THE TROUBLE WITH AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY AND ISLAM

Abstract

Religious liberty is essential for building stable and lasting liberal democracies. A successful regime of religious liberty has three characteristics: full equality under the law for religious minorities, limits on the majority's cultural and political dominance, and vigorous freedom of expression. In states where Islam is the majority faith, religious freedom is still severely restricted. To promote the emergence of democracy in Muslim-majority states, US foreign policy makers and diplomats must make a variety of changes, such as: deepen their thinking about religion; institute mandatory training programs on religious freedom for Foreign Service officers; and make religious liberty a central foreign policy objective.