Hardwired: On the Frontlines of Freedom: Recent Episodes
Hardwired Global
Despite being hardwired for freedom, nine out of ten people around the world live in places where basic human rights and fundamental freedoms aren’t a reality. Join Founder and President of Hardwired Global, Tina Ramirez, every Wednesday as she interviews human rights champions who are fighting on the frontlines for the dignity and freedom of others in countries where freedom is most fragile. Each guest shares their personal and sometimes heart wrenching story in their pursuit to ensure freedom of belief and conscience for the most vulnerable. Prepare to delve into the complexities of human rights and pluralism in countries plagued with instability and conflict. If you haven’t already, you may even begin to question the promise of freedom in your own country. Visit our YouTube channel to view the video recordings of this interview series: bit.ly/HWchannel
Our interview with Jenny Yang uncovers the many evident and unseen challenges of the refugee experience. How can a country and local community address both the humanitarian needs of refugees, and holistically and structurally provide a welcoming and inclusive environment? You'll want to hear the insights from someone as knowledgeable in this field as Jenny Yang.
This episode is especially timely as Hardwired wraps up a series of student refugee training workshops throughout Virginia. With the generous support of Virginia Humanities and in partnership with five refugee resettlement agencies, Hardwired's refugee training program for students provided an opportunity for newcomer teens and their American peers to learn about one another and the rights and freedoms they share between them, regardless of where they've come from. Check out the documentary video about the program here: https://youtu.be/KudO7d_rSjI
Watch the full interview with Jenny Yang here: https://youtu.be/6sfPrhfUnQs
Jenny Yang has worked for over a decade in refugee protection, immigration policy, and human rights. She was on an active deployment roster for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. She is currently the Senior Vice President of Advocacy and Policy at World Relief. Yang is co-author of Welcoming the Stranger: Justice, Compassion and Truth in the Immigration Debate and contributing author to three other books. She has been named one of the “50 Women to Watch” by Christianity Today.
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Human rights advocate and professional athlete Enes Freedom was the special guest for Hardwired Global’s fundraiser on Tuesday, October 11, 2022 in Richmond, Virginia. Enes headlined this special event to continue his support of Hardwired and our groundbreaking efforts in human rights and education.
Following his success as a professional basketball player, Enes has selflessly turned his attention to a greater cause — to be a voice for those who don’t have one. In recognition of his courageous advocacy for human rights around the world, off and on the court, Hardwired’s Founder and President Tina Ramirez presented the Hardwired for Freedom Award to Enes in August 2022.
Following a special update on Hardwired's education programs worldwide from Founder Tina Ramirez, Enes shared his inspiring journey fighting against dictatorships for the freedom and human rights of all people.
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In this conversation, our special guest Xi Van Fleet shares her experience surviving the Cultural Revolution in China. Xi describes the Communist tactics for seizing power by way of the “3D’s”: division, deconstruction, and destruction. First Chinese dictator Mao Zedong divided the people by class, then he deconstructed past cultural ideas and traditions, and then he destroyed Chinese historical landmarks, traditional ideals, and cultural symbols from any period prior to his regime. Xi describes the indoctrination she received while she was in school, learning to love Mao as a father and to never criticize those in power. Xi is now an American citizen who is warning fellow Americans about the dangers of Marxist tactics currently at work in American society.
Xi Van Fleet is an American Mom who gained notoriety when she spoke at a Loudon County, Virginia school board comparing the tactics of recent imposed education movements to her experiences growing up during the Cultural Revolution in Mao’s China. She was a first grader in 1966 when Mao started the Cultural Revolution in China and was 17 working in a field when the Cultural Revolution ended at Mao’s death. Xi received her education from peasants and remembers wearing badges on her school uniform with Mao’s picture.
Watch the interview on Hardwired's YouTube Channel here: https://youtu.be/Tc76e7b8mS8
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During our interview with Ambassador at Large for Western Sahara Mouloud Said, he illustrates the 45-year struggle of fighting for the Sahrawi people, whose land was invaded shortly after the Spanish left the Western Sahara and families divided by Morocco and Mauritania. With an unceasing hopeful spirit, Mouloud stands on the frontlines to reclaim the freedom that has been denied his people for too long in a free and fair election for sovereignty.
Watch the interview on Hardwired's YouTube channel here: youtu.be/2Lb09CZ8e2w
Mouloud Said is the Ambassador at Large and Representative of Western Sahara in Washington, D.C. He has also served as a Representative to the United Nations and Representative of Western Sahara to what is now called the African Union.
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In this conversation, Hardwired Founder and President, Tina Ramirez, and high school educator, Zeina Dbouk, discuss the ways Zeina’s father stood up to corruption in Lebanon, which inspired her to continue his legacy through teaching students. They discuss the ways Zeina facilitates dialogue in her classroom by making space to respectfully engage across differences. They also explore the Hardwired Global teaching strategies Zeina uses in her classroom to engage students in a process of diffusing fears to achieve a pluralism mindset. Lastly, they remember Zeina’s attendance to the Hardwired Global education conference in Morocco for ministers of education in the Middle East and North Africa and they explain the exciting programming Zeina is managing for teachers in Lebanon and Iraq.
