Executive Order on Advancing International Religious Freedom

The White House | Issued On: June 2, 2020


Published on June 3, 2020 | The Biafra Times



By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered as follows:

Section 1. Policy. (a) Religious freedom, America’s first freedom, is a moral and national security imperative. Religious freedom for all people worldwide is a foreign policy priority of the United States, and the United States will respect and vigorously promote this freedom. As stated in the 2017 National Security Strategy, our Founders understood religious freedom not as a creation of the state, but as a gift of God to every person and a right that is fundamental for the flourishing of our society.

(b) Religious communities and organizations, and other institutions of civil society, are vital partners in United States Government efforts to advance religious freedom around the world. It is the policy of the United States to engage robustly and continually with civil society organizations — including those in foreign countries — to inform United States Government policies, programs, and activities related to international religious freedom.

Sec. 2. Prioritization of International Religious Freedom. Within 180 days of the date of this order, the Secretary of State (Secretary) shall, in consultation with the Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), develop a plan to prioritize international religious freedom in the planning and implementation of United States foreign policy and in the foreign assistance programs of the Department of State and USAID.

Sec. 3. Foreign Assistance Funding for International Religious Freedom. (a) The Secretary shall, in consultation with the Administrator of USAID, budget at least $50 million per fiscal year for programs that advance international religious freedom, to the extent feasible and permitted by law and subject to the availability of appropriations. Such programs shall include those intended to anticipate, prevent, and respond to attacks against individuals and groups on the basis of their religion, including programs designed to help ensure that such groups can persevere as distinct communities; to promote accountability for the perpetrators of such attacks; to ensure equal rights and legal protections for individuals and groups regardless of belief; to improve the safety and security of houses of worship and public spaces for all faiths; and to protect and preserve the cultural heritages of religious communities.

(b) Executive departments and agencies (agencies) that fund foreign assistance programs shall ensure that faith-based and religious entities, including eligible entities in foreign countries, are not discriminated against on the basis of religious identity or religious belief when competing for Federal funding, to the extent permitted by law.

Sec. 4. Integrating International Religious Freedom into United States Diplomacy. (a) The Secretary shall direct Chiefs of Mission in countries of particular concern, countries on the Special Watch List, countries in which there are entities of particular concern, and any other countries that have engaged in or tolerated violations of religious freedom as noted in the Annual Report on International Religious Freedom required by section 102(b) of the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 (Public Law 105-292), as amended (the “Act”), to develop comprehensive action plans to inform and support the efforts of the United States to advance international religious freedom and to encourage the host governments to make progress in eliminating violations of religious freedom.

(b) In meetings with their counterparts in foreign governments, the heads of agencies shall, when appropriate and in coordination with the Secretary, raise concerns about international religious freedom and cases that involve individuals imprisoned because of their religion.

(c) The Secretary shall advocate for United States international religious freedom policy in both bilateral and multilateral fora, when appropriate, and shall direct the Administrator of USAID to do the same.

Sec. 5. Training for Federal Officials. (a) The Secretary shall require all Department of State civil service employees in the Foreign Affairs Series to undertake training modeled on the international religious freedom training described in section 708(a) of the Foreign Service Act of 1980 (Public Law 96-465), as amended by section 103(a)(1) of the Frank R. Wolf International Religious Freedom Act (Public Law 114-281).

(b) Within 90 days of the date of this order, the heads of all agencies that assign personnel to positions overseas shall submit plans to the President, through the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, detailing how their agencies will incorporate the type of training described in subsection (a) of this section into the training required before the start of overseas assignments for all personnel who are to be stationed abroad, or who will deploy and remain abroad, in one location for 30 days or more.

(c) All Federal employees subject to these requirements shall be required to complete international religious freedom training not less frequently than once every 3 years.

