House Human Rights Commission
Center for Religious Freedom
Founded in 1986, and headquartered at Hudson Institute since January 2007, the Center for Religious Freedom promotes religious freedom as a component of U.S. foreign policy by working with a worldwide network of religious freedom experts to provide defenses against religious persecution and oppression.
Since its inception in 1986, the Center has sponsored investigative field missions, reported on the religious persecution of individuals and groups abroad, and undertaken advocacy on their behalf in the media, Congress, State Department and White House.
Religious freedom faces difficult new challenges. Recent decades have seen the rise of extreme interpretations of Islamist rule that are virulently intolerant of dissenting voices and other traditions within Islam, as well as other faiths. Many in the policy world still find religious freedom too “sensitive” to raise. But since 9/11, the link between America’s national interests and its ideals has never been clearer.
When U.S. policy falls short, the Center for Religious Freedom works to speak up for the promotion of religious freedom and the defense of persecuted believers. During the Cold War, the Center focused on helping religious believers persecuted under Communism. Today, while it continues to press for religious freedom in the remnant communist states of China, North Korea and Vietnam, it is increasingly engaged in ensuring that American policymakers defend the principle of religious freedom and believers who are persecuted purely for their religious beliefs in the Muslim world. These persecuted believers include Christians, Jews, Mandeans, Yazidis, Baha’i, Ahmadiyya, and others, as well as Muslim minorities and dissident reformers who find themselves condemned for the religious crimes of blasphemy and apostasy.
Board of Advisors
R. James Woolsey is co-chair of the Committee on The Present Danger. He was chairman of the board of Freedom House when it released Saudi Publications on Hate Ideology Invade American Mosques and he authored its foreword. He has practiced law for 22 years and has held a variety of senior government positions, including service as Director of Central Intelligence from 1993 to 1995. He is now a consultant.
Zainab Al-Suwaij is the co-founder and executive director of the American Islamic Congress (AIC). She works with the Anti-Defamation League and Facing History and Ourselves, and serves on Connecticut’s Hate Crimes Advisory Board. Al-Suwaij has testified before the Senate, works regularly with various congressional leaders, and has briefed the President and Secretary of State. Her writing has appeared in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. Since 2003, Al-Suwaij has worked in Iraq to strengthen women’s rights and help rebuild the Iraqi education system. She currently leads the State Department-funded Iraqi Women’s Educational Institute, which trains female civil society activists in principles of democracy and civic leadership. Al-Suwaij co-founded the Iraqi Women Higher Counsel which successfully lobbied the Iraqi Interim Governing Council to mandate 25 percent of parliamentary seats for women. She also works with Women Waging Peace.
Joseph Ghougassian is the first naturalized U.S. citizen from the Middle East to become a U.S. Ambassador. He served in Qatar, was White House Aide to President Reagan in the Office of Policy Development, and was Peace Corps Director in Yemen. In 2003 he was the Special Envoy to Kirkuk on property disputes, and CPA Deputy Senior Advisor in the Iraqi Ministry of Higher Education. Currently, he is Chief of Party in a USAID-funded project in National Capacity Development for Iraqi civil servants in public management. Born of Armenian parents, he received his education in Egypt, Lebanon, Rome, and Belgium, and earned a law degree in the United States. Author of several books, he has lectured extensively around the world on international affairs, diplomacy, law, politics, philosophy, and psychotherapy. While U.S. Ambassador in Qatar he helped persuade its government to lift a 14-century prohibition on the practice of Christianity and non-Muslim religions. In recognition of this achievement, Pope John Paul II bestowed upon him a Vatican knighthood with the rank of Commander in the Order of St. Gregory the Great.
Mary Habeck, Associate Professor of International Relations at Johns Hopkins University, teaches courses on military history and strategic thought at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies. Before joining SAIS, she was a professor in Yale University’s history department for eleven years. She is the author of Knowing the Enemy: Jihadist Ideology and the War on Terror and Storm of Steel: The Development of Armor Doctrine in Germany and the Soviet Union, 1919-1939. She has co-edited two volumes on the First World War and the Spanish Civil War. She is currently working on a second book on the war on terror entitled The Jihadist Way of War.
