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TORTURE ENSLAVEMENT L INTIMIDATION 3ULSION EXPULSION DENIAL OF TRAY L RIGHTS ICTION IMPRISONMENT NT MURDER TORTURE MURDER PHYSI STARVAT ION BAN IMPRISONMENT EATINGS STARVATION I PR SO NT RAN ON CONVERSION HYSICAL INTIMIDATION EXPULSION TORTURE ENSLAVEMENT VICTION 'IMPRIS NMENT MURDER N ON CONVERSION STARVATION FORCED CONVERSION EXPULSION PHYSICAL INTIMIDATION very morning the president starts his day dangers posed to the nation into an understand- in the Oval Office, surrounded by attor- able format. A freedom matrix is particularly E ney general John Ashcroft, FBI director easy to build because threats to religious free- Robert Mueller, and CIA director George Tenet, doms fit into predictable, repeated patterns. reviewing the threat matrix. The threat matrix provides details on who is trying to attack Understanding and America, how they are trying to attack, their Using the Freedom Matrix chances of success, and what is being done to A sample freedom matrix is reproduced in stop them. It must be a startling way to begin this article. The purpose of the freedom matrix each day—particularly knowing that there is no is to put acts against religious freedom into con- one else the terrorists would rather kill or cap- text and provide perspective on their relative ture than the commander in chief himself. It is severity. As a general rule, the closer the act serious business, and the stakes are the highest comes to the upper left-hand corner of the By iT4 JAMES STANDISH since the Civil War: in many ways, the very sur- matrix the more severe the act in question. The vival of American civilization. matrix makes three distinctions: private versus An equally serious business is the brutality public actions, the frequency of the action, and meted out to millions of people every day by the the type of action in question. tyrannical regimes that rule over them. Our press The first natural division between forms of sporadically reports on this brutality: a gulag suppression of freedom is between private and story from Pyongyang here, a piece on genocide public action, that is to say, the division between in Sudan there, thrown together with concerns acts by the state and acts by private entities. over religious freedom violations in such unlikely Private action is not necessarily less detrimental places as France and Belgium, along with the odd to fundamental rights than state action. Neither piece on religious freedom at home. can it be said that the state necessarily has less One of the problems in reading these articles responsibility for private action than it does for is that they appear so infrequently that it can be state action. In fact, in some cases the state difficult to evaluate the trajectory of the attitudes actively encouraged private atrocities, as in the of the nations mentioned or the relative threat to case of the former Yugoslavia. In addition, the freedom posed by their actions. This problem is principal function of the state is to protect the only exacerbated by those who are quick to dub rights of its populace. Therefore, even when the any act that impinges on freedom "persecution," with little attention to the relative severity of the James Standish earned his law degree at George problem in question. A "freedom matrix" can Washington University, Washington, D.C., and put these stories into perspective in the same works as a church religious liberty liaison to the way the threat matrix. aims to put the myriad of U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. LIBERTY MAY/JUNE 2004 3 FREEDOM ON ON ON MATRIX SI SI w C. CI >- o w 2 CCI- - Co CONVER .3 0 Q CC U [[ AL INTIMIDATI N CONVER K 0 = SIC CC - LAVEMENT = RCED zQ J O LU BAN O PHY 5 ENS STARVATION IMPRISONMENT FO C..) CC I=1 CC STATE ACTION NK SA, SA, NK NK NK, Su NK, Su NK NK, Su NK N%iv NKiS u NK, Su Su Su Su Tu Tu Tu Tu Tu, Su Tu, SA Tu, Su IVATE ACTION Fr Fr US US US Fr NOTE: This Freedom Matrix is provided for the purpose of example. In some instances, the nations rated may be involved in activities not noted Fr France Problems include private attacks against Jewish sites perpetrated primarily by Muslim immigrants, discrimination against new religions and state discrimination against Muslims in state schools. MC North Korea Persecution is focused on members of unregistered religious groups, including underground churches. SA Saudi Arabia Problems focus on strict state control on religious worship. state does not actively encourage behavior that suppresses free- The final distinction made is between common types of dom, it is responsible to act effectively to