On Thursday, the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life
released a third in a series of reports on the extent to which governments and societies around the world restrict religious practices. This latest report, titled
Rising Tide of Restrictions on Religion, traces changes in religious restrictions from mid-2009 to mid-2010. As of mid-2010, eighteen countries had very high levels of governmental restrictions on religion, while 15 countries had high levels of non-governmental social hostility. Between 2009 and 2010, 66% of countries showed an overall increase in difficulties faced by religious groups, while 28% showed a decrease. For the year, the United States showed a significant increase in both governmental restrictions and social hostility.
According to the report:
This included incidents in which individuals were prevented from wearing certain religious attire or symbols, including beards, in some judicial settings or in prisons, penitentiaries or other correctional facilities.... Some religious groups in the U.S. also faced difficulties in obtaining zoning permits to build or expand houses of worship, religious schools or other religious institutions.... [A]t least one state sought to restrict the application of Islamic or sharia law. And, for the first time, [it was] ... reported that some level of government in the U.S. had imposed limits on conversion... [A]t the Southport Correctional Facility, an ultra-maximum security prison near Elmira, N.Y.,... a prisoner was denied the right to change his religious designation to Muslim.
.... A key factor behind the increase in the U.S. score on the Social Hostilities Index was a spike in religion-related terrorist attacks in the United States.... Other forms of social hostilities ... also increased.... In Murfreesboro, Tenn. ... some county residents attempted to block the construction of a mosque ... by claiming ... that Islam is a “political ideology rather than a religion” and that “mosques are political rather than religious in nature..... The increase in social hostilities in the U.S. also reflects a rise in the number of reported religion-related workplace discrimination complaints....
[Thanks to First Things blog for the lead.]
