By Anwar Iqbal
The US Congress may soon urge President Donald Trump鈥檚 administration to consider imposing sanctions on countries that suppress religious freedom and violate human rights, Republican Congressman Christopher H. Smith suggested on Tuesday.
鈥淥ne of the biggest disappointments 鈥 regardless of who is in the White House or at the State Department 鈥 is the absence of sanctions,鈥 said Smith, who co-chairs the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission (TLHRC), during a congressional hearing on Pakistan.
Smith recalled that the only individual ever sanctioned under US religious freedom laws was Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, following the 2002 Gujarat riots. 鈥淲e are going to call on the Irfa office to consider imposing [sanctions] 鈥 especially in light of the terrible acts committed against people of various faiths,鈥 he said.
The Irfa office, based at the State Department, enforces the International Religious Freedom Act, which authorises the US government to designate and penalise countries that engage in or tole