Global religious freedom is crucial to all

Christian Sahner

is a Rhodes scholar and doctoral candidate in Middle Eastern history at Princeton

Bennett Graham

worked for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty and is now an M.B.A. candidate at the University of Virginia

As our nation grapples with the ground zero mosque and the thwarted Quran burning, Americans have an opportunity to reflect on one of our most treasured first principles, religious freedom.

But as we debate the scope of the First Amendment in Manhattan and Florida, it is worth remembering that some of the gravest threats to religious freedom happen far from our shores. They spread and metastasize across the globe, afflicting many areas, but above all the Muslim world. Confronting these threats should be among our top foreign policy priorities.

Promoting religious liberty has long been sidelined by policymakers as a niche concern, but its importance cannot be understated. The possibility to believe and disbelieve empowers people to think critically for themselves, arriving at a conviction as a matter of choice, as opposed to coercion. A society that respects religious liberty also allows diverse claims of truth to compete beside one another, creating an atmosphere of civil debate, transparency, and respect.

The modern doctrine of religious liberty may have been incubated in America, but there are ample precedents for it in the Islamic world. The Quran famously decrees, "There is no compulsion in religion," and medieval Muslim societies were generally far more tolerant of religious minorities than their counterparts in Western Europe. Today's Muslim world, however, is sadly lacking in religious freedom: according to a 2009 Pew Forum report, seven of the top 10 countries with the greatest government restrictions on religion are predominantly Muslim, including Saudi Arabia, Iran, Egypt, and Malaysia.

When discussing the issue, there is a common misconception that religious freedom is important only for Christian missionaries operating in Muslim countries. In fact, the individuals who face the gravest threats are often Muslims themselves. The mechanisms of control are both overt and subtle, including government agencies that screen sermons, clerical police who enforce state-sanctioned interpretations of Islamic law, and widespread permissiveness of mob violence aimed at punishing "nonconformists."

These conditions also threaten many minority groups; for example, over the last few decades, the historic Christian population of the Middle East has plunged from 20 percent to less than 5, spurred by sectarian violence, civil war, and political pressure from Islamist groups.

Perhaps the most acute threat is faced by those who leave Islam for other religions. Converts face a host of degrading penalties, including the termination of citizenship, the annulment of marriage, and the confiscation of identity papers. Thankfully, most Muslim states no longer proscribe capital punishment for apostasy, but extrajudicial killings are still common. These fly in the face of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights - which most Muslim nations officially support - guaranteeing the right of the individual "to change his religion or belief."

The risks of ignoring these problems are great. At the same time, we must be mindful of how we promote religious freedom. It entails showing respect for others and acknowledging the deep-seated cultural sensitivities that make religious freedom a tough pill to swallow for many Muslims.

To achieve these goals, we as a nation can take a few concrete steps:

Promote, not just protect, international religious freedom (IRF): America usually conceives of its IRF obligations as "protection," rather than "promotion." Thus, we have no trouble intervening reactively on behalf of a convert standing before a death squad, or a missionary sitting in a fetid prison. But we need to advocate religious freedom much earlier and in a more comprehensive fashion throughout Muslim societies so these "worst-case scenarios" never happen.

Treat religion as a keystone of geopolitics: Historically, the foreign policy establishment has been allergic to dealing with religion. This has handicapped us when it comes to forecasting religiously inspired events (the Iranian revolution), identifying hostile actors (al-Qaeda and its ilk), and developing constructive partnerships (Ayatollah Sistani in Iraq, among others). We need to understand and respect religion, as it forms the beating heart of the countries we are trying to engage.

Realize the strategic importance of IRF policy: IRF has long been seen as disconnected from our mainstream foreign policy priorities. However, recent research by Brian Grim of the Pew Forum suggests that religious freedom is a bundled good, producing many surprising economic and security benefits. Religious freedom creates a society that accommodates different viewpoints, building the sort of trust that spills over into higher levels of prosperity and safety.

When traveling through the Muslim world, the most tenacious criticism we hear against the United States is that of hypocrisy: America's agenda in the region does not always reflect the values it espouses at home. Acknowledging our delicate predicament in many Muslim countries, we should always practice what we preach. After all, religious freedom is not just an American right that applies in Lower Manhattan - it is a universal right that should ring loud and clear from Cairo to Jakarta.