Zeina Dbouk is a teacher and curriculum developer at a private school in Lebanon. She is a survivor of violence in Lebanon and through teaching her students, she aspires to make Lebanon a place where everyone thrives. Hardwired Global has recently partnered with her to expand our teacher training program in the Middle East.
Watch the interview on Hardwired's YouTube channel here: youtu.be/jOChpEbClfk
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Mr. Conde is a prolific author and lecturer in the U.S. and Europe who has defended countless refugees and individuals persecuted for their faith in his private law practice.
In our interview, he shares how he first came face to face with the cost of freedom when he traveled behind the Iron Curtain to meet with Christians who didn’t even have a right to own their own Bible, something we can easily take for granted in a free country.
Every summer, Mr. Conde joins the International Institute of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France to teach a legal course in French and English on human rights terminology. At a time when social discourse has reduced human rights to human wants, and often forgotten the legal foundation for its existence, his work is essential.
Watch the interview on Hardwired's YouTube channel here: youtu.be/pvJTG1wP8yA
Professor Victor “Skip” Conde is a professor of international and comparative human rights and humanitarian law at Trinity Law School and a visiting lecturer in human rights at the University of California at Irvine, and lecturer at the Faculté de Droit, University of Strasbourg, France, and the International Institute of Human Rights, Strasbourg. He has published widely on international and domestic human rights law, policy and practice. He is the author of A Handbook of International Human Rights Terminology, which is a much-needed tool that provides access to the developing language of human rights and aids in full comprehension of human rights theory and issues. He is also the co-author of Human Rights and the United States, a U.S. focused comprehensive reference book to help Americans understand U.S. human rights history and laws.
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Mohaned’s story symbolizes the struggle many Sudanese Muslims experienced while living under the brutal rule of Sudan’s former dictator, Omar al Bashir. Mohaned describes the rampant discrimination and injustice he witnessed firsthand under the Bashir government, which imposed their strict interpretation of Islam on the people through radical laws that restricted every freedom – especially religious freedom. The religious laws even included punishment for wearing “indecent clothes” and he describes how several young Christian girls were routinely beaten in the streets for wearing jeans, while hundreds of Christians were routinely forced to renounce their faith or face apostasy charges each year. While Muslims like himself and many others were affected by the radical laws imposed on everyone, he shares how he was able to use his legal practice to defend women and Christians who experienced the most persecution.
Mohaned was determined to use his education and status to turn the tide and embed religious freedom and human rights for all Sudanese in the country. By 2012, Mohaned had taken hundreds of cases defending Christians and challenging Omar al-Bashir’s brutal regime. As one of only a few human rights lawyers at the time who worked at the highest courts in Sudan, he “filled a gap” to help hundreds of victims during an aggressive, violent campaign against Christians. Remarkably, Mohaned was able to build trust between Christian and Muslim lawyers to mobilize a large, united team to defend their rights throughout the country.
In this interview you'll hear how Hardwired and Mohaned worked together to defend Meriam Ibrahim, a pregnant mother who was sentenced to death for apostasy on Mother’s Day in 2014.
Watch the interview on Hardwired's YouTube channel here: https://youtu.be/rsauSmQ8gjI
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“Every single country that’s a threat to peace, is a threat to their own people. Without exception.”
Our next guest, Suzanne Scholte, gave North Korean defectors a voice in the U.S. Congress. Suzanne has been standing on the frontlines of freedom for nearly three decades, taking on the North Korea regime, which is perhaps the world’s most oppressive government and worst violator of human rights.
Early in her career, Suzanne was inspired by her faith to help protect the people of North Korea and alleviate their suffering. During our conversation, Suzanne shares how she channeled this calling in many ways, including through her work building the North Korea Freedom Coalition and Free North Korea Radio, which brought attention back to the brutal dictators of North Korea and exposed more North Korean people to the freedom they should have from learning more about the outside world.
Suzanne brought North Korean defectors before Congress to testify for the very first time in 1996. She shares a few of the hundreds of stories of starvation, trafficking and oppression she’s heard over the years. In honor of the upcoming 19th Annual North Korean Freedom Week, we hope your hearts are inspired by the heartbreaking truths of this interview. Suzanne also shares a glimpse into her other work with the people of Western Sahara, the Sahrawi's, which inhabit one of the longest permanent refugee settlements in the world.
Watch the interview on Hardwired's YouTube channel here: https://youtu.be/6ElE_u09Ee4
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In this latest On the Frontlines of Freedom series, we share an interview with Dr. de Jong, a fromer Member of the European Parliament for the Dutch Government who went on to successfully found and build the first working group on Freedom of Religion or Belief in the Parliament.
For over 20 years, de Jong’s personal beliefs and faith has been a driving force for his dedication, research and work in protecting freedom of religion or belief at the government level. What makes his work so unique is that he was leading these efforts within the European Parliament as a member of the Socialist Party. During our interview with him, de Jong lets us in on his strategy and approach as he tactfully gained broad support of other MEP’s and foreign diplomats, from “both sides of the aisle”.
Dr. de Jong served in several Dutch Ministries, until elected to the European Parliament in 2009 and 2014 as his party’s top candidate.
