Providing for Establishment of Special Envoy

Floor Speech

Mr. MEEKS. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of this bill and yield myself such time as I may consume.

This bipartisan legislation creates a Special Envoy to Promote Religious Freedom of Religious Minorities in the Near East and South Central Asia. Housed at the State Department, the Special Envoy would be responsible for monitoring and combating acts of religious intolerance, engaging with foreign governments to address laws that discriminate against religious minorities, and working to ensure that the unique needs of religious minority communities are being addressed.

This bill is important because religious minority communities all around the world--particularly in the Near East and South Central Asia--are facing increased attacks and persecution. For example, Egypt's recent governments have failed to prevent, investigate, or prosecute crimes against members of religious minority groups, especially Coptic Christians. Churches have been burned to the ground and numerous Christians murdered.

Iraq used to have a significant number of religious minorities. These groups have been subject to escalating violence, persecution, and discrimination for their religious beliefs, and today they comprise only about 3 percent of Iraq's population. By some estimates, half of Iraq's Christian population has fled since 2003.

In Iran, the arrest and harassment of members of religious minorities, including Sunni Muslims and Christians, continues to rise. In one notable case last year, an Iranian-American Christian pastor was imprisoned for threatening Iranian national security. And what was his crime? Helping to set up small churches in people's homes. Iran's minority Baha'i community is particularly harassed, punished, imprisoned, and even killed simply because of their religion.

This past August, a Baha'i community leader in Bandar Abbas, Iran--Mr. Ataollah Rezvani--was found murdered in his car on the outskirts of the city, shot in the back of the head. He had been the subject of threats and pressure from agents of the Ministry of Intelligence, and until shortly before his death he had been receiving menacing phone calls from unidentified persons. There is little doubt that his murder was religiously motivated. Until now, the Iranian Government has not begun a formal investigation into his murder or the murder of many other Baha'is that have been killed in recent years. It is past time for the Iranian Government to move immediately to seek justice for the cruel deaths of its Baha'i citizens. I wish these were isolated cases, but countless other examples exist, from Afghanistan to India to Saudi Arabia.

We indeed are fortunate to live in a country that was founded by religious refugees on principles of tolerance. But it is important that we do everything we can to ensure that religious minorities elsewhere in the world enjoy the freedoms and protections they deserve--the freedoms and protections enjoyed by all Americans. Appointing this Special Envoy would be an important step in that direction, and I urge my colleagues to support this bill.

I reserve the balance of my time.

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