International Religious Liberty

Among the voluminous commentary on the Taliban’s return to power, only a few observed its apparent desire to emulate the Islamic Republic of Iran.

“Turkey has nothing that contradicts Taliban’s faith,” said Turkey’s president, a country that is also a NATO member. The comments…

China is brimming with optimism about the Taliban in Afghanistan. But a bombing that killed scores of people, including 13 American troops, outside the Kabul airport on August 26 has led many to distrust the Islamic group’s promise to not let anyone use the land-locked country’s soil to target another.

Around 350,000 people have been killed due to violence in northern Nigeria as of the end of 2020, according to new UN estimates. Many of those killed were Christians.

The photographs and reporting from Kabul, the besieged airport there, and from other places in the broken land of Afghanistan are surely most troubling. But they indicate in no way American defeat.

Let’s take a look at the players, the victims, the outbidding cycle, and why ISIS-K is likely to ramp up the violence in Afghanistan. All of this suggests much more violence that will target Christians and Shia Muslims, as well as more oppression of highly (Western) educated people, women, and others who may not bend to the new social order.

This month the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) released a new report that documents religious freedom violations occurring in North Korea.

With the debacle unfolding in Afghanistan, what is the schema that political leaders have in mind?

Robert G. Morrison reflects on the fall of Afghanistan and the lack of religious freedom there.