PRESIDENT TRUMP IS COMMITTED TO PROTECTING RELIGIOUS FREEDOM IN THE UNITED STATES AND AROUND THE WORLD

Office of the Press Secretary FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE September 23, 2019 PRESIDENT TRUMP IS COMMITTED TO PROTECTING RELIGIOUS FREEDOM IN THE UNITED STATES AND AROUND THE WORLD “Each of us has the right to follow the dictates of our conscience and the demands of our religious conviction.”— President Donald J. Trump    ADVANCING RELIGIOUS FREEDOM AROUND THE WORLD: President Donald J. Trump is putting religious freedom on center stage at the United Nations. President Trump is hosting the Global Call to Protect Religious Freedom event, calling on the international community and business leaders to work to protect religious freedom. The President is calling on all nations to act to bring an end to religious persecution and stop crimes against people of faith. The State Department has hosted two Religious Freedom Ministerials, during which more than 100 governments and religious leaders committed to fight religious persecution. The Administration is spearheading the International Religious Freedom Alliance, an alliance of nations dedicated to confronting religious persecution around the world. The Administration has taken steps to protect victims of all faiths from religious violence. The Administration will dedicate an additional $25 million to protect religious freedom and religious sites and relics. The Department of Justice hosted its Summit on Combating Anti-Semitism in July. The United States has provided humanitarian aid to help Christians and Yazidis who suffered at the hands of ISIS and to help Rohingya Muslim refugees fleeing persecution.   SAFEGUARDING RELIGIOUS FREEDOM AT HOME: President Trump has made it a priority to support every American’s fundamental right to religious freedom enshrined in the Bill of Rights.  In 2017, President Trump signed an executive order to advance religious freedom, restoring the ideals that have undergirded our Nation since its founding. The President took action to ensure Americans and organizations are not forced to violate their religious or moral beliefs by complying with Obamacare’s contraceptive mandate. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) established a new Conscience and Religious Freedom division to help direct the agency’s efforts to protect religious freedom. HHS took action to protect the right of healthcare entities to act according to their conscience. This year, the Administration finalized a rule providing more flexibility for Federal employees whose religious beliefs require them to abstain from work on certain days. The Administration has unequivocally stood for religious freedom in the courts. COMBATING A GLOBAL CRISIS: The Trump Administration’s efforts to advance religious freedom are vital to combating rising levels of violence around the globe.   Eighty-three percent of the world’s population lives in nations where religious freedom is threatened or banned. The Trump Administration is deeply concerned for the more than 1 million Uighurs interned in Chinese internment camps. Christians are the most persecuted religious group in the world. Jews, Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Sikhs, Baha’is, humanists, and non-believers alike—almost every group has been increasingly persecuted over the past decade.