Sec. 6. Economic Tools. (a) The Secretary and the Secretary of the Treasury shall, in consultation with the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, and through the process described in National Security Presidential Memorandum-4 of April 4, 2017 (Organization of the National Security Council, the Homeland Security Council, and Subcommittees), develop recommendations to prioritize the appropriate use of economic tools to advance international religious freedom in countries of particular concern, countries on the Special Watch List, countries in which there are entities of particular concern, and any other countries that have engaged in or tolerated violations of religious freedom as noted in the report required by section 102(b) of the Act. These economic tools may include, as appropriate and to the extent permitted by law, increasing religious freedom programming, realigning foreign assistance to better reflect country circumstances, or restricting the issuance of visas under section 604(a) of the Act.

(b) The Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the Secretary of State, may consider imposing sanctions under Executive Order 13818 of December 20, 2017 (Blocking the Property of Persons Involved in Serious Human Rights Abuse or Corruption), which, among other things, implements the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act (Public Law 114-328).

Sec. 7. Definitions. For purposes of this order:

(a) “Country of particular concern” is defined as provided in section 402(b)(1)(A) of the Act;

(b) “Entity of particular concern” is defined as provided in section 301 of the Frank R. Wolf International Religious Freedom Act (Public Law 114-281);

(c) “Special Watch List” is defined as provided in sections 3(15) and 402(b)(1)(A)(iii) of the Act; and

(d) “Violations of religious freedom” is defined as provided in section 3(16) of the Act.

Sec. 8. General Provisions. (a) Nothing in this order shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:

(i) the authority granted by law to an executive department or agency, or the head thereof; or

(ii) the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.

(b) This order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations.

(c) This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.



DONALD J. TRUMP

THE WHITE HOUSE,
June 2, 2020.

The Biafra Times
Publisher: Chijindu Benjamin Ukah
Contact us: [email protected]

Biafra: Over 51 Jewish adherents attacked, arrested by army, police in Umuahia

...‘We must remain strong and resolute’ – Uche Mefor

By Chukwuemeka Chimerue, Chief Editor | The Biafra Times

December 12, 2018

UMUAHIA – At least more than 51 Jewish adherents were arrested yesterday by armed security personnel while embarking on a peaceful procession in the streets of Umuahia, Abia state.

The Jewish Biafrans who were on a peaceful protest against the injustices meted on them and carrying various banners demanding for a Jewish State of Biafra were confronted by joint security forces comprising armed policemen and army who fired tear gas and live bullets at the protesters.

According to our impeccable source, “the duo of the security agencies double-crossed them(Jewish worshippers) with their military armoured tanks and uncountable Hilux vans filled with the Nigeria police and the army who opened fire on them and made several arrests exceeding 51 Biafrans in number.”

It was further gathered that many of the protesters who scampered for safety during the attack, sustained varying degrees of injuries even as some of them are still missing.

However, it has not yet been ascertained if there was any loss of life or the general number of victims as at the time of filing this report.

Explaining how the incident started, an eyewitness who spoke to our correspondent said, “I saw Biafran Jews dancing, singing and exhibiting high sense of coordination.

“They were even controlling traffics as they rallied before the police stopped to shot at them. Why are they shooting at them? Why are Nigerian security Forces so callously violent? Can they stand our men if we arm them? Nigeria security Forces will one day cause heavy war that will engulf the entire African continent.

“Their violent approach is the reason behind Boko Haram’s relentless slaughtering of their personnel even on daily bases and yet they have refused to learn.

“The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), has been exceptionally very peaceful. The Nigerian government should not push them to the wall because that will be disastrous.

“Those that will later turn around to apportion blame on IPOB, I hope all of them saw what the Nigerian forces are doing to a people that are legitimately and peacefully expressing their rights.

“Let nobody, community, village, state or organization blame IPOB in the event of restiveness anyday, because enough is enough.

“In an assumed good day, they may definitely be forced to confine their peaceful disposition to the dustbin if this callousness persists.”

