United Nations Investigates Religious "Intolerance" in the U.S.

Recently, the United Nations sent a special investigator to the United States to study "religious intolerance" in America. The visit, which received U.N. required approval from the U.S. State Department, included meetings with Clinton administration officials, Supreme Court justices and members of Congress.
U.N. officials said Abdelfattah Amor's investigation took him to Chicago, New York, Atlanta, Salt Lake City, Los Angeles and Arizona to speak to Christian, Muslim, Jewish and American Indian leaders. In a telephone interview with the Washington Times, the international organization would not say whether Amor had received specific allegations of intolerance or discrimination. Rather, he called the visit "routine", saying that all U.N. member states are subject to similar investigations.

The U.N. has just recently completed a similar examination of the United States' position on capital punishment. That investigation lead to a firestorm of controversy, prompting one U.S. Senator to write U.N. Ambassador Bill Richardson. In his reply, Ambassador Richardson stated his support for the capital punishment examination to "allow [them] to view the U.S . as a positive example."

A spokesman for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee was said to be surprised and amused by the newest investigator's visit. "The U.N. is sending another one?" asked spokesman Marc Thiessen. "There is no problem with religious intolerance in this country. The U.N. should stop wasting time and money investigating the United States and start f
ixing its own sinking ship."

Washington Times U.N. correspondent Betsy Pisik spoke of the investigations in a telephone interview on 3/26/98. When asked whether the U.N. had released its findings concerning U.S. religious intolerance, Pisik noted they had not even released the report on the capital punishment examination from October.

Source: THE WASHINGTON TIMES, 1/24/98; Pisik telephone interview, 3/26/98 with Family Policy Network , http://www.familypolicynetwork.org