John “Jack” Joyce is president of the International Construction Institute, a Rome-based NGO working in developing countries and Central and Eastern Europe. Previously he was president of the International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers BAC from 1979 until 1999. He is currently a member of the Advisory Committee on Labor Diplomacy to the President and the Secretaries of State and Labor. Joyce was a member of the AFL-CIO Executive Council from 1984 to 1999, and served as chairman of its Committee on National Defense, and on the boards of the AFL-CIO institutes on Latin America, Africa, and Asia. He was also Labor Chair of the International Labor Organization (ILO) Committee on the Application of Standards, Chair of the Democratic National Committee’s Labor Committee, Labor vice-chair of the Center for National Policy, and Co-chair of the Central American Democracy Watch. He was on the boards of the National Endowment for Democracy, the National Democratic Institute, and the Commission on Central American Reconstruction and Redevelopment. Additionally, he has served on the board of the Harmon Fellowship Program at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, and the National Academy of Sciences Building Research Board. President Reagan appointed him to the Presidential Commission on Collective Bargaining and President Clinton to Presidential Missions to Poland and El Salvador as well as the Labor Diplomacy Committee.
Rebiya Kadeer, one of China’s most successful businesswoman in the mid-1990s, is an advocate for the rights of the Uyghur people in East Turkestan (or Xinjiang Province) in northwest China. She established a multimillion-dollar trading company and a department store in Urumchi, and worked to provide assistance and opportunities to disadvantaged Uyghurs, especially through her movement to empower women to start their own businesses. Originally held up as a model of Uyghur success and philanthropy, she fell from favor with the PRC government after she began calling for an end to its hard-line policies against the Uyghurs and a lifting of discriminatory restrictions on their cultural and religious expression. In 1997, Kadeer was stripped of her membership in both the National People’s Congress and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and forbidden to travel abroad. She was arrested in 1999 while on her way to meet with a visiting U.S. Congressional delegation and, following a secret trial, was sentenced to eight years’ imprisonment in March 2000. She spent two years in solitary confinement. In response to international pressure, she was then released from prison and sent to the United States, where she was granted refugee status. Many of Kadeer’s eleven children and other family members have been persecuted by PRC authorities in retaliation for her human rights advocacy. In 2006, she was elected to the presidency of the Uyghur American Association, which works to support the right of the Uyghur people to use peaceful, democratic means to determine their own political future, as well as to the presidency of the World Uyghur Congress, which represents the interests of the Uyghur diaspora.
Firuz Kazemzadeh is the former secretary for external affairs of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of the United States. He is professor emeritus at Yale University, having taught Russian history there from 1956 until his retirement in 1992. During his tenure at Yale, he also served variously as director of graduate Russian and Eastern European Studies; chair of the Committee on Middle Eastern Studies; and director of graduate studies in History. He is the author of several books relating to Russia and Central Asia.
Theodore Roosevelt “Ted” Malloch is chairman and founder of the Spiritual Enterprise Institute and also chairman and CEO of The Roosevelt Group, a strategic management and thought-leadership company. Malloch has been a senior fellow of The Aspen Institute, where he previously directed its national seminars. He served on the executive board of the World Economic Forum, which hosts its renowned yearly “summit” in Davos, Switzerland. He has held an ambassadorial-level position in the United Nations (1988-92); headed consulting at Wharton-Chase Econometrics; worked in international capital markets at Salomon Brothers, Inc.; and served in senior policy positions at the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations and in the U.S. State Department. He has authored numerous articles and books, including The Renewal of American Culture and the Pursuit of Happiness (with Scott Massey) in 2006.
Richard Land has served as president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission since 1988. In 2005, Land was featured in Time magazine as one of the “Twenty-five Most Influential Evangelicals in America.” In 2004, he was recognized by National Journal as one of the ten top church-state experts “politicians will call on when they get serious about addressing an important public policy issue.” He is the host of two nationally syndicated radio programs, For Faith & Family and For Faith & Family’s Insight.
