Activists bemoan low priority given to religious freedom

“What a parade of horrors,” said Georgetown University professor Thomas Farr, shaking his head at the statistics and anecdotes reeled off by other panelists: Coptic Christians massacred in Egypt, dissidents jailed in China, a pastor burned to death in Nigeria. Congress in 1998 passed the International Religious Freedom Act, which aimed to boost U.S. efforts to help religious freedom bloom abroad.“The situation has grown so much worse in the past 13 years,” said Tina Ramirez, director of international and government relations at the Washington-based Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. And though forum organizers came down particularly hard on the Obama administration for failing to prioritize religious freedom, panelists also found fault with his two predecessors, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton. Pew Forum