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Phuong Nguyen
Religious Intolerance
February 16, 2016
Identifying the Misrepresentations, Intentional and Otherwise

Freedom of religion is the right of an individual to practice his/her choice of belief in

practice, worship, observance and teaching of any religion. In Vietnam, it is protected as an
essential right of everyone. As stated in the countrys constitution, everyone shall enjoy freedom
of belief and religion; he or she can follow any religion or follow none. All religions are equal
before the law. The State respects and protects freedom of belief and of religion. No one has the
right to infringe on the freedom of belief and religion or to take advantage of belief and religion
to violate the laws (Vietnam Constitution). As a Vietnamese myself, I am proud of my country
for respecting the belief in religion of every citizen. However, in my opinion, many religious
intolerant activities are still existing in Vietnam that both the government and the people need to
be aware of.
From 2000 to 2005, human rights workers of Human Rights Watch organization released
many statements about the government repression against Hmong Christians in Tay Nguyen, a
Central Highlands area in mid-Vietnam. They stated that 354 of 412 churches in the area were
forced to disband and 50 Christian pastors were captured by the police force (Religious
Intolerance). These actions were targeted to the Montagnard mountain people, which is a
minority tribal groups practicing Christianity and following the Evangelical Church of Vietnam
in Tay Nguyen. The Evangelical Church of Vietnam was considered illegal by the government

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and their churches were forced to disband. All the members of the community were threatened to
stop practicing their religion again until the government has a final judgement on the lawfulness
of the Evangelical Church. Many of them had to flee away from their hometown to seek asylum
in Cambodia and Thailand because of the fear that they would be captured by the authorities and
also the hope to find a new place where they can practice their religion freely. Their leaders had
to sign statements of compliance that prohibited them from all religious activities in the future.
For nearly 20 years, the government were reluctant to accept the Montagnard churches as
a legal religious community. According to the governments statement, members of these
churches conducted activities against the government such as persuading other members and
local people to rise up against the authorities. For example, in 2001, mass protests took place in
four Central Highland provinces as thousands of demonstrators marched on the streets to demand
religious freedom and equality. The authorities stated that these protests illegally used religious
freedom to oppose the Communist Party and abused the freedom of belief to sow division
among the national great unity, and that the actions of Evangelical community were not
religious practice but just evil ways (Persecuting). In order to stop the protests, the government
made several operations using both police and military force to arrest leaders of these protests
and shut down the media to prevent people outside the area to know about what was happening.
The governments suppression on Tay Nguyen people is the evidence of religious intolerance
because it completely violates the freedom of Vietnamese citizens. Members of the Evangelical
Church have every right to practice Christianity, and their protests on the authorities could not be
the reason for the government to shut down the church. This example shows that Christianity in
Vietnam, especially the Evangelical Church community, is misrepresented as an evil religion
which encourages chaos in society and rebellion against the government. In my opinion, this is

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an absurd propaganda by the authorities to make Vietnamese people boycotting those protests in
Tay Nguyen and it needs to stop immediately in order to protect the freedom of religion in the
country.
The abuse of religious freedom did not stop but got heavier in 2013, when a new rule was
set by the government, which prohibits manipulation of freedom of belief and religion to
conduct propaganda against the state or undermine national unity (Persecuting).
According to this rule, the authorities can intervene in the practice of religion because of security
force suspicions and in my opinion, this is a wrongful act. In 2014, Heiner Bielefeldt, a special
investigator on freedom of religion or belief of United Nations visited Vietnam in eleven days
and released a thirteen-page report stating that he was interrupted and closely supervised by the
police when visiting Vietnam and could not meet as many witnesses as he wanted of the 20002005 government repression because they were harassed and threatened to avoid seeing Heiner.
He stated that although the condition of religious practicing in Vietnam had become better since
the end of the Vietnam War, there are many issues needed to be resolved. According to an
interview with Deutsche Welle magazine, Bielefeldt said that religious practice is possible in
Vietnam, but only within the confines of a rather restrictive legal framework. During his trip,
Bielefeldt came and talked to many religious communities in both urban and rural areas and
stated that although these communities could practicing their religion freely, they were still under
close supervision of the local authorities. Every year, leaders of all religious communities have to
submit annual plans of their activities to their local supervisors, and they can only continue
operating when the plans get accepted. He concluded that the tight control that the Government
exercises on religious communities means that the autonomy and activities of independent
religious or belief communities, that is, unrecognized communities, remain restricted and unsafe,

