At Rice, Kerry says religion part of diplomacy
Speaking to a packed house at Rice University’s Stude Concert Hall on Tuesday, Secretary of State John Kerry stressed the importance of galvanizing the world’s religions as a force to battle bigotry, violence, poverty, corruption and degradation of the environment.
“My basic argument is straightforward,” he said. “The more we understand religion, the better we are able to engage religion, the more effective our diplomacy will be. … We don’t make contacts for the sake of having interesting conversations, we do so to make progress on our foreign policy and security goals, to make America safer.”
To that end, Kerry told the gathering sponsored by the university’s Baker Institute for Public Policy, the State Department has endeavored to establish communication not only with religious leaders but with the religious rank and file.
Within his first months in office in 2013, Kerry moved to create an office of religious freedom charged with establishing thousands of contacts with world religious leaders. In U.S. embassies around the world, staff has been encouraged to understand and reach out to religious groups.
Such contacts have proved valuable in providing information on Islamic extremists, government corruption in Nigeria and the growth of anti-Semitism in Europe. Meetings with Islamic leaders have addressed economic development along with refugee welfare and human rights; those with leaders in Uganda, ways of curbing female genital mutilation.
Such emphasis on world religions — 80 percent of the world’s people observe some religious faith — traditionally has been absent from U.S. diplomatic strategy, Kerry said.
“We don’t advocate for a set of religious beliefs, or even belief over non-belief, but that doesn’t mean that religion is irrelevant to our approach to world affairs,” he said.
“Religion today remains deeply consequential, affecting values and actions of every walk of life on every continent. It’s part of what drives some to initiate war, others to pursue peace, inspires some to organize change, others to cling desperately to old ways.”
Kerry said it is imperative that the world’s people have the right of religious freedom, and accused ISIS of “killing Yazidis because they are Yazidis, Christians because they are Christian, Shiites because they are Shia.”
He denounced “rising” anti-Jewish feeling in Europe, saying that once started, prejudice is hard to contain.
“The last century saw much blood shed in the wake of demagogues,” he said. “We remain inalterably opposed to bigotry in all forms, including antiSemitism. We will never weaken, never change.”
Turning to domestic politics, Kerry lambasted presidential hopefuls for “smearing” the American Muslim community with the violent actions of extremists.
“Muslims have lived with us from the founding of our country,” he said. “They have fought on our side in every war, made homes in every region — proudly in Houston — and pursued a wide range of occupations. In other words, they’re Americans.”