Deputy Minister of Home Affairs Vũ Chiến Thắng presents recognition certificate to Vietnam United Gospel Outreach Church on April 20, 2024.  

Vietnam is located at the intersection of many cultural flows. Religion has been introduced to the country for many centuries. Buddhism was introduced to Vietnam in the early of Common Era, later developed and recognized as the state religion in some historical periods. During the development process, Buddhism has integrated with unique culture features of Vietnamese people. Since the 15^th century, Islam has come to the country, firstly to the Cham ethnic community, coexisting with the indigenous culture. From the early 16^th century, Catholicism began to be introduced to Vietnam. When the French colonialists set up a ruling regime in Vietnam, Catholicism developed rapidly in many regions throughout the country. In the early 20^th century, the first chapters of Protestantism appeared. Later, Protestant sects from America entered and rapidly developed, especially in the South region till 1975. During the period of social crisis in Vietnam in the early 20^th century, under the domination of French colonialism, Caodaisim, Hoa Hao Buddhism and a number of other religions came into existence in the Southern region.

1. Safeguarding the freedom of belief and religion is a consistent policy and task of the Vietnamese Party and State

 In August 1945, all Vietnamese people rose up as one in the General Uprising to topple colonialism. Only one day after the declaration on the establishment of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (now the Socialist Republic of Vietnam), at the first meeting of the Government on September 3, 1945, President Ho Chi Minh pointed out eight imperative tasks and the sixth task was the fundament all viewpoint on Vietnam’s religious policy – “The colonialists and feudalists implemented a policy of dividing religious and non - religious, so that they could easily dominate. I’d like to request that the Government declare freedom of belief and solidarity of secular and religious people” ¹. On November 23, 1945, the provisional President of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam signed Decree No. 65 on the preservation of relics, and Article 4 stipulated: "Prohibiting the destruction communal houses, pagodas, temples, shrines or other worshipping places” ².

During the 1945 – 1975 period, the country had endured war and been divided into two parts, and hostile forces thoroughly exploited religious issues to sabotage the revolution. In this period, under the sound leadership led by President Hồ Chí Minh, the Party and the State of Vietnam have issued many guidelines and policies on religious affairs, such as acknowledging the religious diversity reality; truly respecting the people's right to follow or not to follow a religion; persistently propagating and educating religious compatriots to join the revolutionary cause of the Party, in order to regain independence and freedom for the Homeland, bring peace and prosperity for the people, and build a new society not conflicting with the religious faith. These correct religious policies and guidelines have gathered and promoted the great strength of the entire nation, leading to great victories for the country, completely liberating the South, and unifying the country.

Entering the period of the country’s recovery and development, the forces hostile to the Vietnamese revolution didn’t abandon their plots to weaken the Party, State and regime. In particular, after the crisis and collapse of the socialist system in Eastern Europe, the hostile forces stepped up their "peaceful evolution" plot, with the aim of eliminating the leadership role of the Communist Party and overthrowing the socialist regime in Vietnam, in which abuse of religion identified as a key to lure and gather opposition forces.

Implementing the renewal process, in the field of religious affairs, the Document of the 6th National Party Congress stated: "Our Party and State consistently respect the right to freedom of belief. The leadership assists religious compatriots to unite and build a new life and enthusiastically participate in the defense of the Fatherland. To vigilantly, resolutly and timely fight against the plots of imperialists and reactionaries to cause division between religious followers and non-religious people, and between followers of one religion and followers of another religion"³.

The 6^th Politburo’s Resolution 24/NQ-TW dated October 16, 1990 on religious affairs in the new situation pointed out “relentlessly take care of the material and cultural life, and improve the overall understanding of religious compatriots, and implement the right to freedom of belief, strengthen unity of followers of all religions and non-religious people and solidarity of the entire people”⁴. The three viewpoints of religious affairs in the renovation process are namely: to pay attention to solving religious followers’ needs and promptly fight against the plots and tricks of hostile forces abusing religion; key task of religious affairs is the mass mobilization work; and religious affairs is a matter of strategic importance and responsibility of the entire political system under the leadership of the Party. The process of implementing Resolution 24 has achieved important results and the religious situation has gradually been stable. However, many complicated problems potentially remained, and hostile forces stepped up the implementation of the plot of "peaceful evolution", took advantage of democracy, human rights, ethnicity, religion, etc. These issues have brought strongly impacts on the country. Besides, the understanding of religion and the Party’s and the State’s guidelines and policies on religion among part of State cadres have not still been adequate and unified.