Vo Van Ai is a distinguished Vietnamese political activist, journalist, historian and poet, living in exile in Paris. He is founder and President of Quê Me: Action for Democracy in Vietnam, an organization to promote Vietnamese culture, and editor of Quê Me (Homeland), a Vietnamese-language magazine on democracy, human rights and culture published in Paris since 1976. He is the founder and president of the Vietnam Committee on Human Rights, a Paris-based monitoring organization. He directs the International Buddhist Information Bureau, and is the international spokesman for the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam, Vietnam’s traditional Buddhist Church, which is banned in Vietnam today. He is also president and co-founder of Forum Asia Democracy, a private movement to promote democracy and the rule of law in Asia. Vo Van Ai is a member of the International Steering Committee of the Non-Governmental Process of the Community of Democracies. Arrested and tortured at the age of 11 for participating in the resistance movement against French colonial rule, he began to study Buddhist Sutras in prison and decided to devote his life to the pursuit of social justice and freedom through the Buddhist path of compassion and non-violence. In 1964, he began campaigning for a peaceful solution to the Vietnam War, and has monitored human rights since the communist unification of his homeland in 1975. He drew up the first map of Vietnamese reeducation camps, and launched a campaign that led to the release of hundreds of thousands of religious and political prisoners. In 1978 he helped initiate a campaign that led to the launch of the “Ile de Lumiere,” the first rescue ship dedicated to helping escaping Vietnamese “boat people.” He now runs a weekly radio broadcast on democracy to Vietnam, and regularly testifies before the United Nations, the European Parliament, and the U.S. Congress about human rights and religious freedom in Vietnam.
George Weigel, a senior fellow of the Washington-based Ethics & Public Policy Center, is a Roman Catholic theologian and one of America’s leading commentators on issues of religion and public life. He has authored or edited 17 books, including The Final Revolution: The Resistance Church and the Collapse of Communism; Witness to Hope: The Biography of Pope John Paul II; and The Cube and the Cathedral: Europe, America and Politics without God. He is a consultant on Vatican affairs for NBC News, and his weekly column is syndicated to 60 newspapers around the United States.
Policy Center News
“Nina Shea mentioned in Christian Today about possible construction of the first Christian church in Saudi Arabia():https://www.christiantoday.com/article/how.long.must.christians.wait.before.church.bells.ring.in.saudi.arabia/136907.htm
“Samuel Tadros mentioned in National Review about religions minorities in the Middle East.
Hudson Institute was mentioned in the Washington Times about the disappearance of Chinese Bishop James Su Zhimin.
Samuel Tadros was quoted in Associated Press about changes in the Coptic Christian church.
Paul Marshall and Nina Shea were mentioned in Kvartal about blasphemy laws and how they impact religious communities.
Nina Shea is quoted in The Economist on the tenuous position of Syria’s religious minorities if Turkey plays a larger role in the country’s stabilization
Nina Shea is quoted in the Christian Post on the recent massacre of Christian ethnic Igbo civilians by Nigerian security forces
Samuel Tadros is quoted in Fanack on the sectarian intolerance growing in Egypt towards Christians
Paul Marshall is quoted in TIME on Thich Nhat Hanh’s return to Vietnam to live out his final days
Paul Marshall is quoted in Angelus News on the influential role of Catholic thought on the U.N.‘s human rights charter
Nina Shea is quoted in the South China Morning Post on the motivations driving Christian persecution in China
Samuel Tadros is quoted in The Wall Street Journal on the restrictions against Egypt’s Copts serving in the government and military
Nina Shea is quoted in the National Catholic Register on how the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria could impact the region’s Christians and Kurds
Sam Tadros is cited in the National Review on sectarian attacks against Egypt’s Coptic community
Sam Tadros is cited in a National Review article on sectarian attacks against Egypt’s Coptic community
Lela Gilbert is quoted in the Daily Wire on the dwindling Christian population on the West Bank
Nina Shea quoted by The Washington Free Beacon on aid to Iraqi Christians
Nina Shea quoted in Christianity Today on US aid to Iraqi Christians, October 17, 2018
Nina Shea’s comments at Hudson event on China-Vatican relations quoted by Taiwan News
Samuel Tadros quoted in The Washington Examiner on sectarian attacks on Copts in Egypt
Samuel Tadros quoted by France24 on murder of a bishop in Egypt
Paul Marshall quoted by Fox News on religious liberty
Samuel Tadros quoted in The New York Times on Coptic Pope Tawadros
Samuel Tadros quoted in The Guardian on the recent murder of a Coptic bishop in Egypt
Samuel Tadros congressional testimony quoted in The New York Times
Nina Shea quoted in Politico on U.S. aid to Christian minorities in the Middle East
Hillel Fradkin testimony before the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Reform quoted in The Washington Examiner
Nina Shea quoted in The Washington Post on U.S. aid to Christians and Yazidis in Iraq
Nina Shea quoted by Fox News on aid to Iraqi Christians
Samuel Tadros quoted in The Daily Beast on Syrian exploitation of Christians
Nina Shea quoted in CBN NEWS on Christian persecution in Saudi Arabia
Nina Shea quoted in The Christian Post on Secretary of State nominee Mike Pompeo
Event featuring Samuel Tadros covered by The Christian Post
Samuel Tadros quoted in The Atlantic on the Coptic Church in America
Samuel Tadros quoted in The Algemeiner on the Egyptian elections
Samuel Tadros interviewed on the John Batchelor Show on Trump and the media
Nina Shea quoted in The Washington Free Beacon on Iranian Christian refugees in Austria.
