“Biden administration has de-prioritised religious liberty,” says Mike Pompeo
Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo expressed disappointment at the Biden administration’s failure to emphasize religious freedom and what he described as disowning the "glorious work" of the Commission on Unalienable Rights established under former President Donald Trump.
“For four years, the Trump administration and the State Department, when I was leading it, placed a real premium on working around the world to promote religious freedom,” said Pompeo in an interview with The Christian Post.
“We think it’s important as an independent right, but we also know that where religious freedom is expanded, countries are often more prosperous and the people there are often more secure from their government. So we always thought it was important to get that right, as an American matter, to secure American freedom, but also to secure freedom for peoples all around the world,” he added.
Though the promotion of religious freedom was a priority during the Trump administration, Pompeo said he’s noticed the issue has become less critical under the Biden administration.
“For example, while Secretary of State Antony Blinken highlighted China’s persecution of Uyghur Muslims, he made no mention of religious persecution in other countries, such as Nigeria, during a press conference on the annual human rights report earlier this month,” Pompeo explained.
Travis Weber, vice president for policy and government affairs and director of the Center for Religious Liberty at the conservative Christian advocacy organisation the Family Research Council, told The Christian Post in an earlier interview that while he was pleased to hear Blinken mention the Uyghurs, ” (…) there’s also persecution of Christians in China (…) and North Korea.”
According to Pompeo, one of the ways the Trump administration promoted religious freedom was through the revitalization of the annual human rights report to emphasize religious freedom abuses.
Source: christianpost.com
Image: nbcnews.com