‘Today, we recognize how religious freedom is at the core of who we are as a Nation,’ the president said.
President Joe Biden used Religious Freedom Day on Jan. 16 to condemn what he called the rise in anti-Semitism and Islamophobia seen across the United States over the past year and declared that hate “has no safe harbor here in America.”
Biden issued the remarks in a proclamation published by the White House on Jan. 15, the same day that Israel and Hamas struck a cease-fire deal following 15 months of war.
The two agreed to use the temporary pause to exchange hostages, with the deal set to take effect on Jan. 19.
Biden praised the United States’ constitutional right to religious freedom, which he credited for making the nation a “beacon of liberty.”
Despite that constitutional right, many Americans are afraid that practicing their faith will “bring fear, violence, and intimidation,” the outgoing president said.
“Over the past year, we have seen a shocking rise in antisemitism in the wake of Hamas’s terrorist attack against Israel and a disturbing rise in Islamophobia,” Biden said, referring to Hamas’s 2023 incursion into Israel.
Biden touted the work his administration has done to tackle both anti-Semitism and Islamophobia across the country, including working with congressional lawmakers to secure what he said was the “largest ever increase in funding for the physical security of non-profit organizations, including places of worship.”
“Through that program and many related efforts,” the federal government has and “continues to ensure all religious communities are able to practice their faith without fear,” Biden said.Additionally, Biden said his administration created an inter-agency group to counter anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, and related forms of bias and discrimination within the United States.
It also published the first-ever national strategies to counter both forms of prejudice.
“Both strategies seek to strengthen coalitions across religious communities to bring an end to hate,” Biden said.
The president also said his administration has “provided $100 million to promote religious freedom worldwide” and also gave “hundreds of millions more to support victims fleeing religious repression.”
The specifics of where or to whom the funding was allocated were not mentioned.
“And we have been cracking down on forced labor, which is often connected to the targeting of religious minorities,” he said.
“My Administration sanctioned more than 240 individuals and entities for serious human rights abuses under the Global Magnitsky Sanctions Program.”
Biden also praised his administration for ending what he called the “discriminatory” travel ban by the first Trump administration that prevented individuals from several Muslim-majority and African countries from entering the United States.
He said the Department of State took “corrective actions to process applications impacted by that ban, including reconsidering previously denied applications.”
“Today, we recognize how religious freedom is at the core of who we are as a Nation,” the president said. “The task for all of us is to defend and protect religious liberty for everyone, to build a world where no one is endangered for what they believe, and to see one another as neighbors.”
Religious Freedom Day is observed throughout the United States every year on Jan. 16.
It commemorates the 1786 passage of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, which was authored by Thomas Jefferson and laid the groundwork for the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.