CSI Urges Obama to Promote Religious Freedom and Diversity in Islamic World

WASHINGTON, Jan. 2, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- CSI has urged U.S. President Barack Obama to launch a new initiative to promote religious freedom and diversity in Islamic majority countries.

Writing today in response to a series of deadly holiday season attacks on Christians in Egypt, Iraq and Nigeria, Dr. John Eibner, CEO of CSI-USA, called on President Obama and to establish a high-level interagency task force to prepare a strategy aimed at securing the human rights of non-Muslims in the Islamic Middle East.

Eibner furthermore urged the President to dispatch Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, Judith McHale, on a fact-finding mission to investigate the plight of non-Muslim minorities in Muslim-majority countries.

In a statement issued on New Year's Day, President Obama condemned recent anti-Christian acts of terror, noting that "the perpetrators ... were clearly targeting Christian worshipers."

The instances of anti-Christian terror which the President condemned, Eibner wrote, are not senseless isolated incidents. They instead conform to a consistent, long-standing pattern of violence committed in the name of Islamic jihad against non-Muslims throughout the world, including the United States.

In his June 2009 Cairo address to the Islamic world, President Obama declared:  "The richness of religious diversity must be upheld... Freedom of religion is central to the ability of peoples to live together." He also observed that "in order to move forward, we must say openly to each other the things we hold in our hearts and that too often are said only behind closed doors."

As a preface to his policy recommendations, Eibner encouraged the President to challenge openly the "toxic culture of Islamic supremacism".  This phenomenon, he noted, is a widespread social reality throughout the Islamic world and is promoted not only by terrorist states and organizations, but also by Islamic allies of the United States.

The culture of Islamic supremacism, Eibner added, blights lives at two levels: On the one hand it fuels the discrimination and humiliation experienced daily by millions of non-Muslims. On the other it provides a breeding ground for the deadly operations of Islamic extremists who use violent jihad as a means to destroy religious freedom and diversity.

Eibner concluded by encouraging President Obama to respond positively to Pope Benedict XVI's Christmas appeal for world leaders to demonstrate solidarity with the oppressed Christians of the Middle East.

Contact: V. Sawelenko, (805) 777 7107.

SOURCE Christian Solidarity International-USA

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