U.N. rights investigator slams religious violence

GENEVA (Reuters) - U.N. freedom of religion investigator Asma Jahangir has called on Israel and the Palestinian authorities to denounce all violence inflicted in the name of religion, the United Nations said on Monday.

Jahangir, a Pakistani human rights activist, also criticized Israel for laws barring non-religious people from marrying there, and condemned the mistreatment of women and "intolerance" of Christians in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.

"Any violence committed in the name of religion, where violent acts by zealous (Israeli) settlers or, even worse, in the form of suicide bombings by militant Islamists, should be denounced, investigated and sanctioned," she said.

Jahangir was detained briefly during a government crackdown on critics in Pakistan last year and has often been attacked by Islamic radicals for her liberal stance on religion.

She made her remarks in Jerusalem on Sunday, at the end of a week-long visit to Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. She met Israeli and Palestinian officials and visited several towns and cities, but not Gaza.

In Israel, Jahangir raised concerns about laws preventing people with no official religious designation from marrying. Freedom of religion or belief, she said: "also includes the right not to believe."

In the Palestinian territories, "women seem to be in a particularly vulnerable situation and bear the brunt of religious zeal," she said, adding that she had heard "of 'honor killings' carried out with impunity ...in the name of religion."

According to these reports, she said, "some women in Gaza have recently felt coerced to cover their heads, not out of religious conviction but out of fear."

Small Christian groups in the territories fear rising intolerance, Jahangir said. One "hideous crime" she pointed to was the kidnapping and killing of a Christian librarian in Gaza in October last year.

The independent U.N. investigator said she was also concerned at the checkpoints and other restrictions keeping Muslims and Christians from their holy places in Israel.

Any step taken to combat terrorism must comply with international law, "including freedom of religion or belief," she said.