Thank you Mr. Chairman.
The United States participated in last week's
Conference in Baku on the Role of Religion and Belief in
a Democratic Society: Searching for Ways to Combat
Terrorism and Extremism, along with a number of Central
Asian countries, many religious groups, and, though
sadly, only a handful of representatives of Western
European countries.
We would like to compliment Azerbaijan and ODIHR for
putting on this conference. We welcome the important
discussion on the balance between religious freedom and
state security that took place there.
This is an issue that affects all of us, and is of
deep concern to the United States as we, ourselves,
grapple with this balance in our own country.
The meeting, we believe, was also an excellent
opportunity to reconfirm that OSCE participating States
firmly reject identification of terrorism with any
nationality or religion, and that national security
measures should not include unduly aggressive measures
to stamp out religious-based movements deemed hostile to
government interests.
In closing, my government would like to encourage the
holding of additional meetings that bring together
government leaders, NGOs, and inter-faith groups to
discuss these important issues.
Thank you, Mr.
Chairman.
