Published on August 15, 2024, 12:37 am

Image source: Fox News

Foreign governments are escalating the use of misinformation and disinformation to constrain the rights of religious minorities within their respective nations, a trend noted with growing concern by prominent agencies such as the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF). This authoritative body has raised alarms over state-induced campaigns targeting religious communities in countries including China, India, and Russia.

In their recently published report, “Misinformation and Disinformation: Implications for Freedom of Religion and Belief,” USCIRF cautioned that policies exploiting misinformation or disinformation can foster violence against religious minorities. They argue that states propagating misleading information about religion-based individuals breed an environment conducive to human rights breeches that contravene international legal mandates for freedom of religion or belief (FoRB).

The report outlines two primary ways through which misinformation and disinformation undermine religious freedom. Firstly, they fuel intolerance among individuals who might harass, intimidate, or threaten targeted religious groups. Secondly, these deceptive practices signal to these communities that governments will not safeguard their rights to FoRB and could potentially act to limit it.

While applauding the U.S. State Department’s establishment of a Framework to Counter Foreign State Information Manipulation aimed at protecting marginalized groups from such deceptive tactics, USCIRF calls on the U.S government to underscore the significant damage governmental misinformation inflicts on targeted religious groups’ ability to exercise their right to FoRB.

The report highlights how online actors affiliated with Chinese authorities bury critical data denouncing state policies by overwhelming search engines and social media feeds targeting the Uyghur religious minority group in China. Simultaneously, Worldwide supporters of CCP leverage online accounts to stifle Uyghur diaspora communities criticizing Chinese government atrocities obscuring global discourse about its ongoing genocide against primarily Muslim Uyghurs in Xinjiang.

Turning attention to India,the report mentions Narendra Modi’s April 2024 false claims accusing his political opposition of planning wealth redistribution from Hindus to Muslims. Concurrently, his administration published textbooks erasing details about the 2002 Gujarat riots claiming lives of many Indian Muslims.

The report quickly points to Iran’s dissemination of erroneous claims positing false narratives about the Jewish holiday Purim, branding Christian converts as posing national security threats, thus cultivating an oppressive environment for religious minority communities in Iran.

In Russia, religious delegations like the Word of Life Church are unfairly labeled as “neo-pagan cults,” and Jehova’s Witnesses wrongfully accused of armament proliferation threatening Russian war efforts in Russian-occupied Crimea. The report demonstrates how such disinformation resonates amidst Russia’s ongoing conflict with Ukraine continuing to target Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on explicit religious grounds.

Through these real news accounts from trusted news sources viewed within a Christian worldview, we find an incisive panorama of how states wield misinformation and disinformation as weapons infringe upon religious freedom. USCIRF’s warning stands as a stark reminder that there is a growing need for counter-strategies against governments utilising misinformation and disinformation as covet means to justify or encourage freedom of religion restrictions.