A New Road Map for International Religious Freedom

Ending Persecution: Charting the Path to Global Religious Freedom, by H. Knox Thames (University of Notre Dame Press, 416 pages, $45)

S hahbaz Bhatti is one of the heroes — and martyrs — of the international religious-freedom movement. He was one of the most outspoken Pakistani critics of the conviction and death sentence of Asia Bibi, a Christian mother subjected to absurd blasphemy charges in 2010. He was the sole Christian cabinet member in the Pakistani government, and his voice mattered. Bhatti was assassinated a few months later, in March 2011, for speaking against Pakistan’s radical blasphemy laws.

Knox Thames’s new book, Ending Persecution: Charting the Path to Global Religious Freedom, is dedicated to Bhatti, Thames’s friend. Thames is one of the foremost experts on international religious-freedom policy, with government experience across the Bush, Obama, and Trump administrations, and appointments as the State Department’s special adviser for religious minorities in the Near East and South and Central Asia.

Thames recalls hearing the news of Bhatti’s assassination: “I received the horrible news as I stared out my kitchen window into a cold March morning. The murder was personal for myself and many others. . . . However, accountability for the terrorists would never come.”

Ending Persecution is a fascinating mix of memoir of Thames’s government service, policy analysis drawn largely from that experience, and general introduction to the world of international religious-freedom advocacy. It is sure to become the standard introduction for international religious-freedom advocates and provides a comprehensive vision, which any U.S. administration should heed, for advancing this human right.

Thames is excellent at connecting the development of some of the most egregious religious-freedom situations in the world with personal stories and policy lessons. Shahbaz Bhatti represents the best of advocacy — a dedicated “happy warrior” who stands up not only for the rights of his own community of Christians but for all persecuted people, especially those of minority faiths. Eventually Asia Bibi would be released because of his and others’ advocacy and coordination between governments. But unfortunately, the history and political trends that Thames recounts in detail in Pakistan would lead to the strengthening of blasphemy laws and worsening mob violence.

Because of Thames’s background, most of the detailed examples in the book are drawn from the Middle East and Asia, but his analytical framework could be applied to other regional and local contexts. He spotlights four kinds of repressive “typologies” — authoritarian governments, democratic majorities repressing minorities, extremist political movements, and terrorism. The book is organized in a call-and-response structure, with chapters alternating between descriptions of persecution in particular countries and policy lessons to be drawn.

Thames builds many of his examples around contrasts, often highlighting inconsistencies in America’s approach to different countries and situations that involve egregious violations of religious freedom. Why has America’s response to China’s genocide of Uyghurs been more aggressive and thorough than its response to the genocide of Rohingya Muslims and atrocities against minority Christians in Burma? Why has the United States been able to effectively use threats and sanctions to begin reversing the repression of Muslims and Christians in authoritarian Uzbekistan while we have backed away from strong action in democratic India, where extremist versions of Hindu nationalism create violence against Muslims and Christians? Thames’s firsthand accounts of the normally secretive back-and-forth struggles within the State Department and across embassies reveal the cleavages that lead to such disparate policy outcomes. One of his core recommendations is that America speak and act consistently whenever and wherever grave violations occur.

Thames highlights the on-the-ground stories of persecuted religious groups trying to fight for recognition and often working with one another for human-rights improvements against the greatest odds. One particularly affecting moment comes in his description of efforts to protect sacred sites in Iraq’s Nineveh Plain at the height of ISIS’s genocidal assaults on Yazidis, Christians, and others. On his travels to the Nineveh Plain, Thames saw “Muslim Kurds guarding a tomb of a Jewish prophet cared for by a Christian family.” The line is a microcosm of the kind of coalition-building and cooperation for religious freedom across faiths that is core to the international religious-freedom movement.

One of the key strengths of Ending Persecution is Thames’s lack of partisanship and his emphasis on following evidence and experience. He calls balls and strikes for every administration, praising officials when they take strong action and criticizing starkly — but fairly — bureaucratic indifference and political point-scoring. He gives a strong defense of the role of U.S. leadership and human-rights ideals while not just recognizing our historic shortcomings but also showing how our striving to live up to our ideals helps us practically to establish credibility on the global stage. Such a perspective is vital for keeping the promotion of international religious freedom a strongly bipartisan and unifying effort.

Sadly, a constant theme of Ending Persecution is that negative trends continue; success is met with little follow-through from officials outside of the standard religious-freedom advocates. This despite the fact that real developments for helping the persecuted have come slowly but surely through creative thinking and tireless dedication. Thames’s book is often a resounding call to hope against this business-as-usual pattern. From tried-and-true experience, we know much of what works: naming and shaming combined with genuine and consistent threats and use of sanctions mechanisms, greater investment in education to promote religious tolerance worldwide, and strong stances against impunity for attackers.

The main question is whether we have the will to do what is necessary to protect and promote religious freedom for everyone. Ending Persecution is a rallying cry that such a goal can be reached — if only our actions reflect our words.