Yesterday the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom issued a report (full text) titled Implications of Laws Promoting State-Favored Religions. The report identified 78 countries with official or favored religions, 57 of which maintain laws or policies that lead to religious discrimination or repression, or that have the potential to do so. The Report says in part:
[C]ontrary to popular misconception, there is no inevitable contradiction between freedom of religion or belief and a country’s adoption of an official or favored religion. As such, there are examples of countries that maintain an official or favored religion and protect FoRB as an essential human right....
Conversely, the absence of an official or favored religion is no guarantee of a country’s protection or promotion of FoRB. USCIRF has recommended CPC or SWL designation for a range of avowedly secular countries where the government consistently perpetrates or tolerates severe or particularly severe religious freedom violations as defined in IRFA....
