Amsterdam: The U.S. did not ban Islam after 9/11 as Ukraine is banning UOC

Robert Amsterdam. Photo: news.church.ua

Robert Amsterdam, head of the international human rights firm Amsterdam & Partners LLP and lawyer for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), wrote an open letter to Hudson Institute President John K. Walters. The letter addresses the event "Religion in the Crossfire Between Russia and Ukraine", in which Amsterdam accused the Ukrainian government of conducting a systematic campaign against the UOC.

He claims that Ukrainian authorities are using legislative and judicial mechanisms to persecute UOC believers and clergy, which include violence against clergy and parishioners, expropriations of church property, instrumentalization of the criminal justice system to unlawfully prosecute church leadership, exchange Ukrainian citizens against their will to Russia for prisoners of war, and, ultimately, to ban the religious practices of the UOC and its members in Ukraine.

The lawyer emphasizes that such actions contradict democratic principles. In his letter, he states:

"In the United States we believe in the freedom to follow one’s religious vocation. In the United States we do not believe in collective punishment. In the United States we believe in the due process of law and fair trial. The Ukrainian government has shown through its passage of the recent law banning the religious practices of the UOC that it does not share in those ideals," writes Amsterdam.

He points out the lack of concrete evidence regarding the perceived ties of the UOC with Russia and notes that even if such evidence existed, prosecution should be directed at individuals, rather than an entire religious organization. Amsterdam compared the situation to the actions that could have followed in the U.S. after the 9/11 attacks:

"The United States did not create a new Islamic sect after 9/11 and convert all mosques and all Muslims forcibly to a new state created mosque because that would be an unlawful, ludicrous and disproportionate reaction. That is what is happening in Ukraine with the UOC (an over 1000-year old church) and the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (a church established a few years ago in Ukraine as a political initiative of President Poroshenko)," the lawyer stated.

In his letter, Amsterdam also expressed concern about the participation in the Hudson Institute event of only those experts who support the actions of the Ukrainian authorities, and called for a more objective discussion of the situation.

“We ask the Hudson Institute to not be used in the normalization of religious cleansing by delaying this event and allowing for other panelists who can fairly represent the UOC to participate. If you do not allow for the participation of the other side, you are allowing the Hudson Institute to be used not as a forum for free discussion but as the mouthpiece of a government, whose views concerning freedom of religion are antithetical to those of the United States,” urged the human rights defender.

As the UOJ reported, on September 18, 2024, officers of the Security Service of Ukraine conducted searches at the Vvedensky Monastery in Kyiv.

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