On March 12, 2003, the 7^th plenum of the 9^th Party Central Committee issued Resolution 25-NQ/TW on religious affairs, affirming the importance of religious affairs: "Throughout the revolutionary stages, the Party and State have always identified religious affairs as a strategic issue of great significance", and clearly stated "Religious exercise and religious affairs must aim to strengthen solidarity among religious compatriots in the great national solidarity bloc, promote the strength of the entire nation, successfully carry out the cause of industrialization and modernization of the country, build and firmly defend the Fatherland, for the goal of a rich people, a strong country, a fair, democratic and civilized society"⁵.

The Party's viewpoints and tasks on renewing the understanding of religion and religious affairs have been institutionalized and concretized into regulations, rules for bringing the Party's resolutions into life. Decree No. 69/ND-HDBT dated March 21, 1991 by the Council of Ministers on regulations of religious activities" was the first document institutionalizing them into policies and laws during the national renewal period. Later was Decree No. 26/ND-CP dated April 19, 1999 of the Government on religious activities. Then the Ordinance on belief and religion was passed on 18 June 2004 by the Standing Committee of the 9^th National Assembly; and the right to freedom of belief and religion was more clearly affirmed in the 2013 Constitution.

Most recently was the Law on Belief and Religion promulgated by the National Assembly in 2016 and taking effect from January 1, 2018. The Law on Belief and Religion with many new articles was of great significance in better safeguarding the freedom of belief and religion of all people, concretizing the provisions of the 2013 Constitution and international treaties to which Vietnam is a member, and suiting the global integration trend in the current situation. Together with the guiding decrees of the Government, the law has gradually taken full effect, setting a full legal corridor for state management on belief and religion, as well as creating favorable conditions for religious exercise of religious organizations, dignitaries and lay followers. The Party’s and the State’s guidelines and policies on belief and religion have obtained a high consensus from the political system and religious organizations, dignitaries and lay followers for the common social benefit, and been highly appreciated by the international communities.

2. Vivid evidences of religious life in Vietnam refute arguments and tricks of the hostile forces

After over 30 years of renewing the understanding of religion and religious affairs, the overall picture of the religious life in Vietnam have seen many changes. In 1999, Vietnam has six religious organizations recognized by the State belonging to six religions of Buddhism, Catholicism, Protestantism, Islam, Caodaism and Hoa Hao Buddhism, with the total of 14,7 million followers (accounting for 19,4% the country’s population). In 2003, there were 15 religious organizations belonging to the six above-mentioned religions with 17 million followers in total (accounting for 21,8% the country’s population), 34,181 dignitaries and 78,913 leading personnel. By 2019, religious followers have reached over 26 million people, accounting for 28.4% of the population (an increase of 35% as compared to 2003) with nearly 60,000 dignitaries, 145,000 leading personnel of 41 religious organizations belonging to 16 religions recognized as legal entities or given registration certificates for religious exercise. As of November 2021, there have been 26.6 million followers of 43 religious organizations belonging to 16 religions (accounting for over 27% of the country's population) with 29,658 religious worshipping places. In 2022, there were over 27.2 million followers, accounting for 27.4% of the population. In 2023, there was 27.7 million followers, accounting for 27.7% of the population with over 54,500 dignitaries, over 14,000 leading personnel. During 20 years (2003-2023), the number of religious followers has increased by more than 10.7 million people, and the number of religions increased from 06 to 16 religions.

