Religious Americans Oppose Torture
U.S. Religious Leaders Calls on U.S. to Repudiate Torture
| Here are portions of an article that appeared at the so-called Voice of America. |
by Cindy Saine
Dozens of U.S. religious leaders have signed a statement calling on the United States to repudiate torture and inhumane treatment. The statement comes in response to allegations of human rights abuses at U.S. detention centers in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and secret CIA-sponsored torture centers in Europe and Asia.In an advertisement published in The New York Times, a broad coalition of religious leaders has called on President Bush and Congress to remove all ambiguities from U.S. policy and ban torture without exception. The signers come from a range of denominations and include the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Washington, Theodore Cardinal McCarrick, the Reverend Ted Haggard, president of the National Association of Evangelicals, and Dr. Sayyid M. Syeed, the National Director of the Islamic Society of North America. Nobel laureates Elie Wiesel and Former President Jimmy Carter are also among the signers.
A White House spokesman, Ken Lisaius, told VOA the administration has "the utmost respect for all these religious leaders." But he reaffirmed what President Bush has said many times, that the U.S. government does not torture, and that it adheres to international conventions against torture. He said that is, and would remain, U.S. policy.
The statement by religious leaders comes as the United Nations and human rights groups have criticized the Bush administration and other countries for attempting to change the definition of torture.
The U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture, Manfred Nowak, said he considered the blurring of the lines on the absolute ban on torture to be the most serious challenge to international law and human rights protection since World War II.
The ad in The New York Times came one day after a Washington meeting of human rights officials questioned what religious groups were doing in response to the charges of torture.
Elisa Massimino is the Washington director of Human Rights First. "Where has the religious community been on the question of torture? With some notable exceptions, I would say largely silent," she said.
The human rights leader welcomed the statement, saying it was "better late than never" to hear moral leadership on torture from the religious community.
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Also see: Europe Tells U.S. to Stop Torturing
National Council of Churches Calls on US to Shut Down Guantanamo
U.S. Torture Scandals Continue to Expand |
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