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An Iraqi Yazidi lights candles outside Lalish temple northwest of Baghdad, during a ceremony to celebrate the Yazidi New Year, on April 14, 2015. (Safin Hamed/AFP via Getty Images)

As voters head to the polls next week, they’ll be engaging in a fundamental freedom: choosing their political representatives. But another indispensable American freedom, as the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution points out, is the free exercise of religion.

This week, USAID Acting Administrator John Barsa joined Hudson's Nina Shea [[link removed]] to discuss the role of religious freedom as a national security priority and the 22nd anniversary of the International Religious Freedom Act. Signed into law by President Clinton and expanded by President Trump, the International Religious Freedom Act sets out to align America's humanitarian aid with the nation's core values.

As one of the world’s largest providers of humanitarian assistance, USAID is at the forefront of ensuring that a community’s faith is not a barrier to receiving American aid. As Administrator Barsa noted at Hudson, "religious freedom is really America's first freedom, from which all other freedoms flow."

See key takeaways from Administrator Barsa below, and in case you missed it, watch our event this week with Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs Robert O’Brien [[link removed]], and our conversation on the future of defense with Representatives Jim Banks and Seth Moulton [[link removed]].

Watch Online [[link removed]] Read the Transcript [[link removed]]

Key Quotes [[link removed]]

Highlighted takeaways from USAID Acting Administrator John Barsa's remarks at Hudson Institute. Quotes have been edited for length and clarity.

1. Why religious minorities often face barriers to receiving aid:

In Iraq, after the Trump administration took the reins, [USAID] started understanding that our aid was not reaching the minority communities, the Yazidis and Christians who had survived ISIS genocide. We were pumping a lot of money into Iraq at that time for humanitarian aid, but it wasn't reaching these communities. Our aid at that time was going through the UN for the most part, and so people didn't understand it was coming from us. It wasn't reaching the most needy, the survivors of genocide; what could be more heinous than genocide as a human rights violation?

2. USAID's new approach to sharing American aid:

Prior to 2017, USAID was used to working with the same large multi-national organizations over and over. The New Partnership Initiative is something we piloted in 2019. Instead of working with these large homogenous international organizations, if we're dealing with specific problems in communities such as religious freedom, it makes more sense to work with the religious community itself, those affected by the problem, those closest to the community who have a better understanding. We didn't want to just hand money to some large organization and say, "Well, it checked the box.”

We knew we could have better results. By partnering with the local communities on the ground in Iraq and Syria, we were able to get aid effectively to help those who have been persecuted by ISIS. Because we're able to work with those small local groups who understand the challenges, we have our full arsenal of different tools available to us to address the problems as needed. Is it a large infrastructure problem that necessitates a large international body? Is it humanitarian relief, where Catholic Relief Services could be the perfect partner? Or is it something small, helping a local village?

3. Religious communities are key partners in Iraq reconstruction efforts:

Since 2018, the U.S. has invested more than 400 million dollars in northern Iraq to rehabilitate critical infrastructure, such as schools, health clinics, and power stations. We've done this so that residents who fled the genocidal violence of this so-called Islamic State can return to their ancestral homes.

USAID has been at the forefront of providing much-needed support, whether through humanitarian relief to communities, reeling from violent conflict, or development assistance to people who are discriminated against and systematically oppressed.

We've partnered with faith-based organizations like Samaritan's Purse and Catholic Relief Services, and [Yazidi relief organization] Yazda to carry out important work. To maximize USAID's ability to achieve results in the most afflicted areas in northern Iraq, we signed memoranda of understanding with the governments of Hungary and Poland, and with the Knights of Columbus. We focus on these entities in particular because of their on-the-ground presence and expertise. These partnerships allow us to coordinate our assistance to ensure the return and recovery of communities of faith. They help our impact reach even farther.

4. The United Nations ignores the actions of member states:

Our efforts to respond to religious persecution represent more than a policy. They represent a principle on which our nation was founded, and when it comes to international development efforts, the U.S. government is the largest donor.

Americans can and must hold international bodies such as the United Nations accountable. When they are failing to track and respond to violations of religious freedom, we have a duty and obligation to speak up. When member states persecute their own religious communities, we must demand accountability.

5. USAID's role helping societies strengthen themselves:

Our aid goes directly to people. We're helping societies strengthen themselves. How do you help those who have been persecuted recover, get back their jobs? How do you recover their lives, their houses, access to clean water? On the front end, we're trying to work with those voices of tolerance who allow the freedom of religion, who basically respect this God-given right to worship your own god however you see fit. [USAID is] usually there for the long term, standing shoulder to shoulder with the affected communities. So, DOD does what it does, State Department does what it does; we have a completely different role, and I couldn't be more proud to lead these efforts.

Watch Online [[link removed]] Read the Transcript [[link removed]]

Go Deeper: Defending Religious Freedom

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A Big Step for Religious Freedom [[link removed]]

For decades religious freedom has been treated as the unwanted stepchild in the human-rights side of U.S. foreign policy, writes Hudson's Nina Shea [[link removed]] in The Wall Street Journal. But in a rare ray of light at a dark time, America’s defining right has been recognized at the highest level as a “moral and national security imperative.”

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China's Abuses Against Uighurs are Not Going Away: Here's How You Can Help [[link removed]]

The Chinese Communist Party's incarceration of perhaps two million innocent Muslims, the violent abuses they continue to endure, and the Orwellian hi-tech surveillance and medical testing they are subjected to are the stuff of horror movies, writes Lela Gilbert [[link removed]] in Religion Unplugged. Here is how concerned citizens can make a difference in ending this modern day genocide.

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Trump's Most Overlooked Accomplishment: International Religious Freedom [[link removed]]

With elections around the corner, innumerable disputes continue to come between friends, families, and foes alike, notes Hudson's Lela Gilbert [[link removed]] in Townhall. But far too little time seems to have been spent reflecting on something very positive, hopeful and indisputable: The Trump administration’s remarkable accomplishments regarding international religious freedom.

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