US leaders gather to discuss rights of nonreligious people across the world

'Discrimination against the non-religious is often caused, not by a desire to hurt atheists, but by the desire to help one or more religions,' according to a new report by Humanists International.

 Religious freedom leaders — including a United States ambassador, commissioner and elected representative — gathered in Washington, D.C., on Thursday (Dec. 8) to shed light on the rights of nonreligious people in countries across the globe.

The convening was part of the launch of the “Freedom of Thought Report” by Humanists International, an annual look at how non-religious individuals — comprising atheists, agnostics, humanists and freethinkers — are treated because of their lack of religion or absence of belief in a god.

It was hosted by American Atheists, a civil rights organization that works to achieve religious equality for all Americans. Among those in attendance were U.S. Rep. Jared Huffman, a congressman for much of California’s Bay Area; U.S. Ambassador-at-Large Rashad Hussain with the Office of International Religious Freedom; and Frederick Davie with the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom.

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“Extremism and religion continue to pose a severe threat to our democracy,” said Huffman, who identifies as a humanist, adding that white Christian nationalist groups “continue to export their dangerous, violent ideology and to find more traction in the mainstream.”

“My colleagues are feeling more confident in calling out the threat of white Christian nationalism directly,” he said.

Huffman, who helped establish the Congressional Freethought Caucus, highlighted a bipartisan resolution passed by the House of Representatives last year that condemns “heresy, blasphemy and apostasy laws.”

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By:  Alejandra Molina
Source: Religion News Service

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