Israel’s respect for religious freedom “lights the way for the rest of the Middle East and the world,” U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said July 8.
Religious freedom is a foundational American value and a top priority of the United States under President Trump, Pompeo said in remarks to Christians United for Israel, which describes itself as the largest pro-Israel Christian organization in the U.S.
That’s one of the reasons why the United States supports Israel, Pompeo said. In Israel, as in the U.S., every person is free to believe, or not believe, as he or she sees fit.
Pompeo compared Israel’s “reverence for liberty” to the approach of the Islamic regime in Iran, whose rulers today have one of the worst records in the world of denying religious freedom to its people.
The U.S. has advanced religious freedom in its foreign policy and will for the second year in a row host a gathering of foreign ministers devoted solely to advancing religious freedom.
The department’s second Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom will be held July 16–18 in Washington.