Watch the interview on Hardwired's YouTube channel here: https://youtu.be/JY5XLIC-Buo
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As a secular country with the largest Muslim population in the world, Dr. Alissa Wahid works to honor the nation’s 1928 pledge that the country is united on grounds of religious diversity and freedom for all – a unique model among predominately Muslim countries that has inspired robust conversations worldwide.
Mrs. Alissa Wahid is a trained family psychologist, but is most recognized for her work in the social sector on multiculturalism, democracy and human rights and moderate Muslim movements in Indonesia. Her father, Abdurrahman Wahid, affectionately known as Gus Dur, was the fourth president of Indonesia from 1999-2001.
Gus Dur’s most enduring political legacy is a modern moderate Islam in Indonesia, one in which faith is deeply personal and not directed by the state. Mrs. Wahid is carrying on that legacy as the national director of the Gusdurian Network Indonesia (GNI). GNI hosts thousands of grassroots-level activists in more than 100 cities in Indonesia, working to promote interfaith dialogue and understanding, active citizenship, democracy and human rights.
Watch the interview on Hardwired's YouTube channel here: https://youtu.be/Xk3SLcsZ4u0
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In this next conversation with Tatiana Moon, daughter of the founder of the Unification Church, Reverend Sun Myung Moon, she opens up about the public misunderstandings of the Church, and shares her father’s vision of reuniting North Korea with South Korea, including details of his meeting with North Korean dictator Kim Il-sung in 1991, in which he boldly criticized the regime before its leaders. We close the conversation with discussing the perceptions of President Trump’s meeting with Kim Jong-Un.
Watch the interview on Hardwired's YouTube channel here: youtu.be/ahcRPRxglPY
Tatiana Moon often served as her father’s spokesman when he was alive. Her father, Reverend Sun Myung Moon, founded the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of the World Christianity, which is commonly called the Unification Church. Rev. Moon taught that world peace will only come when we bridge divides across racial discrimination. Now Tatiana is the Chair and President of Kirov Academy, a Washington, D.C.-based ballet academy with close ties to the Unification Church, which emphasizes the arts as an expression of God’s gifts and a channel for unification of all peoples.
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In this conversation with Dr. Felisa Tibbitts, co-founder of Human Rights Education Associates, we discuss the importance of teaching children and communities about their human rights.
As a fellow global expert on human rights education, Dr. Tibbitts, was deeply influenced at a young age by major historical moments that brought the need for human rights to the forefront of global crisis – from the fall of the Berlin Wall to the Civil Rights Movement in her own backyard. Over the course of her career, she has used education to encourage schools, communities, and policymakers to recognize the value of teaching people their rights in some of the most challenging places.
Listen to the full interview to learn the interesting ways in which Felisa has applied education to change the trajectory of communities all around the world. We conclude by discussing how the COVID-19 pandemic has raised many issues in the field of human rights.
Watch the interview on Hardwired's YouTube channel here: https://youtu.be/t4rantXRvSg
Dr. Felisa Tibbitts is a global expert in the field of human rights education. She co-founded and directs the NGO Human Rights Education Associates, which supports youth, women and members of vulnerable groups in learning about their human rights through education, training, and capacity-building activities. HREA also encourages governments, government officials, and local authorities to fulfill their human rights obligations. Dr. Tibbitts is also the Chair in Human Rights Education in the Department of Law, Economics and Governance at Utrecht University and a Lecturer in the International Education Development Program at Teachers College, Columbia University.
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In this conversation, Tina Ramirez, Hardwired Global founder, and president, and Angela Wu Howard, a distinguished international human rights lawyer, discuss the dangers of government overreach and its impact on the freedom of religion for people of all faiths and none. They remember their teamwork at the United Nations rallying nations to vote down defamation of religion resolutions, which covertly protected harmful blasphemy laws, especially in Muslim-majority countries. They remember their work advocating for Dalits in India—those treated as the lowest caste of India society—who suffered extreme violence due to their religion and poverty. Angela outlines key fundamental religious freedom laws in the U.S., the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, and the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, to provide context for landmark United States Supreme Court cases involving the violation of the freedom of conscience as it concerned the rights of prisoners, employment rights, healthcare services, and public health in a pandemic.
Watch the interview on Hardwired's YouTube channel here: https://youtu.be/cL7TEpk-tCs
Angela Wu Howard is a leading international human rights lawyer. She is the International Law Fellow at the Becket Institute, a public interest law firm that defends religious liberty cases. She has testified, lectured, and worked on religious freedom cases before United Nations tribunals, the U.S. Supreme Court, the European Court of Human Rights, and the domestic courts in countries around the world. She established the academic project Becket Institute at Oxford University in 2010 where she researched legal philosophy applied to religious freedom. Angela obtained a J.D., cum laude from Harvard Law School and a DPhil in legal philosophy from Oxford University. She was litigating hostile corporate takeovers and political asylum cases with Clearly Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP in New York when Becket recruited her to join its team. Angela speaks English fluently and French, Mandarin Chinese, and Taiwanese to varying degrees of competency. She enjoys dictionaries and design.
