{"id":15155,"date":"2014-06-14T23:28:19","date_gmt":"2014-06-14T15:28:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=15155"},"modified":"2014-06-14T22:30:48","modified_gmt":"2014-06-14T14:30:48","slug":"us-voices-serious-concerns-over-proposed-criminalization-of-interfaith-marriage-in-myanmar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2014\/06\/14\/us-voices-serious-concerns-over-proposed-criminalization-of-interfaith-marriage-in-myanmar\/","title":{"rendered":"US voices \u2018serious concerns\u2019 over proposed criminalization of interfaith marriage in Myanmar"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"interfaith<\/a><\/p>\n

WASHINGTON\u2014The State Department has voiced serious concerns about proposals to criminalize interfaith marriage in Myanmar, while rights groups warned Thursday that passage of such discriminatory legislation could spark more violence against Muslims.<\/p>\n

Nationalist Buddhist monks are pushing legislation to \u201cprotect and preserve race and religion\u201d in the\u00a0Southeast Asian\u00a0nation, which has seen bouts of violence against minority Muslims in the past two years that have killed more than 200 people and displaced tens of thousands.<\/p>\n

President Thein Sein has directed parliament to draft four pieces of legislation that would also restrict religious conversion, ban polygamy and enact population control measures\u2014widely viewed as steps directed against Muslims.<\/p>\n

The proposed legislation raises questions about the direction of Myanmar\u2019s democratic reforms as it shifts from decades of military rule.<\/p>\n

The Obama administration has been a staunch supporter of Thein Sein, helping his government to escape pariah status. But nationalist sentiments appear on the rise in the country also known as Burma ahead of pivotal national elections in 2015.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe United States opposes any measure that would criminalize interfaith marriages. Such a step would be inconsistent with the government\u2019s efforts to promote tolerance and respect for human rights,\u201d spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in written response to a question posed at a press briefing Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, U.S. Ambassador to Myanmar, Derek Mitchell, said he spoke to women activists who reported receiving death threats for opposing the marriage bill.<\/p>\n

In a statement Thursday, a coalition of 80 civil society groups said the draft religious conversion law, published May 27 and currently open for public comment, would unlawfully restrict the right to choose a religion freely.<\/p>\n

The bill \u201cappears to legitimize the views of those promoting hate-speech and inciting violence against Muslims and other minorities and if adopted, will further institutionalize discrimination against religious and ethnic minorities,\u201d the coalition, including the British-based group Christian Solidarity Worldwide, said.<\/p>\n

Robert George, chairman of the Commission on International Religious Freedom, said the conversion legislation would contravene Myanmar\u2019s international commitments to protect freedom of religion or belief.<\/p>\n

\u201cSuch a law has no place in the 21st century, and we urge that it be withdrawn,\u201d he said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Rep. Joseph Crowley, a leading voice in Congress on Myanmar policy, said it was most disappointing that Thein Sein\u2019s office was pushing the efforts to \u201cinstitutionalize discrimination.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOn top of the fact that he still hasn\u2019t released all political prisoners, attacks are continuing against ethnic groups, and he has not supported constitutional reform. I\u2019m seriously concerned about the overall situation,\u201d the Democratic lawmaker said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON\u2014The State Department has voiced serious concerns about proposals to criminalize interfaith marriage in Myanmar, while rights groups warned Thursday …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":15156,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-w","mauthors-matthew-pennington","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15155"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15155\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}