United States Commission on International Religious Freedom Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ===Accusations of Christian bias and other issues=== A former policy analyst, Safiya Ghori-Ahmad, filed a complaint with the [[Equal Employment Opportunity Commission]], alleging that she was fired because she was a Muslim and a member of an advocacy group, the [[Muslim Public Affairs Council]]. Current commissioners and some other religious freedom advocates deny the claims of bias. The commission has also been accused of in-fighting and ineffectiveness.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/16/AR2010021605517.html | newspaper=The Washington Post | title=Agency that monitors religious freedom abroad accused of bias | first=Michelle | last=Boorstein | date=February 17, 2010 | access-date=May 26, 2010}}</ref> [[Jemera Rone]] of [[Human Rights Watch]] said about the report: "I think the legislative history of this Act will probably reflect that there was a great deal of interest in protecting the rights of Christians ... So I think that the burden is probably on the US government to show that in this Act they're not engaging in crusading or proselytization on behalf of the Christian religion."<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hackett |first1=Rosalind |last2=Silk |first2=Mark |last3=Hoover |first3=Dennis |year=2000 |title=Religious Persecution as a U.S. Policy Issue |journal=Center for the Study of Religion in Public Life |publisher=Harford |page=56 |url=http://www.trincoll.edu/depts/csrpl/Religious%20Persecution/relperse.pdf |access-date=June 11, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304040206/http://www.trincoll.edu/depts/csrpl/Religious%20Persecution/relperse.pdf |archive-date=March 4, 2016 |url-status=dead |df=mdy-all }}</ref> In a 2009 study of the [[International Religious Freedom Act of 1998]], the Institute of Global Engagement stated that the United States' international religious freedom policy was problematic in that it "has focused more on rhetorical denunciations of persecutors and releasing religious prisoners than on facilitating the political and cultural institutions necessary to religious freedom," and had therefore been ineffective. It further stated that USIRF policy was often perceived as an attack on religion, [[cultural imperialism]], or a front for American missionaries. The report recommended that there be more attention to religious freedom in [[Foreign policy of the United States|U.S. diplomacy]] and foreign policy in general and that the USCIRF devote more attention to monitoring the integration of religious freedom issues into foreign policy.<ref name="Globalengage">{{cite web|title=The Future of U.S. International Religious Freedom Policy (Special Report)|author=Thomas F. Farr and Dennis R. Hoover|url=http://www.globalengage.org/research/reports/829-the-future-of-us-international-religious-freedom-policy-special-report-.html|access-date=August 19, 2009|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091214205744/http://www.globalengage.org/research/reports/829-the-future-of-us-international-religious-freedom-policy-special-report-.html|archive-date=December 14, 2009|df=mdy-all}}</ref> In 2018, the appointment of [[Tony Perkins (politician)|Tony Perkins]] as a commissioner received criticism.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/longtime-gay-rights-opponent-tony-perkins-named-u-s-religious-n875016|title=Longtime gay-rights opponent Tony Perkins named to U.S. religious freedom panel|date=17 May 2018|publisher=NBC}}</ref> The organizations such as [[GLAAD]], [[Hindu American Foundation]], atheist and humanist groups, and others questioned the credibility of Perkins, citing his stance against non-Christians and LGBTQ people.<ref name="hindu">{{cite news |title=Appointment of Far-Right Evangelist Tony Perkins Strains Credibility of USCIRF |url= https://www.hafsite.org/appointment-far-right-evangelist-tony-perkins-strains-credibility-uscirf |access-date= January 24, 2019 |publisher= [[Hindu American Foundation]] |date=May 16, 2018 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20190124203424/https://www.hafsite.org/appointment-far-right-evangelist-tony-perkins-strains-credibility-uscirf |archive-date= January 24, 2019}}</ref> The [[Southern Poverty Law Center]] also chastised Perkins for far-right Christian views, his [[anti-LGBT]] views, his associations with the [[Ku Klux Klan]] and other [[White supremacy|white supremacist]] groups, terming his evangelical organization, the [[Family Research Council]], a "hate group".<ref name = "splc">{{cite web |title=Tony Perkins |url=https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/individual/tony-perkins |website=[[Southern Poverty Law Center]] |access-date=24 January 2019}}</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. 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