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In this conversation, Director of the Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C, Naomi Kikoler, discusses the role of the Museum as the conscience of our country, designed to not only help Americans remember the Holocaust, but to be a resource for Congress in the prevention of future atrocities. Naomi outlines the strategies the Museum uses to communicate early warning signs of potential genocide, and then discusses what the Museum has done to draw attention to the atrocities suffered by the Yazidi community in Iraq who faced genocide under the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.
Watch the interview on Hardwired's YouTube channel here: bit.ly/KikolerInterviewYouTube
Naomi Kikoler is the Director of the Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. Naomi is a leading expert and strategist on mass atrocity prevention and international human rights advocacy and human rights law. Naomi’s own family members were victimized in the Holocaust. In this conversation, she shares that as she advocated for genocide prevention, she avoided work about the memory of the Holocaust because it felt too close to home. After some persuasion, she eventually accepted the role at the United States Holocaust Museum.
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The last two years have exposed the lack of understanding many officials have about America’s first amendment protection of the freedom of religion. Under the threat of the coronavirus pandemic, many states passed laws that prevented public – and at times even private – worship. For one of the most fundamental aspects of American liberty to be so challenged during a time of national crisis raises serious questions about the strength of religious liberty in America today.
In on honor of National Religious Freedom Day this Sunday, 1/16, Eric Treene, the former Special Counsel for Religious Discrimination at the United States Department of Justice, joins us to share how he fought for this fundamental freedom throughout the pandemic, and for many years prior. Eric’s unique role at the DOJ made him an important voice of reason at a time when religious liberty was under threat.
Watch the interview on Hardwired's YouTube channel here: youtu.be/u7a4R6tOh5c
Eric Treene is Senior Counsel at Storzer and Associates in Washington, D.C., and an Instructor at Reformed Theological Seminary in Vienna, Virginia. He served for 19 years in four administrations in the U.S. Department of Justice as Special Counsel for Religious Discrimination. He provided leadership for the Department on a wide range of religious liberty issues, including developing and overseeing the Department’s enforcement program for the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA); testifying before the U.S. Senate on religious hate crimes and developing training programs for local law enforcement and religious community leaders on protecting places of worship; and leading the Department’s efforts on protecting religious liberty rights during the COVID-19 epidemic. Mr. Treene represented the United States in a range of Free Exercise and RLUIPA cases in U.S. District Courts, various U.S. Courts of Appeals, and the United States Supreme Court.
Prior to serving at the Department of Justice, Mr. Treene was Litigation Director at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty in Washington, D.C., and is a former law clerk to the Hon. John M. Walker, Jr. on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. He is a graduate of Amherst College and Harvard Law School.
He is a member of the bars of New York and Washington, D.C., and is a member of the bars of various federal District and Appeals courts, and the United States Supreme Court. He is the author of a number of articles and book chapters on religious liberty issues. He has lectured widely in law schools and universities in the U.S. as well as Spain and Malaysia on religious liberty.
Department of Justice Office of Special Counsel for Religious Discrimination https://www.justice.gov/crt/combating-religious-discrimination-and-protecting-religious-freedom-19
Religious Practice and Social Distancing https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/attorney-general-william-p-barr-issues-statement-religious-practice-and-social-44:39 -0
House of Worship Safety, Department of Homeland Security Office of Faith Based & Community Partnerships https://www.cisa.gov/faith-based-organizations-houses-worship
Islamic Center of Murfreesboro vs. Rutherford County https://www.becketlaw.org/case/islamic-center-murfreesboro-v-rutherford-county/
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“And that was a moment that I’ll never forget. So many people had been living in the political prison for years in very inhuman conditions. The smell, the filthiness, there was no sun.”
This interview is with Zainab Al-Suwaij, the co-founder and Executive Director of the American Islamic Congress, whose courageous advocacy for human rights began at a very early age. As the granddaughter of a leading Shi’a religious leader, Zainab had a frontline view of the brutality of Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq.
In this conversation Zainab describes the atrocities inflicted on Hussein’s opponents and the climate of fear they felt in and outside of the prisons. During the 1992 uprising against Hussein, she was one of the few females who dared to stand up to the dictator.
As a Muslim woman, she has courageously trained and mobilized young people in the Middle East, many of whom joined movements like the Arab Spring and the Egyptian revolution and helped bring an end to other long-standing dictatorships. Zainab continues today to teach the concept of freedom, democracy, and human rights to youth, including on college campuses across the U.S.
Watch the interview on Hardwired's YouTube channel here: youtu.be/ZJ31WJwD3g4
Zainab Al-Suwaij is a co-founder of the American Islamic Congress (AIC) and has been its Executive Director since its inception in 2001. In the wake of the 9/11 terror attacks, Zainab left her teaching position at Yale to launch AIC with the mission of building interfaith and interethnic understanding and to represent the diversity of American Muslim life.
Zainab’s leadership has expanded AIC into an international organization with six bureaus worldwide, including the U.S., Egypt, Iraq, and newest location, Tunisia. Her vision for acceptance and understanding in the U.S. is being realized through AIC’s growing campus initiative, Project Nur, as well as its Interfaith Councils and groundbreaking Witness Series. Zainab is an outspoken advocate for women’s equality, civil rights, and interfaith understanding.