Nina Shea quoted in The Washington Free Beacon on asylum to Iranian Christians
Nina Shea quoted in The Washington Free Beacon on Iranian Christians in Australia
Samuel Tadros quoted by AFP on upcoming presidential nominations in Egypt
Nina Shea quoted in The Atlantic on the Trump administration’s religious freedom policy
Nina Shea quoted in Fox News on religious minorities in Iraq
Nina Shea quoted in Fox News on revamped contributions to the UNDP
Nina Shea quoted in The Washington Free Beacon and Christian Post on possible deportation of Iranian Christians waiting to enter the U.S.
Nina Shea quoted in CBN on the passage of the International Religious Freedom Act
Nina Shea quoted in Aleteia on Saudi textbooks
Samuel Tadros quoted in The Atlantic on ISIS attacks on Egyptian Christians
Samuel Tadros featured on Warcast discussing violence in Sinai
Samuel Tadros quoted in The Atlantic on ISIS’ targeting of Christians in Egypt
Nina Shea quoted in the Washington Free Beacon on Sam Brownback’s appointment to ambassador at large for international Religious Freedom
Nina Shea quoted by Christian Post on Christian refugees in Iraq
Nina Shea quoted by Fox News on U.S. aid to Iraqi Christians
Nina Shea quoted by The Atlantic, The National Catholic Register, and Christianity Today on US bypassing UN to aid Iraqi Christians
Nina Shea quoted by the National Catholic Register on Hungary’s first government conference for persecuted Christians
Nina Shea quoted by Christian Daily on the persecution of religious minorities in Iraq
Nina Shea quoted by Tablet Magazine on anti-Semitism in Saudi Arabian textbooks
Nina Shea quoted by The Washington Free Beacon, The Daily Caller, and the Christian Post on the delay of U.S. aid to Yazidis and Christians in Iraq
Catholic Philly reports on symposium on Christian genocide in the Middle East attended by Nina Shea
Nina Shea quoted by Baptist Press on the State Department’s annual International Religious Freedom Report
Samuel Tadros quoted by The Investigative Project on Terrorism on the Egyptian Revolutionary Council (ERC)
Nina Shea quoted by The Washington Free Beacon on the State Department’s shift in policy regarding ISIS’s assault on Yazidis and Christians in Iraq
Hudson event on the plight of the Yezidis covered by The Washington Free Beacon
Nina Shea quoted by The Washington Free Beacon on Rex Tillerson’s use of the term “genocide” to describe ISIS attacks on religious minorities
Book co-authored by Nina Shea reviewed by The Acton Institute
Nina Shea quoted by McClatchy on Sam Brownback’s appointment as Ambassador-at-large for Religious Freedom
Nina Shea quoted by The National Catholic Register and National Review Online on the debate surrounding the Córdoba Cathedral
Nina Shea quoted by The Washington Free Beacon on State Department policy regarding ISIS’s targeting of religious minorities
Nina Shea quoted by McClatchy on Gov. Brownback’s consideration for Ambassador-At-Large for International Religious Freedom
Nina Shea quoted by Religion News Service on the deportation of Chaldean Christians to Iraq
Hudson’s Center for Religious Freedom-sponsored event featuring the bishop of Córdoba, Demetrio Fernández González, mentioned in The Wall Street Journal
Paul Marshall quoted by CNA on the repeal of Denmark’s blasphemy law
Samuel Tadros quoted by Bloomberg and The Algemeiner on the recent deadly attack on Coptic Christians in Egypt
Nina Shea quoted by CNA on the religious freedom defense in the first U.S. FGM case
Samuel Tadros quoted in Middle East Monitor on the state of Egypt’s Coptic community
Samuel Tadros quoted by The Wall Street Journal on Egypt’s Coptic community
Nina Shea quoted in The Atlantic on the topic of the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA) of 2016
