Freedom From Religious Persecution: The Struggle Continues

August 7, 1998

ON MY MIND / By A.M. ROSENTHAL
The New York Times

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On July 21 Iran hanged a citizen who follows the small faith of Bahai, on the charge of trying to convert a man who follows the huge faith of Islam.

Fifteen other Iranian Bahais have been sentenced for the same crime; seven are scheduled for hanging. The execution got four paragraphs in The New York Times; other papers gave zero. The State Department condemned the execution.

But next to the story of the hanging was another, continued from the front page. Headline: "Senate Drops Bill Punishing Lands That Persecute Religion."

President Clinton and the Administration have been campaigning month after month to kill that bill -- the Freedom From Persecution Act. It would put a consistent spotlight on religious persecution and what the President does or refuses to do about it. He cannot abide the thought; it prevents what he calls "fudging."

Persecution. That's blood, fetters, death, wherever, and to whatever religious minorities -- in the Iran of the ayatollahs, in the China of the Communist Politburo where Catholics and Protestants who wish to worship as their faith dictates have to risk their freedom and worship underground, in Pakistan where Christians by the scores have been imprisoned for "blasphemy" against Islam, in Tibet where pictures of the Dalai Lama are displayed only on pain of prison, or in the Sudan where Christians and members of ancient African faiths are massacred by the Islamist Government.

The President and foreign trade lobbies, working tight together, think they killed the bill in the Senate after it passed the House of Representatives 375 to 41.

The determination, money and fury of the President and the trade-¸ber-alles lobbies arise from the whole bill, but particularly that spotlight: a permanent commission, appointed or approved by Congress. It would name persecutors and suggest punishment.

The punishment list ranges from cutting state visits to ending loans. The President could waive them, and this President would. But he could not waive responsibility for his decisions.

A couple of Republicans joined with Democrats to block a Senate committee vote. The next step would have been a vote by the full Senate, where the bill would have won, maybe with enough votes to override Mr. Clinton's threatened veto.

But here is some news for the President and the religiously persecuted: The bill is alive.

The Senate is on vacation, but supporters of the bill still work, trying to get language that would satisfy fence-sitters. I would have preferred a bill including trade sanctions. But I have learned following this bill closely how hard it is to get any human rights legislation through a Congress where most Democrats obey Mr. Clinton and so many Democrats and Republicans kneel to trade lobbies.

The struggle for the bill will continue fiercely when the Senate meets from the end of August until its adjournment about a month later.

Supporters of the bill say that if a vote is blocked they will kill the extra $18 billion for the International Monetary Fund. That is a warning to senators who block an anti-persecution vote because their states sell grain to countries that get great gobs of American money via the I.M.F.

Time has been wasted and is tight. Much will depend on the skill and push of Senator Don Nickles, Republican of Oklahoma. He has responsibility for guiding it through the Senate. If political trickery blocks a vote in committee, the majority leader, Trent Lott, promises to get a full Senate vote anyway.

The bill includes all religious minorities. But opponents say the spotlight will focus particularly on Christians. Since Christians are the most numerous right now, that's just fine.

John Cardinal O'Connor of New York supports an anti-persecution bill, and so do clergy around the country.

So does a coalition of conservatives and liberals, Christians and Jews, organizational or individual, religious or civic.

Religious and secular human rights strengthen each other -- no country exists free with just one or the other.

Millions of Americans work and pray for anti-persecution legislation. On Election Day they will remember who voted how in Congress.

They all are answering for themselves three questions put by Rabbi Hillel almost 2,000 years ago. They hang on a lot of walls, including mine.

"If I am not for myself, who will be? If I am only for myself, what am I? If not now, when?"

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