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“Eleanor Roosevelt one day, got up and said ‘Dr. Charles Malik has been talking about the importance of the individual, and I have to say that the United States and other Western powers agree with that position’.”
Dr. Habib Malik is proud of his family’s legacy in the field of human rights. Who could blame him? After all, his father was one of the authors of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), which continues to be the north star for all people worldwide.
In honor of Human Rights Day this Friday, December 10th, the day the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) in 1948, we are sharing a conversation with Dr. Habib Malik. Not only is he a well-known human rights activist and distinguished professor located in Lebanon in his own right, he is also following in the footsteps of his father, Charles Malik, a leading figure in the authoring of the 1948 UDHR who was instrumental in drafting Article 18 to protect the freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief.
In this conversation, Dr. Malik provides an “insider’s” perspective about the development of the UDHR, with fascinating backstories that include Eleanor Roosevelt, a Chinese philosopher, Soviet Marxists and other amusing delegates that made up the diverse Human Rights Commission at the time.
While his father’s accomplishments precede him, Malik has paved his own path in the field, advancing human dignity and human rights through the founding of a foundation that offers a course on human rights to seven private universities in Lebanon. Despite the world’s constant struggle with human rights abuses, his hope for a better future, and a better Lebanon, lies with the individuals and groups who are empowered by the standard of the UDHR.
Watch the interview on Hardwired's YouTube channel here: youtu.be/B_xFdwH60ds
Dr. Habib Malik is a human rights activist and a founding member of the Foundation for Human and Humanitarian Rights in Lebanon. His father, Charles Malik, was a leading figure in drafting and the adoption of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Rights. He is an associate professor of history at the Lebanese American University, now retired since August 2020. Dr. Malik has also taught intellectual and cultural history and socio-political history at the American University of Beirut and the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. He earned his bachelor’s degree in history from the American University of Beirut and his PhD in Modern European Intellectual History from Harvard University in 1985.
His major publications include:
- Between Damascus and Jerusalem: Lebanon and Middle East Peace (2000, 2nd edition)
- Receiving Søren Kierkegaard: The Early Impact and Transmission of His Thought (1997)
- The Challenge of Human Rights: Charles Malik and the Universal Declaration (ed.) (2001)
- Islamism and the Future of Middle Eastern Christians (2010)
- A number of articles, essays, and book chapters in both English and Arabic
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"I’m not working for Muslims, Hindus, or Christians, I’m working for the rule of law. I’m working for justice, for liberty, for freedom. If one is not free, then none are free." – Ajit Sahi, Indian American Muslim Council
Ajit Sahi exemplifies the courage and diversity of the people we are honored to work with around the world. As a person of the Hindu faith from India, he now works for a Muslim organization that works to advance greater protection and justice for persecuted communities in India. As such, he is in a unique position to speak to the need for greater religious freedom for people of all faiths there.
In my conversation with him, Ajit explains how the Hindu nationalist ideology arose historically and now guides the current Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, and the Hindu party in India, and its detrimental effects on minority faith communities.
As Ajit fights against the discriminatory laws and violence exacerbated by some people of his own faith, he has emerged as a champion of religious freedom and advocate of human rights. Ajit recognizes that there are two interpretations of Hinduism – one of discrimination and caste, and the alternative given by Mahatma Gandhi – one of equality. Join us to hear more about the fascinating parallels and forecast Ajit presents for the future of India and how he is working to support Gandhi’s vision of a more united and peaceful India.
Watch the interview on Hardwired's YouTube channel here: https://youtu.be/shcnxeWMJVo
Ajit Sahi is the Advocacy Director of the Indian American Muslim Council located in Washington, D.C. He has been a journalist for over twenty years. He is originally from India and as a Hindu advocates for the fair treatment of all faiths in India.
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"We are experiencing globally this massive spike in anti-Semitic incidence, rhetoric and attitudes that is unprecedented at least in the last generation. People are making a lot of comparisons to 1930's Europe because it feels that existential." - Julie Fishman Rayman
Join us, as Julie shares the source of this most recent wave of anti-Semitism.
You may recognize Julie as a previous guest on our interview series. This time, Rayman speaks as the Senior Director, Policy and Political Affairs for the American Jewish Committee (AJC), and her role in fighting for religious freedom from the Jewish perspective. Julie's motivation for her global advocacy work through the AJC and the various Congressional Caucuses she supports, lies in the fundamental Jewish tenants of b'tselem elohim and tikkun olam, which she describes in the interview. Thanks to the work of key religious freedom champions, the AJC and caucuses like the Black-Jewish Relations and Hellenic-Israel Alliance caucuses, the world is finding ways to address the issue of anti-Semitism step by step.
Watch the interview on Hardwired's YouTube channel here: bit.ly/JulieInterviewYouTube
Julie Fishman Rayman is the Senior Director, Policy and Political Affairs for the American Jewish Committee (AJC). The AJC is the oldest Jewish civil rights organization in the United States. Julie’s work at the AJC focuses on combating global antisemitism and hate, promoting Israel’s place in the world, promoting pluralism, and advocating for strong, principled American global leadership.
