"It's hard to take seriously a conference that regards the world's oldest continuing democracy as an egregious human rights offender, but has nothing to say about Kim Jong-il locking away Christians in reeducation camps or China executing prisoners and trafficking their organs for sale." -- Mark Tooley, Executive Director UMAction

Contact: Loralei Coyle, 202-682-4131, 202-905-6852 cell, lcoyle@TheIRD.org; Radio Interviews: Jeff Walton, jwalton@TheIRD.org; both with The Institute on Religion and Democracy

WASHINGTON, March 6 /Christian Newswire/ -- A conference set to take place on Friday is professing to oppose torture – but is generating controversy due to its exclusive focus on perceived offenses by the U.S. government.

The Interfaith Mini-Conference on U.S.-Sponsored Torture is billed as a forum to "examine the nature of U.S.-sponsored torture in the context of the teachings of Christianity, Judaism and Islam" and is co-sponsored by the Islamic Society of North America.

Timed to coincide with progressive events like Ecumenical Advocacy Days and the effectively pacifist Interfaith Peace Witness, the conference has its own liberal credentials. Conference speaker and former CIA official Ray McGovern is a 9-11 conspiracy theorist, while Rabbi Sid Schwarz comes from the radical group Rabbis for Human Rights that has correlated Israel with the racist South African apartheid regime.

IRD Director of UMAction Mark Tooley commented:

"The 'anti-torture' crowd doesn't talk about any torture except instances hinted at, speculated about, or even remotely associated with the United States. They are much more offended by the U.S. than by torture. It's an unfair, anti-U.S. and radically far-left crowd.

"Perhaps it would be easier to accept the conference organizers' motivations at face value if they had a history of opposing torture anywhere it occurred. Unfortunately, No mention is made of egregious offenders such as North Korea, Cuba or the Sudan. Is this conference really anti-torture, or is it merely in opposition to perceived offenses by the U.S. government?

"It's hard to take seriously a conference that regards the world's oldest continuing democracy as an egregious human rights offender, but has nothing to say about Kim Jong-il locking away Christians in reeducation camps or China executing prisoners and trafficking their organs for sale."

The Institute on Religion and Democracy, founded in 1981, is an ecumenical alliance of U.S. Christians working to reform their churches' social witness, in accord with biblical and historic Christian teachings, thereby contributing to the renewal of democratic society at home and abroad.

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