June 14, 2021
12 p.m. – 1:15 p.m. ET (US)
Zoom Webinar
Political crises often provide motivation and cover for increased persecution of religious minority communities—a pattern underscored yet again by the COVID-19 pandemic.
But why do certain communities become targets and not others? Why do governments sometimes support and even initiate this discrimination? Why does this scapegoating lead to widespread violence in some cases and not in others? And what interventions can effectively protect these vulnerable communities?
Join us for a closer look at the complex social, political, economic, and religious factors that fuel discrimination towards religious minority communities during periods of political uncertainty. Panelists will discuss cross-national trends identified through the USAID-USIP Closing the Gap Project as well as recent events in Myanmar and Iraq. They will also explore anti-Semitism in a global context. Finally, the conversation will consider lessons from the US context and discuss policy interventions for reducing tensions and promoting peace.
Presented by the Keough School of Global Affairs and its Ansari Institute for Global Engagement with Religion, and by the US Institute of Peace.
Opening Remarks
Mahan Mirza
Executive Director
Ansari Institute
Teaching Professor
Keough School of Global Affairs
Moderator
Jason Klocek
Senior Researcher, US Institute of Peace
Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of Notre Dame
Instructor, Ansari Institute
Panelists
Sabrina Dent
Senior Faith Advisor
Americans United for Separation of Church and State
Billy Ford
Program Officer, Burma
US Institute of Peace
Knox Thames
Senior Fellow, Institute of Global Engagement
Former Special Advisor for Religious Minorities in the Near East and South / Central Asia, US Department of State
Originally published at ansari.nd.edu.