Conference in Morocco: Building More Peaceful, Inclusive Societies Through Education: https://youtu.be/Ur8zdbUaybw
United Nations Office of Human Rights: Report on combating antisemitism to eliminate discrimination and intolerance based on religion or belief: https://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/FreedomReligion/Pages/ReportSRtotheGeneralAssembly.aspx
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A first-generation American Muslim, Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser's parents fled the oppressive Baath regime of Syria in the mid-1960's for American freedom. He shares about how his family’s experience influenced his life and his own fight for freedom. Dr. Jasser shares about the many opportunities he’s had to promote the freedoms his family were denied in Syria – from serving in the U.S. Navy to founding an organization to promote democratic values within the American Muslim community after September 11th.
In our conversation, Dr. Jasser shares how he has promoted universal human rights in his community – including gender equality, freedom of conscience, religion, speech and expression – and stood against the politicization of his faith. He has faced many challenges but has stood firm against any attacks on these freedoms and his ability to defend them.
Dr. Jasser is respected physician currently in private practice in Phoenix, Arizona specializing in internal medicine and nuclear cardiology. Prior to practicing medicine in Phoenix, he served in various medical posts in the United States Navy.
Watch the interview on Hardwired's YouTube channel here: bit.ly/JasserInterviewYouTube
Dr. Jasser is the Founder and President of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD) and Co-Founder of the Muslim Reform Movement. He is also the author of A Battle for the Soul of Islam: An American Muslim Patriot' s Fight to Save His Faith (Simon & Schuster, June 2012). On March 20, 2012, Dr. Jasser was appointed by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) to the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) where he served two terms both as a Commissioner and Vice-Chair until May 2016. He hosts the podcast REFORM THIS! on The Blaze Radio Network.
An internationally recognized expert on Islamism, Dr. Jasser is widely published on domestic and foreign issues related to Islam, Islamism, and modernity. His work is featured in: The National Review, The Washington Times, The New York Post, CNN, CBS, Fox News Channel, MSNBC, Al Jazeera, BBC and other national and international outlets. In addition, Dr. Jasser has spoken on nationally syndicated radio programs. He has also spoken at hundreds of national and international events including universities, places of worship, and government venues.
Intelligence Squared Debate, “Better Elected Islamists Than Dictators”
and the transcript: https://www.intelligencesquaredus.org/sites/default/files/pdf/transcript-better-elected-islamists-than-dictators.pdf
Muslim: I was bullied for criticizing Hamas
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In this conversation, Dr. Bob Fu talks with Hardwired Global founder and president, Tina Ramirez, about his imprisonment and torture at the hands of authorities in the Chinese Communist Party. He describes how he eventually escaped China with his pregnant wife, Heidi, to avoid a forced abortion. Dr. Fu also relays the founding story of ChinaAid, which advocates for human rights in China and outlines the work he does to help rally awareness of the injustices commonly inflicted on Chinese people. He describes the suppression of his testimony by Chinese guards before a United Nations council and he details Chinese operatives targeting him at his home in Texas. He warns about the dangerous trend of Americans embracing communist ideals.
Watch the interview on Hardwired's YouTube channel here: bit.ly/FuInterviewYouTube
Dr. Bob (Xiqiu) Fu is one of the leading voices in the world for persecuted faith communities in China. Dr. Fu was born and raised in mainland China and was a student leader during the Tiananmen Square demonstrations for freedom and democracy in 1989. He was also a house church leader in Beijing until he and his wife, Heidi, were imprisoned for two months for “illegal evangelism” in 1996. They fled to the United States as religious refugees in 1997 where Dr. Fu founded ChinaAid in 2002 to bring international attention to China’s gross human rights violations and to promote religious freedom and rule of law in China.
Dr. Fu graduated with a Ph.D. from St. John's College at the University of Durham in the U.K. in the field of religious freedom. He graduated from the Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia and was awarded an honorary doctorate degree on Global Christian Leadership from Midwest University, where he has served as a distinguished professor on religion and public policy. Dr. Fu is a member of Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). He serves as the Editor-in-Chief of the Chinese Law and Religion Monitor, a journal on religious freedom and the rule of law in China, and as a guest editor for Chinese Law and Government, a journal by University of California, Los Angles.
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"We walked out of Iraq into a refugee camp in Turkey." - Sergeant Louie Michael
Louie Michael and his family fled Iraq by foot over the mountains into Turkey to start their journey to freedom. Eventually, they made it to the U.S. and they were inspired to give back to the country that "gave them a chance"
Sergeant Michael’s serves on the El Cajon police force in southern California. He came to the U.S. as a young boy, and now protects a community with a high population of Middle Eastern immigrants. He is one of three people to receive an award by the Anti-Defamation League in Los Angeles—the Sherwood Prize for Combating Hate.
In our conversation, Sergeant Michael shares how his family fled Iraq, looks back on his decision to become a police officer, and describes his work training colleagues on cultural differences they will encounter while serving a community with a vibrant Middle Eastern presence.
