US praises religious freedom in RP

WASHINGTON — Salam malekum, shalom, peace be with you.

The US State Department has praised the Arroyo administration for its continued contribution to the generally free practice of religion in the Philippines.

In its International Religious Freedom Report 2006 issued on Friday, the State Department said the Philippine government "generally respected" freedom of religion though there were some cases of ethnic, religious and cultural discrimination against Muslims by Christians which, combined with economic disparities, contributed to persistent conflict in certain provinces in the southern part of the country.

It went on to explain that the phrase "generally respected" signified that the country attempted to protect religious freedom in the fullest sense.

The phrase "generally respected" is used because the protection and promotion of religious freedom is a dynamic endeavor; it cannot be stated categorically that any government fully respected this right over the reporting year, even in the best of circumstances, said the annual report which covers the period between July 1, 2005 and June 30, 2006.

"Generally respected" is thus the highest level of respect for religious freedom assigned by this report.

A peace agreement between the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) could include special recognition of Islamic education and expanded recognition of Islamic law, the report said.

Both sides are negotiating in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to put an end to their age-old dispute in Mindanao centering on MILF demands for recognition of Muslim minority ancestral domains.

While the government does not ban or discourage specific religions or religious factions, Muslims complain it has not made sufficient efforts to promote their economic development, the report said.

It said predominantly Muslim provinces in Mindanao lagged far behind the rest of the country in most aspects of socioeconomic development and poverty levels in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) were almost twice as high as the national average, with per capita income of $285 per year.

It said for fiscal year 2005, 60 percent of United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID) $85-million budget for the Philippines went to programs in Mindanao, mostly to the ARMM.

The report covers 197 countries and territories, including eight cited for "particular severe violations" of religious freedom – Burma, China, North Korea, Eritrea, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Vietnam.

John Hanford, Amaassador-at-large for International Religious Freedom at the State Department said a series of cartoons depicting satirical images of the prophet Mohammed printed across Europe last year, which many felt deeply offensive, pointed to the need to go beyond protection of religious freedom to a concerted effort to create the conditions for harmony, mutual understanding, and respect within our societies.

"It is the broad vision of religious freedom that Americans are striving toward in our own country and that we hope to see flourish in other nations," he said.