Samuel Tadros quoted by Dennis Ross in USA Today regarding the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood’s reaction to Pope Francis’ visit to Egypt
Samuel Tadros quoted in The Independent on the topic of tensions between the Egyptian regime and the country’s Coptic community
Nina Shea quoted in Reuters on Pope Francis and the persecution of Middle East Christians
Nina Shea quoted in Washington Post on the need for the Trump administration to protect persecuted Christians overseas
Nina Shea quoted in Express on the Palm Sunday terror attack in Egypt
Sam Tadros quoted in TIME, Bloomberg, Fox News, National Review, American Conservative, PJ Media and Huffington Post on the Palm Sunday Coptic Church bombings in Egypt
Nina Shea quoted in LifeZette on the jizya, the tax imposed on Christians by ISIS in Iraq
Nina Shea quoted in The Australian on Christians in Lebanon being too afraid to enter UNHCR refugee camps
Samuel Tadros’s article on Middle East Christian refugees cited in New Zealand Catholic
Nina Shea quoted in Washington Examiner on the anniversary of the U.N.‘s Christian genocide designation
Nina Shea quoted in National Catholic Register on the need for President Trump to issue an executive order to help the genocide survivors of ISIS in Iraq and Syria
Nina Shea quoted in Christian Post on Islamic slavery and free speech
Samuel Tadros quoted in U.S. News & World Report and Herald and News on President Trump’s executive order regarding religious minorities
Nina Shea quoted in Washington Times on President Trump’s temporary travel ban granting preferred refugee status to persecuted religious minorities
Nina Shea quoted in USA Today and The Jerusalem Post on the US’s past reliance on the UN High Commissioner on Refugees to vet potential immigrants
Nina Shea quoted in the Washington Post on Syrian Christians in UN refugee camps
Nina Shea quoted in The Economist on the future of Syria’s inter-faith relations
Nina Shea quoted in National Catholic Register on President Obama signing the International Religious Freedom Act
Nina Shea quoted in America Magazine on ISIS’s treatment of Christians
Samuel Tadros’s presentation at the Westminster Institute on Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood written up in Religious Freedon Coalition
Nina Shea quoted in Crux on the importance of Iraqi Christians return to their homes in Nineveh
Hudson’s event Religious Freedom in Vietnam: Its Importance for Regional and Global Security written up in Providence
Nina Shea quoted in Washington Times on the U.S.‘s quota for Christian refugees
Nina Shea in quoted in World Watch Monitor on the Christian refugee crisis in Iraq
Nina Shea’s interview with Quick to Listen written up in Christianity Today
Samuel Tadros quoted in Fox News on the lack of clarity in Egypt’s new church law
Nina Shea quoted in Fox News on the Obama administration deprioritizing Christian refugees from Syria
Nina Shea quoted in Christian Post on the heightened regulatory approach to religious faith
Nina Shea’s talk on Iraqi Christians written up in Christian Post
Sam Tadros interviewed in Al Masry Al Youm on religious freedom in Egypt
Samuel Tadros quoted in TIME Magazine on different theories about the terror attack on EgyptAir 804
Samuel Tadros quoted in Jerusalem Post on Egyptians’ perceptions of Sisi’s speech
Nina Shea featured in a Lapidomedia article on the Christian genocide
Paul Marshall quoted in First Things on the contemporary persecution of Christians
Nina Shea quoted in Baptist Press on the death by bulldozer of a woman in China protesting the destruction of her church
Nina Shea quoted in Jerusalem Post on ISIS’s genocide of Christians in the Middle East and First Things
Nina Shea quoted in The Economist on the State Department’s genocide designation
Nina Shea quoted in Arkansas Democrat-Gazette on Senator Cotton’s proposef bill, “The Religious Persecution Relief Act.”
