*EPF406 05/03/01
Text: Bush Religious Freedom Remarks to American Jewish Committee
("Guiding doctrine" of U.S. foreign policy) (1630)
President Bush says the United States' rejection of religious bigotry over the years has matured "from a foundation of our domestic politics into a guiding doctrine of our foreign policy."
Addressing the American Jewish Committee in Washington May 3, the president referred to attacks on religious freedom in Sudan, China and several other countries, saying "We must speak for that freedom in the world."
Following is the text of Bush's prepared remarks:
(begin text)
EMBARGOED UNTIL DELIVERY
AMERICAN JEWISH COMMITTEE REMARKS BY PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH
May 3, 2001
(Remarks as written. Actual remarks as delivered may vary.)
I am proud to be here tonight with such close friends of America: Vicente Fox, Joschka Fischer, and Shimon Peres. Foreign Minister Peres and I had an excellent meeting in the Oval Office this morning. Mr. Peres has been a good friend of the United States through his many years in public service; I look forward to showing him my friendship for the State of Israel over the coming years. Mr. Fischer, welcome to Washington. President Fox, it is always a pleasure to see you -- and I am delighted you could be here for this important dinner. And thanks for our third meeting since I became President.
President Fox, Foreign Minister Fischer, Foreign Minister Peres and I occasionally have our differences. But on one thing we all agree: When Bruce Ramer invites us somewhere, we go!
I happened to take a look at this weekend's program before coming here. I was flattered to read that 'understanding the new Administration' is called a 'central feature' of this year's meeting.
I think I may be able to save you a little time.
I believe in equal opportunity for all, without discrimination or prejudice of any kind.
I believe that tolerance and respect must be taught to all our children, because too many young minds and souls are lost to hate and rage.
I believe that our government should support works of charity that are motivated by faith -- but our government should never fund the teaching of faith itself.
I am a Christian. But I believe with the Psalmist that the Lord God of Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps.
Understanding my Administration should not be difficult. We will speak up for our principles -- and we will stand up for our friends in the world. And one of our most important friends is the State of Israel.
I had the honor of touring Israel a little more than two years ago in the company of Ariel Sharon.
For a Texan, a first visit to Israel is an eye-opener. At the narrowest point, it's only 8 miles from the Mediterranean to the old Armistice line: That's less than from the top to the bottom of Dallas-Ft. Worth Airport. The whole of pre-1967 Israel is only about six times the size of the King Ranch near Corpus Christi.
Israel is a small country that has lived under threat throughout its existence. At the first meeting of my National Security Council, I told them a top foreign policy priority is the safety and security of Israel. My Administration will be steadfast in supporting Israel against terrorism and violence, and in seeking the peace for which all Israelis pray.
The Middle East is the birthplace of three great religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Lasting peace in the region must respect the rights of believers in all these faiths. That's common sense. But it is also something more: It is moral sense, based upon the deep American commitment to freedom of religion.
That commitment was expressed early and eloquently by our first President, George Washington, in his famous letter to the Touro synagogue in Newport, Rhode Island. He argued for an attitude beyond mere tolerance -- a respect for the inherent and equal right of everyone to worship God as they think best. 'The Government of the United States,' he said, 'which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection, should demean themselves as good citizens.'
Over the years, Washington's rejection of religious bigotry has matured from a foundation of our domestic politics into a guiding doctrine of our foreign policy.
The American Jewish Committee deserves special credit for this progress. You were among the very first groups to support the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998. Formed to resist anti-Semitic persecution in Czarist Russia, the American Jewish Committee has emerged as a great champion of religious liberty worldwide.
I am proud to say that it was a fellow Texan, Leo Napoleon Levi, who was responsible for one of the earliest American protests against anti-Semitic violence. Levi, a Galveston lawyer and the president of the national B'nai Brith, drafted President Theodore Roosevelt's telegram denouncing a Russian pogrom in 1903. The czar of Russia was so stung by Roosevelt's message that he formally refused to accept it. Some Americans complained that Roosevelt had gone too far. He replied that there were crimes so 'monstrous' that the American conscience had to assert itself.
And there still are.
Such crimes are being committed today by the government of Sudan, which is waging war against that country's traditionalist and Christian peoples. Some 2 million Sudanese have lost their lives; 4 million more have lost their homes. Hospitals, schools, churches, and international relief stations have often been bombed by government warplanes over the 18 years of Sudan's civil war. The government claims to have halted air attacks. But they continue. Women and children have been abducted and sold into slavery. UNICEF estimates that some 12,000 to 15,000 people are now held in bondage in Sudan.
The story of the Exodus still speaks across the millennia: No society in all of history can be justly built on the backs of slaves.
Sudan is a disaster area for all human rights. But the right of conscience has been singled out for special abuse by the Sudanese authorities. Aid agencies report that food assistance is sometimes distributed only to those willing to undergo conversion to Islam.
We must turn the eyes of the world upon the atrocities in Sudan. Today I have appointed a special humanitarian coordinator -- USAID Administrator Andrew Natsios. He will provide the leadership necessary to ensure that our aid goes to the needy, without manipulation by those ravaging that troubled land. This is a first step. More will follow. Our actions begin today -- and my Administration will continue to speak and act for as long as the persecution and atrocities in Sudan last.
I'm pleased to say that many countries in the region show considerable and improving respect for religious liberty: Morocco, Tunisia, Jordan, and Bahrain among them. But there are other regimes, and not only in North Africa and the Middle East, whose disrespect for freedom of worship is seriously disturbing.
Iraq murders dissident religious figures. Iran systematically maltreats Jews, Christians, and adherents of the Baha'i faith. The Burmese junta tortures adherents of Islam, Buddhism, and Christianity. Cuba monitors and harasses independent priests and ministers. Afghanistan's Taliban government has horrified the world with its disdain for fundamental human freedoms, epitomized by its destruction of ancient Buddhist works of art. And the newly independent republics of Central Asia impose troubling limits on religious expression and missionary work.
We view with special concern the intensifying attacks on religious freedom in China. In many respects, China has made great strides toward freedom in recent decades. China's economy has opened. Chinese people enjoy greater personal mobility, more secure property rights, and enlarged access to information. These are not small achievements. And they promise even greater change.
But the Chinese government continues to display an unreasonable and unworthy suspicion of freedom of conscience.
The Chinese government restricts independent religious expression. We hear alarming reports of the detention of worshippers and religious leaders. Churches and mosques have been vandalized or demolished. Traditional religious practices in Tibet have long been the target of especially harsh and unjust persecution. And most recently, adherents of the Falun Gong spiritual movement have been singled out for arrest and abuse.
China aspires to national strength and greatness. But these acts of persecution are acts of fear -- and therefore of weakness. This persecution is unworthy of all that China has been -- a civilization with a history of tolerance. And this persecution is unworthy of all that China should become -- an open society that respects the spiritual dignity of its people.
No one is a better witness to the transience of tyranny than the children of Abraham. Forty centuries ago, the Jewish people were entrusted with a truth more enduring than any power of man. In the words of the prophet Isaiah: 'This shall be My covenant with them, said the Lord: My spirit which is upon you, and the words which I have placed in your mouth, shall not be absent from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your children, nor from the mouth of your children's children -- said the Lord -- from now on, for all time.'
It is not an accident that freedom of religion is one of the central freedoms in our Bill of Rights. It is the first freedom of the human soul -- the right to speak the words that God places in our mouths. We must stand for that freedom in our country. We must speak for that freedom in the world. And I thank the American Jewish Committee for your willingness to do both.
(end text)
(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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