Experts: Religious Freedom Missing from National Security Strategy

By Stephanie Samuel, Christian Post Reporter Friday, October 29, 2010

WASHINGTON – Religious Freedom plays a key role in democracy building and needs to be included in the U.S. national security policy, security experts say.

William Inboden, a scholar of the Strauss Center for International Security and Law, stressed on Thursday that the absence of freedoms to believe in and worship in the religion of choice in various regions is often a tell-tale sign that there are looming national security issues.

While speaking at the Georgetown University, he called attention to Afghanistan and the strife that has been growing there since before the 9/11 attacks. By not addressing freedom issues of women and the religious minority within its borders, Inboden said America "missed the opportunity to connect the dots" between religious freedom and terror.

Inboden says America is missing another opportunity to declare religious freedom's importance in its national security policy. The 2010 National Security Strategy, detailing America's plans to combat national security threats, does not mention religious freedom.

In a section entitled, "Values," the document states, "The United States supports the expansion of democracy and human rights abroad because governments that up hold these values are more just, peaceful and legitimate." The document does mention the freedom to worship, but doesn't integrate the subject of religious freedom into the definition of a democracy and human rights abroad.

Paulette Otis, professor of Security Studies at the Marines Corps University, downplayed its absence saying that America's "actions speak louder than words." She said Americans don't have religion's role in American democracy pinned down and figured out.

"Every few years another problem comes up. We have it public, we have it in the press, we have it the courts, we argue about it, we fight about it, but we do not commit acts of genocide, we don't have violence in the street and we do not commit genocide on another population in our midst," said Otis.

America's ability to have religious divides and solve them in non-violent ways speaks volumes to foreign countries, she added, and is a far more effective teaching tool for religious freedoms than a clause in the National Security Strategy.

However, Inboden contends that those documents are a blueprint for military officials on the ground, working with foreign allies.

"These documents are important and [the fact] that there's an omission … speaks volumes," Inboden said.

In his 2009 speech in Cairo, Egypt, President Barack Obama acknowledged the importance of the right for all to freely worship in any faith to the middle east.

"I saw … firsthand as a child in Indonesia, where devout Christians worshiped freely in an overwhelmingly Muslim country. That is the spirit we need today. People in every country should be free to choose and live their faith based upon the persuasion of the mind and the heart and the souls," Obama said.

But Eric Patterson, of the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs, noted, "Cairo was just a speech. That's all it was; a beautiful moment. We haven't seen a lot of implementation."

"The National Security Strategy has the force of law behind it," he stressed.

Rashad Hussain, Obama's special envoy to the Organization of the Islamic Conference, explained that he is fulfilling the vision of the president's Cairo speech by addressing issues such as employment, healthcare and education that the administration believes are fueling security threats. He also said that Obama and his administration support "the protection of religious freedom and the promotion of religious tolerance."

But Patterson contends that many in Obama's administration seem to have a material view on tackling national security and insists that the free exchange of voices from religion are essential to democracy.

Georgetown University's Berkley Center hosts an ongoing symposium on topics of religion and global issues. Thursday's keynote discussion of Religious Freedom and National Security Policy was its eighth discussion.