In addition, communities of religious foreigners living and working in Vietnam have been granted the registration certificate for religious activities by local authorities, such as the Korean Protestant community in cities of Ho Chi Minh and Hanoi. The location for religious exercise has been expanded, with Buddhism, Catholicism and Protestantism having presence in all 63 provinces and cities; Cao Dai and Minh Su Faith have extended to the North region with new local chapters and congregations. Currently, there are more than 2.612 million ethnic minorities following religions, accounting for 19.5% of the ethnic minority population; 8,080 religious dignitaries are ethnic minorities; 4,733 worshipping places and 4,630 congregations were located in ethnic minority areas. Over 70% of Vietnam's population does not follow any religion but has a very rich spiritual life, with about 50,000 worshipping establishments across the country.

Vice Chairman of the Government Committee for Religious Affairs Nguyễn Tiến Trọng (right, front) hands over the decision to recognize the Vietnam Full Gospel Church as a religious organization on December 27, 2023

Authorities at all levels paid due attention to the allocation land for religious organizations to building religious facilities, meeting the legitimate religious need and suiting the practical situation. In 2003, Vietnam has 20,929 religious worshipping places; as of 2019, there were 29,396 religious worshipping places, an increase of 8,465 facilities (nearly 30%) after 15 years. Most religious facilities have been repaired and rebuilt. Religious training facilities are facilitated to be officially established, enroll and open courses according religious needs.

As of February 2021, religions in Vietnam had 62 religious training institutions with about 10,000 students taking religious courses. By the end of 2020, 10,000 religious titles published with tens of millions of copies (the Bible alone having over one million copies printed); 15 newspapers and magazines, and many electronic websites have been actively operated by religious organizations⁶  

The Government, relevant ministries, sectors and localities have created conditions for Vietnamese religious individuals and organizations to enhance international exchanges. Every year, hundreds of Vietnamese religious dignitaries attend religious activities abroad, and thousands of foreign religious dignitaries have come to Vietnam for preaching and attending religion-related events.

The United Nations Day of Vesak was thrice hosted in Vietnam: in 2008 in the National Convention Centre in Hanoi  with the participation of over 1,500 delegates from 74 countries and territories all over the world; in 2014 at Bai Dinh Pagoda in Ninh Binh province with the participation of over 1,000 delegates from 95 countries and territories; and in 2019 at Tam Chuc Pagoda in Ha Nam province with the participation of over 3,000 delegates (1,650 international delegations delegates from 112 countries and territories). The closing ceremony of the Holy Year of the Vietnam Catholic Church organized in 2011 has the participation of 50 bishops, including 06 foreign bishops; the Vietnam Bishops' Conference of Vietnam hosted a meeting of the Federation of Asian Bishops' Conferences in December 2012 in Dong Nai province with the participation of over 120 Catholic delegates from dioceses in the Asian region and representatives of the Vatican. The International Dominican General Conference held its general conference in Dong Nai province in July 2019 with delegates from more than 80 countries and territories⁷, etc. On occasion of the 100^th anniversary of Protestantism in Vietnam in 2011, many activities held in Hanoi, Da Nang, Ho Chi Minh City with many foreign Protestant delegates from USA, Korea, etc. At international forums, Vietnamese religious organizations have clearly demonstrated their peace loving and national pride, and actively contributed initiatives to joint statements, contributing to building a peaceful world, reducing conflicts, violence and war relating religious and racial reasons.

Religions in Vietnam have increasingly engaged in social activities, affirming religious roles and influences in the social life. With the motto of accompanying with the nation, religions have encouraged followers to engage in fields of health, education and charities, helping each other to eliminate hunger, reduce poverty and improve the material life, contributing to the cause of national construction and development. The official document of the 13^th National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam affirmed: “the religious situation is stable; the majority of religious dignitaries and lay followers trust in the leadership of the Party and State, stay attached to and accompany with the nation, contributing to the fight against and refuting distorted arguments and accusations that the State authorities violate human rights and religious freedom” ⁷

This is a vivid testament to the sound polices of the Vietnamese Party and the State on respecting of people’s freedom of belief and religion.

3. It’s necessary to clearly recognize plots and tricks of hostile forces abusing religious issues to sabotage Vietnam.

Despite the real situation and achievements in ensuring freedom of belief and religion in Vietnam, ill-will and hostile forces still take advantage of the issue of religious freedom to attack the Party and the State of Vietnam, so as to divide and undermine the great ethnic and religious solidarity bloc.

