NEW YORK (AP) — In Indonesia, Muslim groups burn down a mosque belonging to the minority Ahmadiyya. In Singapore, the government refuses to recognize Jehovah’s Witnesses. In Belgium, 68 religion-based hate crimes are reported in 2007 alone.
People living in a third of all countries are restricted from practicing religion freely, either because of government policies and laws or hostile acts by individuals or groups, according to a report released this week by the Pew Research Center, “Global Restrictions on Religion.”
That amounts to 70 percent of the globe’s population, since some of the most restrictive countries are very populous.
Of the world’s 25 most populous countries, citizens in Iran, Egypt, Indonesia, Pakistan and India live with the most restrictions when both measures are taken into account, the study indicated.
“Where those two come together is where it’s most intense,” said Brian Grim, senior researcher at the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion and Public Life.
The United States, Brazil, Japan, Italy, South Africa and the United Kingdom have the fewest restrictions on religious practices when measured by both government infringement and religion-based violence or harassment, according to the study.
Timothy Shah, a senior research scholar at Boston University who is familiar with the study, said he was struck by the fact that more than 30 countries have high levels of both government and social restrictions on religion.
Shah pointed to Nigeria, where 12 majority-Muslim states adopted the Islamic Shariah criminal code after returning to civilian rule in 1999, resulting in hostilities against religious minorities.
The report found that the percentage of the world’s countries with high or very high government restrictions is at about 20 percent, which amounts to 57 percent of the world’s population. These countries include Saudi Arabia, Iran and former communist countries, such as Russia, Belarus and Bulgaria, where state atheism has been replaced by favored religions that are accorded special protections or privileges.
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