Nina Shea quoted in Christian Science Monitor on the House of Representatives voting to declare ISIS’s actions ‘genocide’
Samuel Tadros quoted in Catholic News Agency on the four Coptic Christian teenagers facing up to five years in prison after an Egyptian court found them guilty of blasphemy against Islam
Nina Shea quoted in Religion News on the Knights of Columbus’s report on what has happened to Christians in the path of ISIS
Nina Shea quoted in EWTN News on the ongoing Christian genocide in the Middle East
Nina Shea’s National Review article on executions of Christians in ISIS-controlled territory quoted in Deseret News
Nina Shea quoted in Christian News on the prospects of establishing a safe zone for persecuted Christians and Yazidis in Iraq
Nina Shea quoted in World Mag on the backlash against the “genocide” label applying to Middle East Christians
Samuel Tadros quoted in World Mag# on blasphemy cases in Egypt
Nina Shea quoted in __Christian Post announcing the “religious freedom scorecard:
Samuel Tadros quoted in International Business Times on the state of Christianity in Egypt
Nina Shea interviewed in National Catholic Register on Iraqi Christians displaced by ISIS
Nina Shea and the Center for Religious Freedom’s project to rescue Iraqi Christians from a Kurdistan refugee camp written up in Deseret News, Aleteia and was the focus of an hour long special on ABC’s 20/20 that aired Friday, December 18th
Nina Shea interviewed by NPR on the need to declare Middle East Christian refugees as genocide victims of ISIS
The Center for Religious Freedom’s efforts in helping more than 100 Iraqi Christian refugees escape ISIS cited in ABC News
Nina Shea quoted in The Hill on Christian Syrians being targeted by ISIS
Nina Shea quoted in National Catholic Register on genocide designation for Christian refugees
Nina Shea quoted in USA Today on ISIL’s treatment of Middle East Christians
Nina Shea and other experts seek meeting with John Kerry to urge that Christian victims be included in a forthcoming State Dept. finding of genocide by ISIS
Samuel Tadros quoted in World Magazine on the martyrdom of Egypt’s Coptic Christians
Samuel Tadros and Mokhtar Awad’s article on the firebombing of KFC branches in Egypt quoted in Washington Post
Nina Shea’s report on religous intolerance found in Saudi textbooks cited in The Hill
Samuel Tadros quoted in Toronto Star on the displacement of Syrian refugees
Nina Shea and Farahnaz Ispahani’s article, “Equal Opportunity Terrorism” featured in Time Magazine‘s This Week’s Best Foreign Policy Reads
Nina Shea’s National Review article on the Obama administration’s response to the persecution of Christians and other religious minorities in the Middle East quoted in Weekly Standard
Lela Gilbert quoted in Algemeiner on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem
Samuel Tadros’s lecture on the roots of anti-Semitism featured in Australia’s Jewish News
Samuel Tadros quoted in Sydney Morning Herald and The Australian on western governments being hesitant to openly accept minority groups from the Middle East
Nina Shea quoted in Fox News on the Syrian refugee crisis
Nina Shea’s article on ISIS’s sex slaves cited in American Interest
Nina Shea quoted in New York Times on protecting Christian minorities in the Middle East
Samuel Tadros cited in Crux on the violent assaults on Christians and their churches during the 2011 Egyptian riots
Nina Shea quoted in World Magazine on Middle East Christians being forced to pay a jizya
Samuel Tadros quoted in Crux on the future of Christians in the Middle East
Samuel Tadros quoted in Jewish News Service on anti-Semitism in Egypt
Samuel Tadros featured in Lapidomedia on the Brotherhood’s ‘Islamic justification’ for the fight against Sisi
Samuel Tadros quoted in Reuters on Egypt’s continued mishandling of Coptic issues
Nina Shea quoted in National Review’s Corner and Fox News on Sister Diana Momeka, an Iraqi nun, finally being granted a visa to enter the United States
Samuel Tadros interviewed on EWTN News Nightly on ISIS’s claimed attack in Texas