Meanwhile, the Deputy Leader of IPOB, Mazi Uche Okafor-Mefor during his emergency Radio Biafra live transmission yesterday, vehemently condemned the gruesome attack, saying that IPOB would remain strong and resolute despite the attacks on its members.

“IPOB shall remain resolute and formidable in our agitation to restore Biafra despite what the Nigeria government may do to subjugate and subdue us because this is our land and we shall not run away from our land,” he said.

He further encouraged them to stand strong assuring them that the leadership of IPOB shall not capitulate in doing the needful to make sure that Biafra is totally restored from the British contraption called Nigeria.

Many Biafrans and lovers of freedom especially members of IPOB who called in during the live broadcast expressed their disappointment and grief over the brutal act of the Nigerian security operatives against the Jewish worshippers.

THE BIAFRA TIMES

Contact us: [email protected] 

Twitter: @thebiafratimes

You can reach the publisher via

 Google+  Facebook  Twitter

BIAFRA: CALL FOR REFERENDUM IS NOT CALL FOR WAR - IPOB

June 19, 2018

IPOB PRESS RELEASE

We the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) wish to bring to the attention of the world that plans are at advanced stages in preparation for the first in our three-stage referendum process towards the peaceful, non-violent restoration of the nation of Biafra. Our decision to hold the first of the three plebiscite later this year has vindicated IPOB's resilience in sticking to the principles of non-violent agitation for Biafra, in the face of government brutality and treachery from enemies within. Efforts geared towards this first referendum is gathering unstoppable momentum with dates for the exercise to be announced imminently. 40 million ballot papers are being printed and readied for distribution to every clan and village in Biafraland for all adults over the age of 18 to express their preference.

Through this age old democratic process, IPOB shall return power to the  long suffering down trodden masses, to enable them determine their destiny which was cruelly taken away by successive Nigerian governments. This massive consultation exercise, will guide all future IPOB activities and hopefully address the issue of lack of wider participation by the people which some Nigerian government agents within have often cited as their reason for working against the emergence of Biafra.

For those that set out to mislead the populace by equating IPOB call for referendum as a call for war, in order to mask their betrayal of the people, will no doubt find another reason or excuse to object to this upcoming plebiscite.

It is worth reminding Ohaneze Ndigbo and their likes that on the 11th February 1961, Nigeria conducted a referendum for the people of Southern Cameroon to determine whether they  wish to be part of Nigeria or merge with the Francophone northern  Cameroon. This referendum resulted in the peaceful secession of the then NCNC controlled Anglophone Cameroon from Nigeria. In other words, they voted to leave Nigeria for good. That was democracy in action not war.

No war was fought and no ethnic group was threatened with annihilation. If those parading themselves as leaders, with their much touted academic accomplishments, are not aware of this relatively modern history, then the pervading ignorance in Nigeria, occasioned by the spectacular collapse of the education system, is more generational than earlier thought. If those that claim to be the elite in the society cannot reference Southern Cameroons as a case where referendum resolved an intractable issue, then their supposed elitism is founded on pure fantasy. 

Again, on the 13th of July 1963, Nigeria conducted another referendum which led to the creation of the defunct Mid-west  from the supposedly Yoruba dominated Western region. The old Mid-Western region comprised of parts of today's Delta and Edo states. No war was fought, no ethnic group was threatened with extinction. Those that canvassed for a referendum then were not labeled war mongers. It speaks of the magnitude of prevailing ignorance in Nigeria that people are in this age unaware of the fact that referendum has been used in Nigeria before to resolve a seemingly intractable issue.

The mission of IPOB is to restore Biafra sovereignty via a democratic process and through the instrumentality of a three stage referendum, the first of which will be held in the coming weeks.