stop such behavior. actions against religious freedom, grouped roughly into five It is also worth noting that the more frequently the pri- categories of severity. The most severe actions against reli- vate actions against religious freedom occur, the more likely gion include religiously motivated murder, rape, torture, that the state is complicit in the actions, or, at the very least, beatings, enslavement, starvation, imprisonment, forced complacent in the effort to stop them. Despite the close con- conversion, and expulsion from a geographic region. These nection between private action and state inaction, the dis- actions are the most severe forms of religious persecution. tinction is useful, as states are always culpable for state action Even when these occur sporadically, the severity of the action but are not necessarily accountable for private action. involved requires the most urgent intervention. The second distinction made on the freedom matrix is The second category of actions also forms the basis of the frequency in which a particular inhibition of freedom persecution; however, it is reasonable to recognize that these occurs. There is a very large difference between one murder forms of persecution are somewhat less severe than the first in a decade prompted by religious hatred and the systematic category. These actions include religiously motivated confis- slaughter of an entire religious population. The latter does cations of personal and real property, evictions, bans on con- not make the former less deplorable, but in assessing the rel- versions, physical intimidation, desecration of houses of ative threats to freedoms, the frequency of the problem worship, graves, and other sites of religious significance. clearly impacts the severity of the situation. Thus the reli- The third category of actions that frequently form the giously motivated slaughter during the Sudanese civil war basis of persecution includes barriers imposed on religious ranks significantly higher than the isolated religiously moti- activities. These include prohibitions on the production vated murders in the U.S. after September 11. The latter indi- and/or importation of religious material, registration cates isolated pockets of violent bigotry fueled by intense requirements designed to prevent bona fide religious organi- ignorance, while the former represents a state acting with zations from registering with the state, barriers to individu- genocidal intent. als or organizations owning real and personal property based 4 LIBERTY MAY/JUNE 2004 S HT RING LU = LL Cr3 1.1.1 RIG V 3 3- STE z I- z a = 0 U_ — 2 I— 0 u _ C.) /- 0 2 1 . ,..c J z i= z z L,-. - .2 I= CU : cp a 0 a c LLI LU CC --I :CC ! 0- REGI ,-- o C/D iL: 2 p_ Z >- •I2 I— = I— J 0 0 U CI) co C/3 = TO C C CC a o a c a C] LL LLI L.L., LLI co F TRAVEL z cc z ,- z >< O 2 ;c , Q 0- = — •cc (7 '._ m - -=1: : •CeCL" CC cE CC u..i O — a — .c Z _1 2 a 7:,.c, 2 _, C-3 RS 5 .... 2 2 )— C/3 1— E D--- a .:x _ a >- a >- cc — z — a C7 w C/3 Z 03 5 SLc —I J .cr . Q ?— cc z m 0 E LI-I O ya m Z C.3 LIZ CZ — C.3 C1 CD = U = 0 CI = 0 cc = 2 LL cc U- C-3 111 0 = CI 0 C/3 co V3E CC V) 'I' cr) '— LL, U- C-3 c, CZ CC ARRIE 1...1W ▪ C-1 C. 2 0 2 L.LJ DENIAL B 0 0 E = 2= O c.J CC /2 LI- CC .2 2 xa3 = r, = S NK, SA, SA, NK NK, SA NK NK, SA, NK Tu, Su NK NK, Su, NKER NK SA, FR SA Tu Tu Tu Tu SA US Fr US US US :. The frequency noted provides a rough approximation. Su Sudan A prolonged civil war that included genocidal acts against the religious/racial minority in the south. Tu Turkmenistan A dictatorship that heavily restricts nonreg istered religions, and makes it virtually impossible for any but a handful of faiths to register. US United States Occasional private acts of religious bigotry — particularly post September 11, periodic refusal to accommodate reli- gious practices in the public and private workforce. on religious criteria, and prohibitions on travel. A good requires a particular hat as part of its uniform, it is not example of a nation that engages in all of these activities is unreasonable to expect that an alternative will be made for Saudi Arabia. It imposes restrictions on clergy traveling to Sikhs, whose religion requires them to wear a turban. Thus the nation to provide spiritual services; it prevents the the police forces in many locations, including Great Britain importation of nonapproved religious material; and it pro- and Washington, D.C., permit Sikh police officers to wear a hibits religious groups from owning and operating houses of blue turban with a police badge on the front instead of the worship.

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