U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom Hearing at the U.S. Congress on Protecting Houses of Worship and Holy Sites
October 23, 2019 - Testimony by Dr. Hassan Abbas
Introduction:
A house of worship is a sanctuary for reflection, spirituality and peace. It is a
sacred space. A consistent pattern of attacks targeting these revered spaces across
the globe is a highly condemnable and worrisome development. We have seen
glimpses of this evil recently from Afghanistan to Sri Lanka, and New Zealand to
the United States, with attacks on innocent and peaceful Christians, Buddhists,
Jews and Muslims whose only crime was that they were praying to God as per
their own traditions. But the attackers were not known as anti-religion per se.
The question then, is what caused them to act in such a brutal and heartless
manner? Simply put, the various attackers had different goals ranging from
political and economic to ideology and identity, but despite such diversity of
purposes they were bound together through their bigotry, intolerance and
ignorance.
One of the crucial challenges before us is to understand the contexts in which
terrorists select places of worship as targets, as that will allow us to think more
clearly about how to effectively prevent such attacks and counter the mindset
that causes such mayhem.For complete statement, click here; and to watch the proceedings of the hearing, click here
Also see:
Holy site security concerns international religious freedom panel - Washington Times, Oct 23, 2019
Hearing warns of increasing attacks on holy sites, houses of worship - Catholic News Agency, October 25, 2019
Hearing Highlights Protection for Houses of Worship - FRC Action, Oct 24, 2019
