Why Obama Needs an Ambassador for International Religious Freedom

Religious persecution remains a major problem around the world, whether by repressive governments or by one faith against another. A position of U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom that was created more than 10 years ago to monitor religious persecution and discrimination has yet to be filled in the Obama administration.

I have joined with a group of other religious and human rights leaders in a letter to the president, sponsored by the Institute for Global Engagement (IGE) and Freedom House, urging that he fill the position immediately. The letter makes three requests of the president:

• that a person with advanced foreign policy experience and expertise on the right to religious freedom be appointed