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! ===India=== USCIRF has repeatedly designated India as a country of particular concern or on the Special Watch List. These reports have drawn criticism from the [[Media in India|Indian press]]. ''[[The Pioneer (India)|The Pioneer]]'', in an editorial, termed it as "fiction", "biased", and "[[Big Lie|Surpassing Goebbels]]". It criticized USCIRF for projecting the [[Godhra train burning|massacre of 58 Hindu passengers]] as an accident. It also accused USCIRF of indirectly justifying [[Murder of Lakshmanananda Saraswati|murder of Swami Lakshamananda]], a Hindu cleric and social activist.<ref> {{cite news |title= Surpassing Goebbels|author=Sandeep B.|newspaper=[[The Pioneer (Indian newspaper)|The Pioneer]]|date=August 19, 2009 |url=http://www.dailypioneer.com/196685/Surpassing-Goebbels.html|access-date=October 8, 2010}}</ref> Christian leaders in [[Odisha]] defended India: Archbishop [[Raphael Cheenath]] stated that India remained of a secular character, the president of the Odisha Minority Forum that, despite a small hate campaign against minorities, the majority of society had been "cordial and supportive", and the Orissa Secular Front that, despite the 2002 and 2008 riots, [[India]] had a [[Secularism in India|strong secular foundation]].<ref> {{cite news |title= Orissa: Christian leaders disagree with US panel's report|newspaper=[[Rediff]]|date= August 14, 2009|url=http://news.rediff.com/report/2009/aug/14/orissa-christian-leaders-disagree-with-us-report.htm|access-date=October 8, 2010}} {{cite news |title= Orissa Christians reject USCIRF report, defends 'secular' India|author=Babu Thomas|newspaper=[[Christianity Today]] |date= August 17, 2009|url=http://in.christiantoday.com/articles/orissa-christians-reject-uscirf-report-defends-india/4382.htm|access-date=October 8, 2010}}</ref> In the 2019 USCIRF report, the chairman Tenzin Dorjee disagreed with the commission's designation of India as a CPC citing having lived in India for 30 years as a religious refugee stating that "India is an open society with a robust democratic and judiciary system. India is a great civilization, and since ancient times she has been a country of [[multifaith]], [[Multilingualism|multilingual]], and [[multicultural]] diversity."<ref>{{cite book |title=United States Commission on International Religious Freedom 2019 Annual Report |date=2019 |page=181 |url=https://www.uscirf.gov/sites/default/files/2019USCIRFAnnualReport.pdf |access-date=9 May 2019}}</ref> Several Indian-American Muslim, Sikh and Christian groups applauded the USCIRF for its 2021 report wherein it has recommended India be designated as a "country of particular concern (CPC)" for the alleged deterioration of religious freedom in the country.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://indianexpress.com/article/india/muslim-sikh-christian-groups-applaud-uscirf-for-its-religious-freedom-report-on-india-7286112/|title = Muslim, Sikh, Christian groups applaud USCIRF for its religious freedom report on India|date = April 23, 2021}}</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page