolerance

Government actions in India and Pakistan also are highlighted in the report, including accusations in Pakistan that religious minorities will deteriorate law and order.

In India, the government-established National Council of Education Research and Training published new textbooks in 2023 that removed references to Muslims, including the 2002 riots in Gujarat that resulted in the deaths of hundreds of the religious group.

In addition to targeting Zelensky, Putin has accused the West of putting an “ethnic Jew” in charge to cover up Ukraine’s “anti-human nature,” the commission stated, and has further justified its accusations by saying, “wise Jewish people say that the most ardent anti-Semites are usually Jews.”

Russia has further characterized its war as the “desatanization” of Ukraine and its “nontraditional” religious groups, characterizing the evangelistic Protestant Word of Life Church and the Chabad Lubavitch Synagogue on par with the Church of Satan. The U.S. State Department issued a report in February 2023 on Russia’s misinformation related to the war.

Such government narratives “can amplify intolerance from individuals who may believe the content of these campaigns and harass, intimidate, or threaten the targeted religious groups,” the commission said, and “signals to targeted religious communities that governments will not ensure their freedom of religion or belief and may actively seek to restrict it.”

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom pointed to the U.S. State Department’s Framework to Counter Foreign State Information Manipulation, released in January, as a positive counter strategy and encouraged the department to continue to develop such strategies to combat the rise of government propaganda that restricts religious freedom.

Canada, Germany and the United Kingdom already have endorsed the State Department’s framework, and it is also the basis of Memoranda of Understanding with several countries, the commission said, including Bulgaria, Japan, Albania, Latvia, Moldova, Korea and Poland.

“In its ongoing promotion of this framework,” the commission stated said, “it is critical that the U.S. government and its multilateral partners also emphasize the profound harms that government misinformation and disinformation have on the ability of targeted religious groups to exercise their right to FoRB (freedom of religion or belief).”