IPOB led Biafra agitation is a struggle for liberty, justice and equity firmly anchored on fiscal independence, local control of all resources and complete autonomy for all federating ethnic nationalities. This ancient arrangement that sustained our civilisation for over 5000 years without recourse to war or conquest of one another was the arrangement Mazi Mbonu Ojike advised Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe to adopt during the Lancaster House pre-independent negotiations. This ancient system of loose confederation, that served our ancestors very well before the British destroyed it with their amalgamation, is where IPOB is taking  Biafra back to. Every ethnic nationality within Biafra will be encouraged to be  independent from day one.

Our fight is against a deliberate government policy of mass poverty, irreconcilable and divergent value systems, marginalisation, deprivation, incessant state sponsored murder, terrorism and unimaginable Fulani nepotism. IPOB call for referendum has nothing to do with WAR!

Those beating the drums of WAR are the agents of the status quo, the Efulefus (Igbo slaves) using the cover of Ohaneze Ndigbo and PANDEF to continue running errands for their Arewa masters to the detriment and well-being of the people of the East. They, along with their feudal northern masters are the beneficiaries of this lopsided fraudulent neo-colonial system we call Nigeria.

These war mongers want to scare and frighten everyone into submission. They want IPOB to accept slavery as they and their predecessors in Ohaneze have done. They want to submit this blessed IPOB generation to eternal servitude out of fear of losing the paltry favours and privileges their Arewa masters periodically grants them. Their evil antics and psychological manipulation has failed woefully. Referendum is peace not war.

COMRADE EMMA POWERFUL MEDIA AND PUBLICITY SECRETARY FOR IPOB.

Biafra: IPOB Decries Police/DSS raids on Judeo-Christain Places of Worship

February 1, 2018

We the family members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) worldwide condemn the ongoing religious persecution, harassment and arrest of IPOB members especially those of the Shalom Synagogue Church of Israel in Aba, Abia State last week. It is unfortunate that the Nigerian Government and it's security operatives, especially the DSS and Police, have reduced themselves to playing the role of religious police and have effectively constituted themselves to instruments with which enemies of Israel within the corridors of power in Nigeria, are now using to suppress those that practice Judaism.

It is on record that IPOB activities are firmly anchored on the finest Judeo-Christian traditions, which has made Biafrans and IPOB, in particular, the target of these state-sponsored indiscriminate and arbitrary arrests of innocent civilians by agents of the Nigerian government in pursuit of an Islamist agenda. There has been repeated raids on synagogues and places of worship in Aba and Igweocha (Port Harcourt) respectively. Security operatives whose constitutional role is to protect the lives and property of citizens have now turned to instruments of oppression against innocent civilian populations. Arresting members of Shalom Christian Church because they are connected to the Jews in Israel is religious discrimination of the worst kind. Every religion has a root and in as much as nobody can deny that Saudi Arabia is the root of Islam, nobody can deny that Israel is the foundation of both Judaism and later Christianity. Discrimination based on religious affiliation to Israel is misplaced and a crime against the very principles of freedom of worship and association.

Since President Trump announced US recognition of Jerusalem as the eternal capital of Israel, the wave of arbitrary arrests and persecution of Biafrans that practice Judaism in Aba and Igweocha (Port Harcourt) have dramatically increased. Nigerian Government, by towing this path, is setting a very ugly and dangerous precedent. Those arrested for their faith must be released immediately including all those illegally detained for expressing their legitimately held views that they are better off in Biafra than Nigeria.

We want to bring it to the notice of the entire world what IPOB in particular and Biafrans are suffering in general at the hands of this Buhari administration. The world must, therefore, prevail upon Nigeria to desist from this blatant religious persecution and release those in their custody.  Members of the Shalom Synagogue of Israel in Aba did not  commit any crime known to law. They are a spiritual congregation merely being persecuted for their spiritual connection to the holy land of Israel.

It is the responsibility of the government and people of Israel as custodians of the Judaic faith to rise to this challenge the same way Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries defend Muslim faithful all over the world.

COMRADE EMMA POWERFUL 
MEDIA AND PUBLICITY SECRETARY FOR IPOB.

Published By Charles Opanwa 
The Biafra Times