Katrina Lantos Swett: “Unfortunately, the appalling treatment of Pastor Abedini reflects the dismal reality of religious freedom and human…”

The progress of freedom requires courage, it requires people in extraordinarily difficult circumstances who are willing to put their safety, their well-being on the line.

We cannot entirely protect, we can't basically protect people in China or in any other country where they are being brutally repressed.

We are concerned that the designations that have been made in the past simply become... part of the wallpaper that nobody pays attention to.

When you have societies that repress, oppress, persecute on the basis of sectarianism and religion, you create the seedbed for extremism...