Threats to religious freedom present risks to global security, experts warn

WASHINGTON (OSV News) -- The cause of international religious freedom is tied to global stability and is increasingly threatened by authoritarian regimes, said speakers and participants in the sixth annual International Religious Freedom Summit in Washington Feb. 2 and 3.

The summit, which brings together a diverse coalition of faith communities, policymakers and experts, seeks to advance freedom of religion, conscience and belief around the world.

Maureen Ferguson, commissioner for the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, told OSV News in an interview at the summit, "People of faith are frequently targeted by authoritarian governments, because they can't control the way they think and believe, because they believe in a power higher than the authority of the state."

USCIRF, an independent, bipartisan U.S. federal government commission that monitors religious freedom around the globe, pointed to a rise in authoritarianism around the globe as a key threat to the cause of international religious freedom in its 2025 annual report.

"There's a direct link between the rise in authoritarian governments and the rise in the suppression of religious freedom," she said.

Those who addressed the summit included former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who spoke in person to share a message from the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader who lives in exile in India. Former President George W. Bush also addressed the gathering by prerecorded video message.

Pelosi quoted the Dalai Lama as saying, "I deeply appreciate your efforts to protect and promote one of the most fundamental human rights, freedom of thought, conscience and belief."

"Religious freedom is not only the freedom to practice a particular religion. At its core, it is freedom of thought, the right of every individual to reflect, question, and choose their own beliefs without fear or coercion," the message said. "This freedom of inquiry is essential to human dignity and to peaceful coexistence in our increasingly interconnected world."

In his video message, Bush said, "Sadly, far too many people around the world still live without this freedom."

"Many worship in secret. Some languish in prison simply for exercising that core human right," he said, adding that he and his wife, former first lady Laura Bush, "join you in standing in solidarity with those oppressed for their beliefs."

"We applaud the work you're doing in securing the release of those wrongly detained, and we pray for a day when your work will no longer be needed," he said.

Nicole Bibbins Sedaca, the Kelly and David Pfeil Fellow at the George W. Bush Institute, said in comments during a panel discussion that "when you look at the countries that are on the Countries of Particular Concern list, and you look at the countries that our national security agencies are most concerned about, that are threats to democracies, that are a threat to the global system, they look pretty similar."

The State Department designates "countries of particular concern,” or CPCs, for particularly severe freedom of religion or belief violations under the International Religious Freedom Act. IRFA requires the U.S. government to designate CPCs annually, which are defined in law and policy as countries where governments either engage in or tolerate "particularly severe violations" of religious freedom. Non-state actors who engage in similar conduct are designated as "entities of particular concern."

Bibbins Sedaca continued, "Because these autocratic regimes have decided that suppressing the voices of those people that they are fearful of and that provide a threat to their complete control of power is part of their strategy."

"Their strategy is to control through violence at home and violence abroad, control anything that could be a threat to their regime," she said. "So it's really important that we are integrating religious freedom as an integrated part of a national security and foreign policy strategy, because that is the way many of these adversaries are looking at it."

In the same panel discussion, Scott Busby, senior associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said, "Religious freedom is a barometer, generally I have found in my career for how other freedoms are treated similarly."

"I found that where you see restrictions on other fundamental freedoms besides religious freedom, you then also see restrictions on religious freedom," he said.

Ferguson praised the Trump administration for redesignating Nigeria a country of particular concern in response to violence in that country by Islamist groups perpetuated against predominantly Christian communities, but also in some cases moderate Muslim communities.

"The CPC designation from the Trump administration was such a welcome move because it finally puts pressure back on the Nigerian government to respond to protect vulnerable populations, and there are vulnerable Muslim populations as well, because the terrorists in the north will kill Muslims who don't follow their version of Islam," she said.

Asked if cuts to programs that aimed to advance religious freedom through the U.S. Agency for International Development, the government’s now-shuttered humanitarian aid agency in countries around the globe, presented issues for their cause, Ferguson said, "the reorganization of priorities and foreign aid is certainly the prerogative of a new administration to align foreign aid with its priorities."

"And the administration, led by Secretary (Marco) Rubio, who has been such a champion of religious freedom, I think in the end, when the dust settles, programs that are constructive with regard to religious freedom will get funding."

But Ferguson acknowledged it has been "a messy process, and we're keeping an eye on it."
USAID's remaining functions were absorbed into the State Department on July 1. Cuts to its funding included funding for efforts by Catholic and other faith-based humanitarian groups.