Nina Shea’s National Review article on the State Department’s visa denial for an Iraqi nun written up in International Business Tribune, Breitbart and Christianity Today
Nina Shea quoted in Aleteia on ISIS forcing a Christians exodus from Iraq
Nina Shea quoted in Religious News Service on the ethnic cleansing of Christians in the Middle East
Sam Tadros quoted in VOA News on extremism in the Egyptian educational system
Nina Shea quoted in Fox News on the lethal extremism of Boko Haram
Sam Tadros quoted in Anadolu Agency on the role of human rights in U.S.-Egypt relations
Nina Shea quoted in Washington Examiner on the Obama Administration’s mishandling of Christian persecution
Nina Shea quoted in Christian Post on Senior Al Shabaab officer Mohamed Mohamud’s attack on Garissa University College in Kenya
Nina Shea quoted in NewsMax on Obama’s latest remarks about Christians
Paul Marshall interviewed in Christian Post on the terrorist group Al-Shabaab
Nina Shea quoted in CNN on the state of Christianity in the Middle East
Nina Shea’s event, Boko Haram, the Islamic State’s West African Franchise, written up in Christian Post
Paul Marshall quoted in the Jakarta Post on blasphemy and radicalization
Samuel Tadros referenced in New York Times on his research on Islamist extremist Shahid King Bolsen
Samuel Tadros quoted in Chicago Sun-Times on ISIS slaying Copts
Sam Tadros interviewed in National Review Online on the martyring of 21 Egyptian Copts
Nina Shea quoted in National Catholic Register on combating ISIS propaganda
Nina Shea quoted in Fox News on the persecution of Christians
Nina Shea quoted in the American Spectator on President Obama’s remarks during the National Prayer Breakfast about Christian failure
Nina Shea quoted in National Catholic Register on Pope Francis visiting China
Nina Shea quoted in Weekly Standard Online on the Benghazi attack and the scapegoated filmmaker
Husain Haqqani and Nina Shea discuss ISIS and the future of the Middle East at NYC’s 92nd Street Y.
Nina Shea’s National Review article on hate-speech laws referenced in The Economist
Nina Shea quoted in Washington Post on the foreign policy implications of Islamic extremism
Nina Shea quoted in Breitbart on the cultural genocide of Christians
Nina Shea quoted in Christian Today on the Islamisation of Iraq
Nina Shea quoted in The Jerusalem Post on Islamism and the religious cleansing of Middle East Christians
Nina Shea quoted in Deseret News on ISIS’s attacks on Christians
Nina Shea quoted in Aleteia on the lack of religious freedom in Cuba
Nina Shea quoted in Aleteia on Castro’s Cuba and its threats to religious freedom
Nina Shea’s event, The Race Against ISIS: Efforts to Preserve Ancient Christian Culture in the Middle East, covered by PJ Media, Aleteia, and Catholic News Agency
Samuel Tadros receives the Washington Institute Book Prize bronze award for Motherland Lost: The Egyptian and Coptic Quest for Modernity
Nina Shea quoted in Aleteia on Pakistan’s blasphemy law
Nina Shea quoted in Christian Post on the persecution of Middle East Christians by Islamic Extremists
Nina Shea quoted in Washington Times on terrorism in Pakistan
Nina Shea quoted in Aleteia on kidnapped Christians in Syria and Iraq
Samuel Tadros quoted in Algemeiner on the withdrawing of Alaa Abdel Fattah’s Sakharov Prize nomination
Nina Shea quoted in Fox News on religious cleansing in Saudi Arabia
Nina Shea quoted in Associated Press on the Islamic State and the plight of religious minorities
Paul Marshall quoted in New York Times on the persecution of Iraq’s religious minorities
Nina Shea quoted in Daily Caller on the dwindling number of Christians in the Middle East
Nina Shea quoted in National Review Online on the plight of the Yazidis in Iraq
Paul Marshall quoted in ABC Online (Australia) on terrorists targeting Christians
Paul Marshall quoted on WND on the U.S. government’s stance on religious persecution abroad
Nina Shea quoted in Aleteia on Meriam Ibrahim’s persecution in Sudan
Paul Marshall quoted in Wall Street Journal on the persecution of Christians worldwide