The white paper "Religion and religious policy in Vietnam" was released by the Ministry of Information and Communication and the Government Committee for Religious Affairs on March 9. The white paper provides basic information about Vietnam’s religion, religious policy and achievements in ensuring freedom of belief and religion in Vietnam, thereby, affirming Vietnam's consistent policy on freedom of belief and religion. Right after, several newspapers of RFA, VOA, RFI and many websites of hostile organizations and individuals have posted unobjective articles and comments, giving negative reviews about this white paper book. They claimed that Vietnam’s publication of the white paper on religion and religious policy aimed at covering up long-standing and serious violations of religious freedom. They argued that these “serious violations” led to the US decision to put Vietnam on the “Special Watch List” for religious freedom (December 2, 2022). These assessments were based on the perceptions of a number of extremists and opponents who fail led to achieve personal interests, then left religious organizations, later joined together to establish illegal organizations under the name of religion for pursuing their own purposes and motives. These organizations "manipulated" and promoted by reactionary organizations overseas, such as "Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam", "Pure Hoa Hao Buddhism", "Interfaith Council", etc. These groups did not represent any religious organization in Vietnam or work for community interests. Therefore, those groups’ statements and comments shared to reporters of the above-mentioned electronic newspapers and social networking sites were only unobjective one-sided, and hostile to the Vietnamese State, and couldn’t be considered as "representing the religious voice" in Vietnam.

Taking advantage of religious issues to sabotage Vietnam in fields of democracy and human rights, several politicians and political bodies in other countries with ill-will or hostile views towards Vietnam have issued resolutions, laws, and other bills in order to distort and accuse Vietnam of suppressing freedom of religion, democracy and human rights, so as to internationalize religious issues in Vietnam and create legal grounds to interfere in the country's internal affairs. In October 1998, the US Congress passed the HR2431 Act on International Religious Freedom, with 08 diplomatic measures and 07 sanction measures against countries designated by the US in the list of Countries of Particular Concern (CPC) for serious violations of freedom. In fact, in 2004 and 2005, the US State Department placed Vietnam on the CPC list and only removed it in 2006. The "Vietnam Religious Freedom and Democracy Promotion Act" (HR 1587) in 2004, the Assessment Report on the Law on Belief and Religion of Vietnam on November 22, 2019, the annual "Report on International Religious Freedom" of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, all contained contents unobjectively reflecting the about religious life and human rights in Vietnam. In 2019, the US State Department's Office of Religious Freedom and the US Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom (Sam Brownback) proposed to place Vietnam on the Special Watch List - a list of countries where violations of religious freedom conditions do not rise to the serious level required for the designation in the CPC list, and in December 2022, the US State Department actually placed Vietnam on this list. In the U.S. Department of State's annual International Religious Freedom Report released over the past five years, while acknowledging the reality of Vietnam's achievements and progress in ensuring and promoting religious life, there was still a misguided assessment stating that "Vietnam seeks to violate religious freedom, particularly targeting unrecognized religious groups by many ways". In February 2021, the US-based "Human Rights Watch" (HRW) accused Vietnam of taking advantage of COVID-19 to justify human rights violations despite its success in fighting the pandemic, saying that "Vietnam is taking advantage of COVID-19 to violate human rights", obstructing and violating "people's right to peaceful assembly" including gatherings for religious practices⁸.

These above activities clearly showed the trick of exploiting religious issues to rudely and blatantly interfere in the internal affairs of sovereign countries by some politicians in the governments of some countries and some organizations in the name of the international law who want to impose their own laws on other countries. Giving themselves the right to make laws to judge the religious situation in Vietnam not only violates the international law and interferes in the country's internal affairs, but also acts as a giving "the green light" for ill-will individuals and organizations to take advantage of it for sabotaging Vietnam.

