Presently, together with the international integration and globalisation, there are different viewpoints on the issues of democracy, human rights including the freedom of belief and religion. Thus, some countries are proclaiming themselves “the right” to be “the protectors of democracy and human rights”, exploiting many masks to make non-objective judgements, even false accusations on the freedom of belief and religion in order to interfere in domestic affairs of other nations. This is the old but dangerous ruse which needs to be firmly rejected.

The non-objective evaluation

Among countries which claim for themselves “the right to judge” the freedom of belief and religion in other countries including Viet Nam, the US has been issuing many laws on sanctions against countries considered “breaking the freedom of religion”. Many American politicians and non-governmental organisations without goodwill when contacting functional agencies in Viet Nam are always raising the issue of “improving the human rights”, demanding “the religious freedom”, asking for “the restoration of old religious organisations”, and making their viewpoints and judgements which are subjective and violating the policies and law on religions in Viet Nam. They said that Viet Nam had not approached the international law on “human rights”; the grassroots authorities had caused difficulties for the registration of religious groups, etc.  On May 15, 2023, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, on releasing 2022 Annual Report on international religious freedom, petitioned the United States Department of State to re-list Viet Nam into the “Countries of Primary Concern” (CPC). Again, this Commission provided non-objective judgements based on the unverified and inaccurate information in Viet Nam.

Owning the similar viewpoints to these judgements, the hostile forces have taken advantage of and evidently distorted the policies, laws and religions in Viet Nam. They have contacted antisocialist elements and extremist authorities in some religions to stimulate the religious activities out of the State’s management; propagandise the negation of our State’s legal documents on religions; praise and admire the religious freedom in capitalist countries. They have organised “debates”, “press conferences”, composed and distributed documents containing fabricated contents to propagandise and distort that the Communist Party and State of Vietnam “repressed the religions”, and “there was no religious freedom” in Viet Nam. They have taken advantage of several complex social issues such as land withdrawal, compensation and clearance; environmental pollution, etc. to attract and stimulate easily-deceived people, especially the “religious fanatics” to make parades and spread the anti-state activities on the social networks, etc. These activities have badly affected the society, caused the internal separation in religious organisations and the disunity among religions, etc.

In order to clearly see the distortion and slander of religious issue in Viet Nam, we should consider several issues as follows:

The diversity of religions in Viet Nam

Viet Nam is a multi-religious country with the appearance of many different religions, from the ancient religions like Totemism, Magicism, Shamanism to modern ones such as Catholicism, Buddhism, Protestantism, Muslim, etc. which have existed and been equal to one another without any taking the leading role, and making no difference when they have had external or internal origin. Together with the diversity of religions, in Viet Nam, there is a diversity of religious organisational forms, of which, some religions have only one organisational form (Buddhism, Catholicism) while others have many different organisational forms (Protestantism, Caodaism), etc.

Religions in Viet Nam have positively contributed to the country in terms of many social aspects; at the same time, they are one of the socio-cultural factors actively contributing to the richness, diversity and specialty of Vietnamese culture. Viet Nam, in its building and safeguarding the country, has a moderate view on the relationship among religions; traditions of religious and national unity. The peaceful and generous living among religions together with the humanity of Vietnamese people and society have been creating a lively picture of belief and religions in Viet Nam which is plentiful and intertwined with one another. Presently, in Viet Nam, the unanimity between religions and the State has been clearly expressed in the national solidarity including the solidarity among religions to create the strength and the decisive factor for the victory of the cause of building and safeguarding the country. This is the subjective reality which rejects the allegation that “there was no religious freedom” in Viet Nam.

