Biden's Henchman fabricated fake charges against Azerbaijan

At the end of February this year, a delegation of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), headed by its chairman Stephen Schneck, visited Baku. It should be noted that the USCIRF is a structure that in recent years has constantly accused Azerbaijan of lack of religious freedom, persecution of believers and the like.

So, on February 27, Mr. Schneck and his team held meetings at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the State Committee for Work with Religious Organizations. Schneck himself stated that the visit was carried out in order to get acquainted with the experience gained in the field of regulating religious issues in Azerbaijan over the past year. During the visit, he also intended to meet with representatives of various religious communities of Azerbaijan. It is not reported whether these meetings took place. I would like to be mistaken, but for some reason it seems that the head of the USCIRF was hardly interested in the situation of Jews, Orthodox Christians or even Catholics in Azerbaijan. He arrived with different goals and intentions. The next annual report of the commission headed by him allows us to speak about this.

In a report published recently, Azerbaijan was once again ranked among the countries where "conditions of religious freedom remained poor in 2024." This conclusion may surprise many who live in Azerbaijan and who are at least a little familiar with our country. Because there are no problems with religious freedom here. And not just not there - they never existed. Historically. But the American commission, which considers itself entitled to replicate reports on the affairs of other countries and tell them what to do, is unlikely to be interested in how these things really are.

Definitely, Azerbaijan has once again joined the ranks of countries where there are real problems, for the sake of Armenian interests. But to talk about it so immediately and directly would not be comme il faut, therefore, some harassment of Shiites was brought forward as the main accusation. The drafters of the report are not interested in the essence and they don't care at all that they look like - a thousand apologies - idiots. Accusing a country with a majority of Shiite Muslims of persecuting Shiites is nothing more than deliberate forgery and falsification. Making claims against the state for fighting extremism and terrorism is blatant manipulation. And even when such claims are made by the United States, which has turned the Middle East into ruins, hiding behind the fight against Islamic extremism.

"The government continued to arrest and imprison some practicing Shiite Muslims for their alleged ties to Iran," the report said.

What does "practitioners" mean in this case? In Azerbaijan, millions of people actively attend mosques, perform prayer, religious rituals, and so on, but no one arrests them for this. Those illegal groups engaged in extremist and espionage activities under the guise of religion, which the American commission has rushed to protect, are a threat to the security and stability of the country, and therefore they are being fought. Is there something Stephen Schneck's office doesn't like here?

By the way, Stephen Schneck, a Catholic activist, was appointed chairman of the USCIRF in 2022 by Joe Biden. In other words, this figure is a creation of the Democrats, who for some reason chose Azerbaijan as an enemy. It's probably about Islamophobia, otherwise how can we explain that 99 percent of the countries where, according to the report, things are bad with religious freedoms are only Muslim countries. Are religious freedoms so zealously respected in the West? Take France, for example. This country has legally banned female athletes from wearing the hijab, after which most Muslim believers were forced to retire from sports. Many of them could have brought medals to their country at the same Paris Olympics, but were not allowed to participate. But transgender people were allowed to participate in women's competitions, who took away medals from athletes due to male physical strength. France prohibits the wearing of religious symbols at sporting events only for Muslims, while Christian symbols are allowed. If this is not called discrimination based on religion, then we can safely say that the sun is green and the water is dry.

From the point of view of the American commission, the public burning of the Koran in European countries must also be a sign of religious freedom. Vandals, oddly enough, are not considered criminals and their actions are even guarded by the police so that, God forbid, someone does not interfere.

According to the Council on American?Islamic Relations (CAIR), discrimination against Muslims has increased significantly in the United States in recent years. So, in the first year of Biden's rule, the number of cases of law enforcement bias increased by 55 percent, and the number of hate crimes increased by a third (these include, among other things, tearing off hijabs and head scarves, as well as vandalism and attacks). In addition, intolerance and bullying towards Muslims in US educational institutions have increased. And this is despite the fact that in the 2020 elections, Muslims made up a significant part of the electorate of the candidate of the Democratic Party.

So the USCIRF report is just a tool of political manipulation and nothing more. And Azerbaijan got there not because of the incredible facts attributed to it, but because of the collapse of Armenian interests on its territory. If we exclude the entire verbose part of the section on Azerbaijan, which speaks about the alleged oppression of Shiites by Shiites, the main essence remains, the main reason for our country's inclusion in this odious document. To hide this point, the authors of the report tried to devote a little less space to the "threat to Armenian religious sites" than to the "repression against practicing Muslims."

Here you have the threat to the "Armenian" churches, which was seen from satellites, here is the "devastation of Karabakh from the Armenian population," here are accusations of crimes against humanity. In general, everything that our neighbors love, and that's why the Schneck office remembered our country. And the accusations of seizing "religious paraphernalia" from Armenians on trial are especially touching. Moreover, it was whispered to the office from somewhere that Armenians in prison were being insulted for their faith.

All this, of course, is nonsense. But the Armenians are paying for the accusations against Baku to sound more colorful and colorful. Undoubtedly, the diaspora had to fork out money in order for the report to call for sanctions against Azerbaijani government agencies for "religious intolerance," which has never been present in the country in principle. The requirements for the admission of international observers to Karabakh to "inspect and document the inventory of cultural and religious heritage" are also expensive. Armenian, of course, since the "saviors of Christianity" have never been interested in documenting the consequences of Armenian vandalism. The authors of the report also demand that Congress legislatively prohibit the President of the United States from repealing the 907th Amendment.

As they say, a bad thing doesn't last long. The flag is in their hands.

In conclusion, we recall some interesting facts from the history of the USCIRF.

The Commission has been repeatedly criticized for its apparent bias. In 2010, The Washington Post published an article accusing the Commission on International Religious Freedom of being biased against Muslims. The article also described frequent cases of internal strife. One of these cases led to the dismissal of a Muslim employee, despite positive feedback from colleagues about her work. It was pointed out from the words of one of the former members of the commission that the federal body is more inclined to consider complaints from Christians, and violations against representatives of other religions are often turned a blind eye.

In 2018, the Commission became embroiled in another major scandal when the leadership of the body passed to Tony Perkins, who adheres to far-right views. The media criticized this appointment for the fact that Perkins showed hostility towards religious and other minorities. He was also accused of having ties to the Ku Klux Klan.

Given the existence of such serious allegations, there is no doubt that the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom is a compromised body. And the reports of this body have no practical value due to their biased attitude towards certain groups of people and countries.