Watch the interview on Hardwired's YouTube channel here: bit.ly/LouieInterviewYouTube
Louie Michael is a sergeant in the El Cajon, California police department and a proud member of the Chaldean community, an ancient Assyrian Christian faith. He and his family fled Iraq in the middle of the night when he was five years old and spent three years in a refugee camp in Turkey. They then relocated to El Cajon, California, the home of the second largest Chaldean population in the United States. He is fluent in Arabic and Aramaic, and he often translates for his police colleagues. He also creates public service ads in those languages and assists with investigations involving members of the refugee and immigrant communities.
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This conversation features Kristina Arriaga whose personal experience in Castro’s Cuba led her to become an advocate for human rights worldwide. Her parents fled Cuba and later she helped others flee and share their stories. While living in Alexandria, Virginia, the Cubans tapped her phone and blew up her car because of her advocacy for the rights of Cubans.
In this conversation, Kristina describes her family’s escape from Cuba, and recounts her work as an aide to Armando Valladeres, a famous Cuban poet and former political prisoner who President Ronald Reagan appointed as an ambassador to the UN. She also shares about her experience as a Commissioner on the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom in 2016.
This Trustee of Facebook's Oversight Board also discusses striking similarities between the current cancel culture happening in the U.S. and the suppression of free speech Castro used to gain power.
Watch the interview on Hardwired's YouTube channel here: bit.ly/ArriagainterviewYouTube
Kristina Arriaga has worked on the defense of freedom of religion or belief in the United States and internationally for over 20 years. She has worked as an Advisor to the United States delegation to the United Nations Human Rights Commission, an appointee to the Civil Rights Commission, and as the Executive Director of a U.S.-based public interest law firm that defends all religious traditions.
In 2016, she was appointed by the Speaker of the House Paul Ryan to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF). In 2017 and 2018 she was elected Vice Chairwoman of the Commission. Since her appointment to USCIRF, Kristina has met with the Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar in Cairo, the Vice Minister of Islam in Riyadh, the Ecumenical Patriarch in Istanbul, among many other foreign government officials, religious leaders, and human rights advocates. She has also testified before the U.S. Congress.
Kristina is a sought-after speaker on religious freedom, on the intersection of religious freedom and women's rights, and on human rights in Cuba. She has a Master’s degree from Georgetown University where she graduated magna cum laude. She was reappointed to the Commission by Speaker Ryan on May 21, 2018.
USA Today - My family fled Fidel Castro’s Cuba, where ‘cancel culture’ was deadly serious.
bit.ly/USATodayArriagaArticle
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In this conversation, Hardwired Global Founder and President, Tina Ramirez, and Dr. Elizabeth Prodromou discuss the tragedy of religious and cultural "memoricide" in places like Cyprus, and the centrality of education in protecting fundamental freedoms. Dr. Prodromou also draws on her expertise to help us understand why the Middle East is inclined to authoritarianism and she warns us about similar trends happening in the U.S. today.
Watch the interview on Hardwired's YouTube channel here: bit.ly/DrPinterview
Dr. Elizabeth H. Prodromou is a faculty member at The Fletcher School at Tufts University where she directs the Initiative on Religion, Law, and Diplomacy. Dr. Prodromou served as Vice Chair and Commissioner on the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (2004-2012) and was a member of the U.S. Secretary of State’s Religion & Foreign Policy Working Group (2011-2015). Her research focuses on geopolitics and religion, specifically issues of religious freedom, democratization, and security threats in the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East.
Dr. Prodromou’s current research projects concentrate on cultural heritage and institutional religious freedom in Turkey and comparative contexts, as well as Eastern Orthodox Christianity and global public engagement. She is a non-resident Senior Fellow and Co-Chair of the Working Group on Christians and Religious Pluralism in the Middle East at the Center for Religious Freedom at the Hudson Institute, and was non-resident Senior Fellow in National Security and the Middle East at the Center for American Progress. She is a Co-President of Religions for Peace.
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Hear from two dynamic women who have exemplified that bi-partisan cooperation is possible in our current political climate – and that religious freedom is something we can all work together on. Today, Julie Fishman Rayman and Andrea Martin continue to showcase the power of working across the aisle in the U.S. Congress to protect freedom worldwide.
This conversation features Julie Fishman Rayman and Andrea Martin, former colleagues of Hardwired President Tina Ramirez, in the early days of the International Religious Freedom Caucus in Congress. At the time, Ramirez was the only full-time congressional staff devoted solely to international religious freedom. Her role was to be a resource for anyone seeking congressional attention on matters of religious persecution. Andrea and Julie, advisors to Democratic Congressmen, were instrumental in Tina's efforts.
In this conversation, we look back on the founding of the IRF Caucus and its role in creating a space to shine a light on religiously-motivated abuses on human rights. We discuss the bi-partisan nature of the work and remember the great influence of the distinguished Congressman Tom Lantos, the only survivor of the Holocaust to serve in the U.S. Congress. His leadership modeled the work of dialogue across differences.
Watch the interview on Hardwired's YouTube channel here: bit.ly/IRFCaucusinterview
The Congressional International Religious Freedom (IRF) Caucus is a bi-partisan group of nearly 60 members of the United States Congress who address religious persecution for people of any or no faith. Congressmen Trent Franks and Emanuel Cleaver II co-founded the caucus in 2006 to address religious persecution for people of any or no faith based on Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in the spirit of the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 (IRFA).
