The Obama administration seemingly lacks interest in the suffering of persecuted Christians around the world.
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, a bipartisan organization, said in its 2014 Annual Report that President Obama and his White House have refused to take any kind of action against those guilty of persecution of Christians in regions of Iran, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and North Korea.
"While the Obama administration should continue to shine a spotlight on abuses through public statements, it also should impose targeted sanctions to demonstrate that there are consequences, too," said Dwight Bashir, deputy director of policy and research for the group, to FoxNews.com.
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"By not utilizing an existing legislative tool, the United States risks sending the message that it prefers a nuclear deal to standing up for the rights of the Iranian people. The United States should not be confronting such a scenario in the first place," he told FoxNews.com.
Iran was listed as the worst religious freedom violator of the 16 nations scrutinized in the report, Breitbart reported. Study authors said that when the new president, Hassan Rouhani took power, the nation grew increasingly intolerant of religious freedom in the last year.
"As of February 2014, at least 40 Christians were either in prison, detained or awaiting trial because of their religious beliefs and activities," the study said, Breitbart reported.
However, "not a single church or other non-Muslim house of worship exists" in Saudi Arabia any more, the report alleged. In addition, Saudi students are learning that "violence against apostates and polytheists" as a rightful course of action through their textbooks.
According to the Washington Post, seventy congressional members petitioned President Obama to at least address the issue of Saudi religious intolerance when he visited the region in March, but he failed to do so. The Commission on International Religious Freedom says such refusal to address the persecution is dismaying.
"The defense of religious freedom is both a human rights imperative and a practical necessity and merits a seat at the table with economic, security and other key concerns of U.S. foreign policy," said Robert George, the group's chairman, Breitbart reported.