Besides falsely communicating and distorting the religious life and the Party’s and the State’s policies on religion, hostile forces also implement plots to link religious issues with ethnic matters in order to incite secession and riots, destabilize security in strategic areas, and create excuses for interferences in Vietnam's internal affairs. Specifically, they have given money to and trained core people” who are ethnic minorities, as well as propagated tricks about "doomsday" for creating fear and superstition and causing panic and anxiety in the community; took advantage of the fact that part of ethnic minorities have converted to  different belief or religious activities, so as to distort the Party and the State’s policies; incited and lured people into illegal religious activities, causing political and social instability, and destroying national solidarity. Recently, in strategic areas of the Northwest, Central Highlands and Southwest, reactionaries have falsely circulated and lured people in order to establish a number of so-called "private religions" for ethnic minorities, acting as a focal point for gathering forces, forming opposition organizations, establishing a "new state" in the Central Highlands and Northwest, causing riots and political insecurity in the areas. When the government tried to abolish it, reactionary elements claimed "Vietnam is suppressing religion" and called for international intervention, etc.

4. Some Solutions

In the coming time, the hostile forces will continue to step up schemes taking advantage of religious issues together with stricks for sabotaging Vietnam. Thus, authorites at all levels must stay alert, promptly fight to defeat all plots and tricks of hostile forces to exploit religion, and effectively implement policies to ensure the right freedom of belief and religion.

Firstly, to create consensus in understanding of the whole political system and society that belief and religion are the spiritual needs of one segment of the population, which have been and will be coexisting with the nation in the cause of building socialism in Vietnam; followers of all religions are part of the great national unity bloc, and Vietnam pursues a consistent policy of respecting and ensuring people’s freedom of belief and religion.

Secondly, respecting and ensuring the freedom of belief and religion, and combating the exploitation of religion are two interrelated aspects that mutually support each other. It is necessary to clearly recognize legitimate religious needs and aspirations of the people in order to have solutions for creating favorable conditions, helping compatriots practice religion stably and in accordance with the law; and to identity elements of abusing religion for non-religious purposes and against interests of the nation that need to be resolutely fought them off.

Thirdly, to continue creating favorable conditions for religious exercise of religious organizations, dignitaries and lay followers according to the religious charters, regulations and the State laws, including the organization of religious ceremonies and practices, religious training, the appointment of religious dignitaries, publication of religious scriptures, granting of land, repair of religious worshipping places and external religious activities, etc. To strengthen the dissemination of the Party's viewpoints and the State's policies and laws on belief and religion to religious dignitaries and lay followers in order for them to better understand, stay alert and refute arguments of evil forces that take advantage of religion for attacking Vietnam.

Fourthly, to motivate and guide religious ogranizations, dignitaries and lay followers to actively participate in patriotic emulation movements and practice religion in compliance with the law; to promote the roles of religions in society, and implement appropriate policies and measures to promote fine cultural and ethical values and resources of religions for the country’s development and religions’ engagement into the secular life.

Fifthly, to strengthen external religious affairs, proactively participate in multilateral forums in order to help the international community better understand the religious life and the Party’s and the State’s guidlines and policies on religon in Vietnam, as well as step up the communication work on religious policies and guidelines and the reality of freedom of belief and religion in the country, etc so as to promptly fight and refute distorted arguments of hostile forces on media and social networks, etc

Lê Đình Nghĩa, Former Director of the Religious Affairs Department under the Central Committee for Mass Mobilization

Endnotes:

1. Ho Chi Minh: Complete Works, vol.4, National Political Publishing House, Hanoi, 1995, p.8.

2. Ibid.

3. Communist Party of Vietnam: Complete Party Documents, vol.47, National Political Publishing House, Hanoi, 2006, p. 451.

4. Assoc. Prof. Nguyễn Hồng Dương, Viewpoints and Policies of the Party and the State on religion, Social Sciences Publishing House, Hanoi, 2015, p.169.

5. Resolution No. 25-NQ/TW of the The Party Central Committee (9th tenure) on Religious Affairs

6. The Government for Religious Affairs, A document for training professional skills in information and communication on policies and laws on belief, religion and religious affairs according to the decision No 219/QD-TTg dated February 21, 2019 by the Prime Minister

7. Ibid

8. Communist Party of Vietnam: Documents of the 13th National Party Congress, the Truth National Political Publishing House, vol.II, 2021, p.45.