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US to Enhance Religious Training at Embassies to ‘Make America Safe’: Kerry

© Sputnik / Iliya Pitalev / Go to the mediabankU.S. Secretary of State John Kerry arrives in Moscow
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry arrives in Moscow - Sputnik International
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The United States is attempting to improve religious training at every one of its embassies around the world and engage local leaders of faith as part of an effort to protect US national security, US Secretary of State John Kerry said during a speech on religion at Rice University in Houston, Texas.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — US Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump called for banning Muslims from entering the United States in the wake of a terrorist attack in San Bernardino, California until their identities are properly established.

"We are striving to enhance our training with the goal of having people in every single one of our more than 240 embassies and consulates who can engage knowledgeably with religious actors," Kerry stated on Tuesday. "I believe this effort is… necessary in today’s world to help make America safe."

The United States, Kerry noted, does not establish contacts with religious actors in these countries simply for the sake of having interesting conversations.

"We do so to make progress towards our foreign policy and our national security goals," he explained.

Kerry also lamented the rise of anti-Semitism in Europe, driven by extremist nationalistic parties, as well as the increase in anti-Muslim sentiment in the United States.

The Secretary of State observed that there was a troubling trend in the United States where some have urged a ban on Muslims from entering the country, and have proliferated false stories about throngs of Muslim Americans celebrating the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.

"Efforts to smear them [Muslims] collectively for the actions of a few are despicable and no more logical than it would have been in the 1990s to hold all Christians accountable for atrocities committed against Muslim populations in Bosnia and Kosovo," Kerry argued.

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