The caucus has played a critical role in raising the profile of numerous religious freedom issues in the U.S. Congress and has led to the release of many individuals imprisoned for their faith. It has ensured and continues to provide relief for many suffering under religious persecution.
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“They experienced in a very personal way what it meant to become a hunted animal within your own country. To have your fellow citizens, to have your friends, your fellow students turn against you.”
These are the words of Dr. Katrina Lantos Swett as she describes her parent's experience during the Holocaust. She continues on her father's legacy as President of the Lantos Foundation for Human Rights and Justice to ensure that history does not repeat itself...to protect vulnerable communities around the world from the horror her parents and millions of other victims experienced during the Holocaust.
In this conversation with Tina Ramirez, Hardwired Global’s Founder and President, Dr. Katrina Lantos Swett describes her father’s experience in a Nazi concentration camp. She also describes how her parents were rescued by the “Moses from the North,” Raoul Wallenberg, and brought to safety during World War II. Katrina’s father was the only survivor of the Holocaust to serve in the United States Congress. Tina and Dr. Lantos Swett discuss the bipartisan work in the U.S. Congress that Congressman Lantos was able to achieve, and they lament the new form of anti-Semitism rising today. The conversation closes with Dr. Lantos Swett looking back on her service on the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.
Watch the interview on Hardwired's YouTube channel here: bit.ly/LantosSwettInterview
Dr. Katrina Lantos Swett serves as President of the Lantos Foundation for Human Rights and Justice, established in 2008 to continue the legacy of her father, the late Congressman Tom Lantos. Under her leadership, The Lantos Foundation has rapidly become a distinguished and respected voice on key human rights concerns.
Dr. Lantos Swett is the former Chair and Vice-Chair of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) and teaches Human Rights and American Foreign Policy at Tufts University. She currently serves as Co-Chair of the Board of the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea (HRNK) and the Budapest based Tom Lantos Institute. Dr. Lantos Swett also serves on the Advisory Board of UN Watch, the annual Anne Frank Award and Lecture, and The Warren B. Rudman Center for Justice, Leadership, and Public Policy.
Lantos Swett earned a Political Science degree from Yale University at the age of 18, a Juris Doctor degree from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law, and a PhD in History from The University of Southern Denmark.
Visit the Lantos Foundation for Human Rights and Justice podcast, The Keeper, at this link https://thekeeper.lantosfoundation.org/
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Imagine sitting in the Pennsylvania State House during the Constitutional Convention, watching as our founding fathers pulled together 13 diverse colonies into one United States of America – the first country in world history to be founded on the consent of the governed and that recognized the equal and inalienable rights of the people to whom they are accountable.
In this interview, you will hear how The Quill Project, founded by Dr. Cole, allows you to experience the creation of the country's most sacred blueprint, including the formation of a Bill of Rights. From Madison's agenda, to the debates between delegates; from the first few drafts, to the signatures on the final engraved parchment, the Quill software is "track changes on steroids for negotiated text", and you won't want to miss a conversation with the Founder of Quill himself.
Watch the interview on Hardwired's YouTube channel here: bit.ly/Coleinterview
Dr. Cole is a British historian of American history who created the Quill Project at Oxford University in England. He studies the political thought of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and the history of democratic institutions. His particular interests are the influence of classical political thought on America's first politicians, and the search for a new 'science of politics' in post-Independence America. He runs the Quill Project on Negotiated Texts, based at Pembroke College, Oxford University, which studies the creation of constitutions, treaties, and legislation. The Quill software platform (developed with colleagues at the Oxford e-Research Centre) presents a recreation of the original context within which decisions about these texts were made. The flagship work of the project is a presentation of the records of the Constitutional Convention of 1787 that wrote the Constitution of the United States. Dr. Cole teaches American History and the history of political thought and supervises graduates working on the history of institutions, political thought and classical reception. He runs the TORCH (Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities) network on Negotiated Texts (http://torch.ox.ac.uk/negotiations).
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Can freedom still ring around the world? Yes! Discover how the Maldives went from a thirty-year old autocracy with widespread human rights abuses, to a vibrant Muslim democracy with strong human rights safeguards.
How does freedom ring for religious minorities in a Muslim country? Dr. Ahmed Shaheed will tell you. Listen to this week’s video podcast to learn the fascinating story of how change took place over the past three decades, and what that new freedom means for people who were once persecuted for their beliefs.
Watch the interview on Hardwired's YouTube channel here: bit.ly/Ahmedinterview
Dr. Ahmed Shaheed is an internationally recognized expert on foreign policy, international diplomacy, democratization, and human rights reform, especially in Muslim States. In 2016, he was appointed as the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, an independent expert appointed by the UN Human Rights Council. In 2011, he was appointed as the UN’s Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, the fourth Special Rapporteur to Iran. Dr. Shaheed has twice held the Office of Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of the Maldives, a position he used to promote human rights standards and norms. During his time in government, Dr. Shaheed played a leading role in the Maldives democratic transition and in its human rights reform process; a process which saw the country transformed from a thirty-year old autocracy with widespread human rights abuses, to a vibrant Muslim democracy with strong human rights safeguards and which, in 2010, became a Member of the United Nations Human Rights Council with a record number of votes.
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