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with the rights to freedom of religion or belief of such communities grossly violated
(Persecuting). By restricting what religious activity people can do, the government turns
Christianity in Vietnam into a tool of domination and makes other people have a wrong idea of
the religion because no one would want to join a religion that is closely supervised by the
authorities. This example proves that religious freedom in Vietnam is not absolute and the
leaders of the country need to stop controlling the practice of religion in the country.
There are many options to better the situation of religious freedom in Vietnam that both
the government and human rights organizations around the world can do in the future. First, the
authorities should allow religious organizations to freely practice their activities without
intervening in their leadership or giving them guidance on what to do. In addition, they need to
immediately stop harassment and imprisonment of people who practice their own choice of
religion and belief because it violates the most basic right of people as stated in the constitution.
Second, the government needs to admit that local authorities actions in Tay Nguyen are wrong
and further investigates this matter in order to find out who is responsible for these violation of
human rights. Third, the Vietnamese government needs to allow international organizations such
as United Nations and Human Rights Watch to access information and meet people in Tay
Nguyen area to supervise the practice of religion and make sure that there would be no further
oppression in the future. Lastly, international communities should raise more concerns on the
freedom of religion in Vietnam in order to change the situation of the people practicing
Christianity in Central Highland areas by sending diplomats or conducting appropriate actions to
the Vietnamese government to improve the freedom of peoples belief.
In conclusion, freedom of religion in Vietnam is still limited and Christianity is
misrepresented by the government as an illegal civil rights movement against the current

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government. Just because a religion is opposed to the governments propaganda in some ways, it
is not the correct and legal reason for the authorities to shut it down or capture people who
practice the religion. The only appropriate reason for the government to closely supervise the
Evangelical Church of Vietnam is that its member would take place in violent actions against
other Vietnamese citizens in the country, which in this case there was none. Looking in the
future, there are many issues of religious freedom that raise my concern; however, I still can see
that the countrys situation is getting better because there are some signs of freedom starting to
happen. The recent visit of U.S Secretary of State John Kerry in 2015 and the famous Life
Without Limbs evangelist Nick Vujicic in 2013 and 2014 to talk about the freedom of speech
and religion shows that the government is slowly changing its view on Christianity and some
people in the government are comfortable to share their opinions on this matter. The 2014 Word
Watch List ranked Vietnam at No 18 instead of No 21 in 2013 as one of the countries that most
persecute Christians, showing that the people are at least getting better freedom of religion
(Vietnam is getting better, and worse). I hope that in the near future, there would be no more
incidents happened in the matter of religious freedom like the one in Tay Nguyen, and wished
that people in Vietnam could soon freely practice their own religion of choice.

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Reference

Adams, Brad. "Persecuting." Human Rights Watch Report. 2015. Web. 16 Feb. 2016.
Domnguez, Gabriel. "UN Expert: Vietnam 'failing to Respect' Freedom of Belief | Asia |
DW.COM | 04.08.2014." DW.COM. Deutsche Welle. Web. 16 Feb. 2016.
J, Pauline. "Religious Intolerance in Vietnam Draws Concern." Christian Post. Web. 16 Feb.
2016.
Vietnam. The Constitution of the Republic of Vietnam. Saigon: Secretariat of State for
Information, 1956. Print.
Zylstra, Sarah E. "Vietnam Is Getting Better, and Worse." ChristianityToday.com. Web. 16 Feb.
2016.