One of the primary challenges with promoting universal standards for religious freedom in the majority Muslim world is thatthose countries that we hold out as "tolerant" positive examples have very tenuous and limited religious freedom for non-Muslims or Muslims with minority theological views in their midst. Interfaith dialogues often run into a wall during discussions of reciprocity or the freedom to change one's belief. It's a one-way street. It's OK and encouraged to convert to Islam but freedom of belief does not extend to those who choose to believe differently. This attitude and approach by "moderate" governments actually feeds the Islamic extremism which is their greatest threat.

A contemporary and unfortunate example of this is Morocco, a close ally of the United States and partner in the struggle against Islamic extremists. Hopes that it could produce an indigenous form of pluralism were thwarted by the latest news. More than 70 long-time resident foreign aid workers, including more than 40 Americans, have recently been kicked out of the country-because they are Christian and accused of religious advocacy-some after nearly two decades of helping Moroccans. The U.S. Ambassador's tepid public response? "Although we expect all American citizens to respect Moroccan law, we hope to see significant improvements in the application of due process in this sort of case."

One of the other significant challenges is convincing our junior and senior diplomats that it's appropriate and in America's interests to promote universal standards of religious freedom like Eleanor Roosevelt did in expending significant political capital and energy into the creation and promotion of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which include religious freedom protections in Article 18. In the current Moroccan situation it also wouldn't hurt tostand up for Americansin general in the context of our bilateral relationship.

In another often cited comparative beacon of tolerance on the Arabian peninsula, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), citizens have to be Muslim. In Malaysia, which is only 60 percent Muslim, suspected Islamists attacked churches when the country's High Court ruled that a Catholic weekly could use the word "Allah"as theyhad always done. A recent poll in Turkey reported that 59 percent of the populationof the "secular" Muslim country opposed allowing non-Muslims to hold open meetings. In Indonesia, where President Obama is about to travel to one of his boyhood homes, the largest majority Muslim democracy in the world effectively outlawed a non-violent Muslim religious group called the Ahmadiyah because of pressure from Islamic extremists and Saudi Arabia, not exactly the way to promote pluralism and religious tolerance or to counter Islamic extremism.