The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life yesterday
released a new report on the rising restrictions on religion around the world. The report (
full text) uses both a government restrictions index and a social hostilities index in examining restrictions on religious beliefs and practices. The report concludes:
Restrictions on religious beliefs and practices rose between mid-2006 and mid-2009 in 23 of the world’s 198 countries (12%), decreased in 12 countries (6%) and remained essentially unchanged in 163 countries (82%)....
Because several countries with increasing restrictions on religion are very populous, however, the increases affected a much larger share of people than of states. More than 2.2 billion people – nearly a third (32%) of the world’s total population of 6.9 billion – live in countries where either government restrictions on religion or social hostilities involving religion rose substantially over the three-year period studied. Only about 1% of the world’s population lives in countries where government restrictions or social hostilities declined.
Christian Century summarizes the report.
