US raps global rise in anti-Muslim sentiment

11 years ago | Posted in: Religion | 826 Views

The United States yesterday denounced a spike in anti-Islamic sentiment in Europe and Asia, pointing to restrictions and violence against Muslims. The State Department report, which covered 2012, said that “Anti-Muslim rhetoric and actions were clearly on the rise — particularly in Europe and Asia.”
“Government restrictions, which often coincided with societal animosity, resulted in anti-Muslim actions that affected everyday life for numerous believers,” it said.
The report sharply criticized the record of Myanmar, also known as Burma, on the same day that President Thein Sein was meeting with US President Barack Obama in a sign of US support for the former general’s democratic reforms.
The State Department report pointed to allegations that officials in Myanmar fanned a wave of violence targeting the mostly Muslim Rohingya community and said that Myanmar promoted Theravada Buddhism over other faiths.
The survey said that religious freedom declined further in China and that authorities cracked down particularly hard on the mostly Muslim Uighur community.
The report said that Muslims also faced new restrictions in 2012 in countries ranging from Belgium, which banned face-covering religious attire in classrooms, to India where schools in Mangalore restricted head scarves. Secretary of State John Kerry, while acknowledging that the US record was not perfect, called religious freedom a “universal value” as he presented the report.

source: www.arabnews.com

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