Paul Marshall quoted in Christian Post on the contemporary persecution of Christians
Nina Shea quoted in The American Conservative on the threat of ISIS to Iraq’s Christians
Nina Shea quoted in National Catholic Register on the role of the papacy in religious freedom
Nina Shea quoted in Religion.dk (Denmark) on Christianity in the Muslim World
Samuel Tadros quoted in The Jerusalem Post on the elections in Egypt
Nina Shea quoted in The Telegraph on apostasy from Islam
Nina Shea quoted in WorldNetDaily on the U.S. State Department’s understanding of Boko Haram
Paul Marshall quoted in Christian Post on Boko Haram and radical Islam
Samuel Tadros quoted in Al-Monitor on Hamdeen Sabahi and the election in Egypt
Nina Shea quoted in The Economist‘s Eurasmus blog on Boko Haram and Nigeria
Samuel Tadros quoted in Christianity Today on Western involvement in the Egyptian crisis
Nina Shea quoted in Catholic News Agency on the Boko Haram kidnappings
CRF’s Nina Shea and a broad coalition of religious freedom advocates release a landmark Pledge of Solidarity and Call to Action on behalf of Christians and other small religious communities in Egypt, Iraq and Syria.
Samuel Tadros quoted in World Affairs Journal on Egyptian anti-Semitism
Samuel Tadros quoted in World Affairs Journal on Egypt and the Jewish people
Lela Gilbert quoted in National Catholic Register on the inclusion of persecuted Christians during prayer at mass
Paul Marshall quoted in Voice of America on attacks on Coptic Christians in Egypt
Nina Shea quoted in Christianity Today on religious freedom in Vietnam
Samuel Tadros quoted in Jerusalem Post on the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt
Paul Marshall quoted in The Washington Times on the persecution of Christians
Samuel Tadros quoted in National Review Online on Islamists
Nina Shea quoted in Christian Science Monitor on Syrian Christians
Rep. Frank Wolf (VA) cites work of Nina in U.S. House floor speech calling on USG to do more to protect Christians in Syria.
Nina Shea quoted in Deseret News on a religious freedom envoy for religious minority groups
Samuel Tadros quoted in Tel Aviv Notes on Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood.
Writing in the WSJ, Senator Marco Rubio names Persecuted: The Global Assault On Christians (ThomasNelson) his “favorite book of 2013.”
Nina Shea’s work in promoting religious freedom cited in the New York Times.
Featured
Experts
Nina Shea
Senior Fellow and Director, Center for Religious Freedom
Lela Gilbert
Adjunct Fellow, Center for Religious Freedom
Samuel Tadros
Senior Fellow
Paul Marshall
Senior Fellow, Center for Religious Freedom
Publications
View all
Amazon
Motherland Lost: The Egyptian And Coptic Quest For Modernity (herbert And Jane Dwight Working Group On Islamism And The International Order)
Amazon
Persecuted: The Global Assault On Christians
Amazon
Saturday People, Sunday People: Israel Through The Eyes Of A Christian Sojourner
Events
View all
In the Media
View all
Samuel Tadros discusses Egypt’s Christian history and the relationship between the Muslim Brotherhood and the Coptic Christian population.
International Christian Concern
Nina Shea testified before the U.S. Congressional Human Rights Commission in a hearing about Religious Freedom in China and the case of Chinese bishop James Su Zhimin.
Human Rights Commission
Samuel Tadros Testifies before U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs, July 24, 2018
All Commentary
View allAll Scholarship
All Transcripts
All Press
Policy Centers
- Center for the Economics of the Internet
- Coronavirus Insights and Analysis
- South Asia Program
- Center for Defense Concepts and Technology
- Hamilton Commission on Securing America’s National Security Innovation Base
- Current Trends in Islamist Ideology
- Center for Religious Freedom
- Food Policy Center
- Center for American Seapower
- Center for Substance Abuse Policy Research
- Kleptocracy Initiative
- Hudson Institute Political Studies
- First Step Act Independent Review Committee
- Japan Chair
- Forum for Intellectual Property