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[Federal Register Volume 90, Number 11 (Friday, January 17, 2025)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 6747-6748]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2025-01465]



                        Presidential Documents 



Federal Register / Vol. 90, No. 11 / Friday, January 17, 2025 / 
Presidential Documents

[[Page 6747]]

                Proclamation 10883 of January 15, 2025

                
Religious Freedom Day, 2025

                By the President of the United States of America

                A Proclamation

                Faith sustains many of us across our Nation, sharpening 
                our sense of purpose, uniting us in shared belief, and 
                reminding us of our obligations to each other. Whether 
                you worship in a church, synagogue, temple, or mosque, 
                the Constitution of the United States protects every 
                American's right to practice their faith freely or to 
                practice no faith at all. Today, we celebrate our 
                constitutional right to religious freedom which makes 
                us a beacon of liberty and recommit to protecting that 
                right, both here at home and around the world.

                We are all blessed to live in a Nation that is home to 
                people of many faiths. However, even in our land of 
                liberty, too many people are afraid that practicing 
                their faith will bring fear, violence, and 
                intimidation. Over the past year, we have seen a 
                shocking rise in antisemitism in the wake of Hamas's 
                terrorist attack against Israel and a disturbing rise 
                in Islamophobia. Hate has no safe harbor here in 
                America. And around the world, minority communities 
                continue to live in fear of violence and are denied 
                equal protections under the law, including Christians 
                in some countries.

                My Administration is committed to ensuring that people 
                of every faith and belief can live out their deepest 
                conviction freely, peacefully, and safely. Working with 
                the Congress, my Administration secured the largest 
                ever increase in funding for the physical security of 
                non-profit organizations, including places of worship. 
                Through that program and many related efforts, we 
                continue to work across government to ensure that all 
                religious communities are able to practice their faith 
                without fear. Additionally, I created the inter-agency 
                group to counter Antisemitism, Islamophobia, and 
                Related Forms of Bias and Discrimination within the 
                United States. We released the first-ever United States 
                National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism, which works 
                to counter antisemitism and protect Jewish communities. 
                We also released the first-ever National Strategy to 
                Counter Islamophobia and Anti-Arab Hate, which works to 
                combat these forms of hate and safeguard Muslim and 
                Arab Americans. Both strategies seek to strengthen 
                coalitions across religious communities to bring an end 
                to hate.

                We are also working to promote and protect religious 
                freedom worldwide, because it is not only an American 
                constitutional right--it is a human right, enshrined in 
                the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. And so, 
                around the globe, we are working with governments and 
                organizations to end discrimination against religious 
                groups. My Administration has provided $100 million to 
                promote religious freedom worldwide. We have also 
                provided hundreds of millions more to support victims 
                fleeing religious repression. And we have been cracking 
                down on forced labor, which is often connected to the 
                targeting of religious minorities. My Administration 
                sanctioned more than 240 individuals and entities for 
                serious human rights abuses under the Global Magnitsky 
                Sanctions Program. The Office of the Special Envoy to 
                Monitor and Combat Antisemitism at the Department of 
                State promoted the United States-led ``Global 
                Guidelines for Countering Antisemitism,'' a set of 
                international best practices for effective public 
                policy against antisemitism, which more than 40 
                countries and entities have endorsed. My

[[Page 6748]]

                Administration also ended the discriminatory travel ban 
                that prevented individuals from several Muslim-majority 
                and African countries from entering the United States. 
                And the Department of State conducted a review of visa 
                applications and took various corrective actions to 
                process applications that were impacted by that ban, 
                including reconsidering previously denied applications.

                Today, we recognize how religious freedom is at the 
                core of who we are as a Nation. It is central to the 
                freedom we offer all Americans. And it is threaded 
                throughout all our work to advance human freedom and 
                dignity in the world. The task for all of us is to 
                defend and protect religious liberty for everyone, to 
                build a world where no one is endangered for what they 
                believe, and to see one another as neighbors.

                NOW, THEREFORE, I, JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR., President of 
                the United States of America, by virtue of the 
                authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of 
                the United States, do hereby proclaim January 16, 2025, 
                as Religious Freedom Day.

                IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this 
                fifteenth day of January, in the year of our Lord two 
                thousand twenty-five, and of the Independence of the 
                United States of America the two hundred and forty-
                ninth.
                
                
                    (Presidential Sig.)

[FR Doc. 2025-01465
Filed 1-16-25; 2:00 pm]
Billing code 3395-F4-P
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