ABP's Bob Allen offers a sobering reminder of the very real religious persecution faced by minority faiths around the world. In Uzbekistan – a country claiming the separation of church and state but allowing freedom only for registered religions – three Baptists are standing trial for allegedly teaching religion to children improperly during a summer camp.
Supporters of the three Baptists have been denied access to parts of the trial and have accused the prosecutor of falsifying documents. They say it is part of a tightening noose around the necks of Baptist, Pentecostal and Presbyterian minority groups resulting from two widespread beliefs that the national identity is tied in with Islam, and that the Russian Orthodox Church is the only acceptable "Russian" denomination for Uzbekistan's Christian minority.
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The three Baptists were arrested in July after a government-sponsored news agency ran articles that included charges of illegal activity. The defendants deny doing anything wrong.
As Allen's article points out, Uzbekistan has been placed on the State Department's list of "Countries of Particular Concern," for its religious freedom record, but – to the chagrin of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom – the previous administration offered a sanction waiver to both Saudi Arabia and Uzbekistan despite the status.