The freedom of belief and religion in Viet Nam

At first, it is necessary to affirm that Vietnamese State always appreciates the construction and perfection of the law system, which can create the legal basis to protect the freedom of belief and religion because belief and religion are legitimate needs for a part of the people, and the religious followers are an important part of the national solidarity. Respecting the freedom of belief and religion is a consistent policy by the Communist Party and State of Vietnamese, which is assured by the reality and the legal documents such as: Decree No. 234/SL, dated 14/6/1955, signed by President Ho Chi Minh defining that “The freedom of belief and religion is the people’s right, which is always respected and assisted by the Government, who could not interfere in the internal affairs of religions”. In each period of the revolutionary leadership, our Party and State issued many instructions, policies and laws on creating the legal corridor for religions to effectively operate, including Resolution No. 25-NQ/TW, dated 12/3/2003 by the Party Central Committee (9^th tenure) on the religious work; Ordinance No. 21/2004/PL-UBTVQH 11, dated 18/6/2004 by the National Assembly Standing Committee (11^th tenure) on beliefs and religions; Direction No. 1940/CT-TTg, dated 31/12/2008 by the Prime Minister on religion-related housing issues. The 2013 Constitution stipulates that: “Everyone has the right of freedom of belief and religion, following or not following a religion”; the 14^th National Assembly promulgated the Law on Belief and Religion; on 09/3/2023, the Ministry of Information and Communications, the Government Committee for Religious Affairs issued the White Book on “Religions and religious policies in Viet Nam”, etc. Together, the Party and State have issued many policies on the economic development of religious areas, which showed special concern about demands of religious followers and authorities to make them feel secure and excited to well do their “life work, religious work”.

Present reality of belief and religion in Viet Nam

Viet Nam has regularly created conditions to support and help religions operate under the law; never before have the religions had conditions to develop. The followers, with increasing numbers have the freedom of celebrating their religious ceremonies at home or in worship places. If, in 2003, there were only 15 organisations, 06 religions, 17 million followers and 20,000 worship places, 34,000 authorities, 78,000 jobs in the whole country; in 2021, the State approved 43 organisations of 16 different religions with over 26 million followers, 54,000 authorities, 135,000 jobs and 29,000 worship places. The belief and religious life has been plentiful and diverse; many large religious festivals have attracted thousands of attendants: The Protestantism successfully organised the 500^th Anniversary of Renovation (12/2017); The Catholicism organised the General Chapter of the Dominicans in Dong Nai (7/2019) with representatives of over 80 countries and territories; The  Buddhism successfully organised the UN Day of Vesak Celebration in 2019 in Tam Chuc Pagoda, Ha Nam province (5/2019) with the attendance of over 3,000 official representatives (including 570 international delegations with 1,650 delegates from 112 countries and territories), etc. With the religious-activities scale of tens of thousands of people, the all-level governments have supported religions with traffic safety, order, security, fire prevention, food safety, etc. so that people could practise the ceremonies and fulfil their spiritual life. This has affirmed the consistent policies by Vietnamese State on respecting and assuring the freedom of belief and religion. If there had not been for the policies and laws on belief and religions, the religious activities could not have been organised diversely and plentifully.                

Preventing the forces from taking advantage of religions to harm the country

In coming time, the hostile forces will continue to take advantage of religious issues to sabotage with more complex and fierce ploys. Consequently, proactively struggling against and preventing these forces from taking advantage of religions to damage Viet Nam appears to be the main duty, the long-term strategy and the responsibility of all levels, agencies and the whole political system; of which, the State management offices on religions play a core role. It is necessary to well carry out the basic solutions as follows:

1. Continuously complete the legal system on religion, assure the freedom of belief and religion according to the 2013 Constitution. It is a must for the State to manage the society by the law; enhance the inspection and examination of policy implementation and law enforcement on belief and religion in complex areas to timely discover, correct and solve the violations of laws by religious institutions causing social matters.

2. Closely grasp the situations and ruses by the hostile forces taking advantage of “democracy”, “human rights”, “religions” to sabotage against Viet Nam in order to have suitable, effective and lawful solutions. Timely discover and prevent the exploitation of belief and religion to do superstitious activities, stimulate and divide the people and religions, disturb the public order and violate the national security. Being proactive to well propagandise to expose the “true face” of the opportunists, legal and religious violations by extremists taking advantage of religions; repudiate the accusations that Viet Nam is violating the “democracy”, “human rights” and “repressing religions”.

3. It needs to have a close coordination among ministries and agencies to make solutions for preventing the religious-taking activities against Viet Nam in order to have a synchronous support, limit the weaknesses that can be exploited by the hostile forces.

4. Regularly make total summaries and learn from experience, have solutions for the weaknesses and shortcomings to assure the better implementation of the-freedom-of-belief right for people, make them believe in the Party and State, glue them with the Party and defeat all ploys and activities by the hostile forces.

5. Well carry out the foreign propaganda for the international communities to have enough information of results and human-rights achievements of religious issues in Viet Nam; at the same time, well make the religious dialogues, guide religious authorities and followers to do their religious activities in accordance with the law.

VU HOAI BAC, Chairman of the Government Committee for Religious Affairs