An Envoy for All Faiths

In an era in which ethnic conflicts and religious animosities break out with disturbing regularity, Robert Seiple might be called America’s foot soldier on the front lines of the holy wars.

Five weeks ago, he became America’s first ambassador at large for international religious freedom, a post created by the International Religious Freedom Act, which Congress passed in October in the hope of making the battle against religious persecution a more important part of U.S. foreign policy.

Appointed by President Clinton, Seiple, 56, was already well acquainted with wrenching conditions of poverty and strife overseas. For the last 11 years he has been president of the international Christian relief organization World Vision Inc.

But now as an ambassador, Seiple, an evangelical Christian, faces the daunting task not only of working to end religious persecution, but also of elevating human rights, and religious freedom in particular, as a primary foreign policy objective.

“I think, long term, we absolutely have to do that,” he said in an interview. “Long term, if we are in league with countries that disregard human rights, we’re going to have a very problematic relationship.”

Already, he noted, traditional ideas of national sovereignty are yielding to international human rights concerns.

In Kosovo, for example, NATO intervened “where the human rights turned out to be more important than the sovereignty of the [Serbian] nation.”

“We made the same statement when we went into Somalia” in 1992. “We didn’t go into Somalia because . . . we wanted more territory or wanted to find oil. We went there because 75% of the children under 5 years of age were dying.

“If a country can’t take care of its kids, it’s lost some of its right to this concept of sovereignty. If a country can’t take care of its provinces without going through ethnic cleansing, it concedes its sovereignty--and that’s the statement we make.”

Seiple’s advocacy of religious freedom includes criticism of traditional U.S. allies and American businesses.

In the interview and in a speech earlier this week at the Los Angeles Islamic Center, Seiple criticized Turkish officials for their treatment of Merve Kavakci, an American-educated Muslim activist who was elected to Turkey’s parliament. Kavakci was prevented from being sworn in as a member of parliament because she refused to remove her head scarf.

“It is absolutely essential that this woman’s rights under Turkish law and international human rights be fully respected as this case proceeds,” Seiple told his audience at the Islamic center. “As a matter of general principle, secularism and respect for internationally protected rights of freedom of religion are not mutually exclusive.”

As for U.S. businesses, Seiple asked in the interview why business leaders failed to speak out against human rights abuses in China.

“Where were they on China? Why was it only the human rights [advocates] who were the squeaky wheel when the dissidents were arrested six or eight months ago? What an opportunity for leadership. Why did [corporations] blow it?”

Prompted initially by alarm among U.S. evangelical Christians about the persecution of co-religionists overseas, the religious freedom act gives the president a list of options, from diplomacy to trade sanctions, for promoting religious freedom. It requires annual reports on the state of religious freedom worldwide.

The act also creates three institutions charged with coming up with policy recommendations to the president: a quasi-independent, nine-member Commission on International Religious Freedom, a special advisor to the National Security Council and a State Department Office for International Religious Freedom, which Seiple heads.

All of that, he notes, has prompted questions from other countries about whether the United States sees itself as “the international religious cop.”

“That is not true,” he told a U.N.-sponsored round-table discussion on religious freedom in April in Geneva. “That is not where we want to be. That is not what we have signed up to be. We are in the business of promoting international religious freedom, working with countries to do the same.”

At the same time, by his own admission, he has a lot to learn about navigating the crosscurrents of religious rivalries within the United States, a point underscored when his speech at the Islamic center inadvertently fanned smoldering antagonisms among Islamic groups.

The incident involved tensions that surfaced in January during a State Department forum when Shaykh Muhammad Hisham Kabbani, the leader of a relatively small Sufi group known as the Islamic Supreme Council of America, charged that 80% of the Islamic mosques in the United States were run by “extremists.” In the aftermath of that accusation, more than 100 Islamic centers and groups in the United States issued a statement condemning Kabbani’s remarks.

Despite reportedly being advised not to raise the issue, Seiple decided to call on Kabbani’s supporters and opponents to go the “extra mile” and seek reconciliation.

His appeal touched off a shouting match between supporters of each side--a development that appeared to stun Seiple. At one point, security guards were poised to position themselves between contending factions.

Afterward, Seiple, perspiring, said he was “embarrassed” by the whole episode and publicly apologized to 125 people present. “If I had known there would have been this outburst, I never would have brought this up, and I am sorry for that,” he said. He promised to arrange a private meeting in the future to hear out the disputants.

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U.S. Report on Threats to Religious Freedom

Religious freedom has been deemed to be threatened or compromised by either official acts or individuals and groups in 20 countries. The nations listed below were mentioned in a new report by an advisory committee to the State Department. The five broad categories of violations were devised by The Times, based on the report’s narrative section. Not all problem countries were named.

Afghanistan: 2, 3, 4, 5

Belgium: 3

China: 4, 5

Cuba: 5

France: 3

Germany: 3

India1: 4

Indonesia: 1, 4

Iran: 1, 2, 3, 4

Japan: 3

Laos: 5

Malaysia: 1

Myanmar: 2, 4

North Korea: 5

Pakistan: 1, 2, 4

Russia: 2, 3, 5

Saudi Arabia: 2, 3, 5

Sudan: 1, 2, 4, 5

Vietnam: 4, 5

Yugoslavia: 1, 2, 4

Source: U.S. State Department

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1. Burning, vandalism or confiscation of religious property.

2. Religious favoritism, discrimination.

3. Discrimination against cults or sects.

4. Harassment, persecution, arrest, murder of adherents.

5. State regulation of religious expression. Limited religious freedom, official state guidelines.

*

Source: Final Report of the Advisory Committee on Religious Freedom Abroad to the Secretary of State and to the President of the United States, May 17, 1999.