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Trump said the 1st amendment -which stands for freedom of belief and speech- makes clear “that our rights do not come from our government; they come from God”. He regretted “80% of the world’s population live in countries where religious liberty is threatened, restricted or even banned”.

The percentage he cites comes from a report from the Pew Research Center in 2016, where this independent think tank also mentions Muslims being targeted in the United States and directly links this to the current present president of the country:

“In the United States, Muslims were the targets of derogatory rhetoric and proposed discrimination. In July, Republican presidential nominee Donald J. Trump criticized the parents of a Muslim soldier who was killed in Iraq (…). Later in the year, President-elect Trump appeared to stand by plans for a temporary ban on Muslim immigration to the United States and a proposed requirement that U.S. Muslims register in a database”, the report summary reads.

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But Donald Trump’s speech on religious freedom this Monday at the UN ignored his rethoric and measures against Muslims: “As we speak, Jews, Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Sikhs, Yazidis and many other people of faith are being jailed, sanctioned, tortured and even murdered, often at the hands of their own government, simply for expressing their deeply held religious beliefs. So hard to believe”.

He called upon all the countries of the world “to end religious persecution”, “repeal laws restricting freedom of religion and belief, protect the vulnerable, the defenceless and the oppressed”. The US president assured: “Protecting religious freedom is one of my highest priorities and always has been”.

“Repeal laws restricting freedom of religion and belief, protect the vulnerable, the defenceless and the oppressed”

What he did not mention was the “temporary ban” on Muslims he promised to implement if he became president and which finally has gotten a version of it for some Muslim majority countries plus Venezuela and North Korea after the judges declared his first travel ban illegal.

He recalled recent “evil attacks” against worshippers in sinagogues in the US, in mosques in New Zealand and churches in Sri Lanka and urged every nation “to increase the prosecution and punishment of crimes against religious communities”. “There cannot be greater crime than that”, he said.

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Trump announced a coalition of US businesses for the protection of “all faiths” in the workplace, although he did not go into detail. “True tolerance means respecting the right of all people to express their deeply held religious beliefs”, he pointed out before saying to the victims of religious persecution that the US “will always stay at your side”.

Last July Donald Trump held a short meeting with people who survived religious persecution worldwide. Sitting on his chair at the Oval Office and surrounded by them, he talked with them in front of the cameras (watch White House video).

The victims were grateful for the opportunity to be listened, like Farid Ahmed, a victim of the Christchurch attacks against Muslims who became known after publicly forgiving the terrorist. But there were also awkward moments during the meeting with Trump, such as when a Rohingya refugee asked him for solutions to go back home after being forced to flee to Bangladesh together with another 740,000 Muslims since 2017. “Where is that exactly?”, Trump asked. “Burma”, an official had to clarify (meaning the state nowadays known as Myanmar). Or like when he asked Nobel Peace Prize Nadia Murad why she obtained the award. She is a Yazidi woman survivor of ISIS genocide against this religious community who brought up attention worldwide about these mass killings, mainly in Iraq.

The law known as “Muslim ban” or “Travel ban” finally included countries which are not Muslim majority nations: North Korea and Venezuela. But it kept Syria, Libya, Yemen, Somalia and Iran among those with restrictions, including no travel at all for Syrians and North Korea people. Iraq and Sudan, which where among the countries in the first executive order, where finally dropped.

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La entrada Trump in the UN: “Protecting religious freedom is one of my highest priorities” se publicó primero en Salam Plan.

Since a wave of violence against Rohingyas erupted less than two months ago, 320,000 children have arrived in Bangladesh, making up 60% of this Muslim minority refugees, according to Unicef. More than 2 out of 10 of them suffer malnutrition and 145,000 under the age of 5 are “on the verge” of suffering it, according to these organizations. In addition, every week there are 12,000 more children arriving.

More than 2 out of 10 children are malnourished and 145,000 children under 5 are “on the verge of suffering” malnutrition

“On the way we saw a lot of dead people dead, their heads and limbs chopped off”, said one of those affected to the BBC while getting into Bangladesh. The testimonies of other refugees collected by Save The Children indicate that their villages got completely burned, many people were killed and women raped while they fled.

Fatima was among those women. She left Myanmar with her three children after finding her husband dead in her village. “There have been times I have not been able to eat in three days because there is no food. My little son was about to die for lack of food”. Now she feels “happy” because she can finally cook something else than just lentils for her children.

Rohingya villages got completely burned, many people were killed and women raped while they fled. A third of this Muslim minority has already crossed into neighboring Bangladesh

The United Nations has described the Rohingya situation in Myanmar as “ethnic cleansing”, while Aung San Suu Kyi – the Nobel Peace Prize laureate and current de facto president of that country – is criticized for letting the army continue to perpetrate the attacks. The military continue to exercise much control in ancient Burma and it is estimated that one-third of the 1.2 million Rohingya Muslim people of Rakhine State in Myanmar has already crossed into Bangladesh.

“Many Rohingya refugee children in Bangladesh have witnessed atrocities in Myanmar that no child should ever see, and all of them have suffered tremendous losses”, Unicef ​​Executive Director Anthony Lake said in a statement. “These children urgently need food, clean water, sanitation, and vaccines to protect them from illnesses that arise in emergencies. But they also need help to overcome all what they have already suffered”.

Rohinghya refugees watch their new homes in the refugee camp of Kutupalong (Bangladesh) in September 2017. © Unicef ​​/ LeMoyne

In the report Outcast and desperate: Rohingya refugee children face a perilous future, Unicef ​​shows how the majority of the refugees live in improvised and overcrowded settlements, with risk of diseases and lack of means to help the refugees. The United Nations organization for children indicates that the Government of Bangladesh is endeavoring to welcome them, but more aid is needed.

“In more than 20 years of humanitarian work I have never seen people in such extreme situations, especially children”

Unicef ​​and Save The Children agree that the greatest dangers now for Rohingya refugee children are cholera and malnutrition. “We are seeing an alarming number of children arriving desperately hungry and malnourished. Then, in the camps, these children do not have any kind of hygiene, they live surrounded by dirt, contaminated water and depending on the food portion they receive to survive”, said Unni Krishnan, director of the Save The Children Emergency Unit.

This NGO estimates that some 281,000 people urgently need food assistance to avoid malnutrition; including the already mentioned 145,000 children under 5 and more than 50,000 pregnant and breastfeeding mothers. Children are “at serious risk of contracting diseases such as cholera, which for children like these can be fatal”, warns Krishnan. “In more than 20 years of humanitarian work I have never seen people in such extreme situations, especially children.”

Rohingya refugees cross from Myanmar to Bangladesh in October 2017. © Unicef ​​/ LeMoyne

Burmese law denies nationality to its Rohingya inhabitants, who have endured “repression and discrimination” for decades, Human Rights Watch said. 120,000 of them continue to be displaced within their own country due to waves of violence in 2012 and 2016.

La entrada Thousands of Rohingya children are still in danger after fleeing violence in Myanmar se publicó primero en Salam Plan.