TRANSPONDER wrote: ↑Mon Jan 03, 2022 7:46 am
The extract I posted makes it clear that though -as you say - it was based on the first amendment which mentioned the rights of religion and the religions, the Obama bill rextended or at least pointed out that it extended to those who were not religious.
Again, my friend, you are simply confused here.
The bill that President Obama signed into law in 2016 amended the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998. That law directs the U.S. government to create foreign policy and conduct advocacy on behalf of individuals persecuted in foreign countries on account of religion, and authorizes actions in response to violations of religious freedom in foreign countries.
It does not in any way change or extend the religious freedom of American citizens living in the United States.
This example simply does not support your hypothesis.
TRANSPONDER wrote: ↑Mon Jan 03, 2022 7:46 am
There was surely a change or at least a legal clarification or why the need for a bill to be signed? Why the need for atheists to make a big deal about it if it changed nothing?
Yes, there was a change: The law now directs the U.S. government to also conduct advocacy on behalf of atheists in foreign countries who are being persecuted.
The
NBC News article that you quoted (but didn't cite) above gives examples of who this amended law would help:
Johnson wrote:
[T]he U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, a federal panel that was created under the original 1998 law, highlights numerous instances of persecution of atheists and other non-believers.
The report plays no favorites, singling out important U.S. allies like Saudi Arabia, where the poet Ashraf Fayadh was sentenced to death last year for "apostasy" — specifically, for spreading atheism. The sentence was reduced in February 2016 to eight years in prison and 800 lashes.
Regulations enacted in 2014 by the Saudi Interior Ministry, in fact, classify "calling for atheist thought in any form" as terrorism.
The report also harshly criticizes Egypt, which convicted Mustafa Abdel-Nabi, an online activist, to prison in absentia in February for "blasphemy" after he published posts about atheism on his Facebook page. A year earlier, another Facebook user, Sherif Gaber, was sentenced to prison for discussing his atheist views online.
It seems like you're just not reading the sources you are citing thoroughly enough, as they are actually refuting your argument.