Close to one-third of the world’s citizens have faced increased restrictions on religious practice and expression imposed on them by their respective nations’ governments, according to a study issued Aug. 9 by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Public Life. The report, “Rising Restrictions on Religion,” noted that such limitations are on the upswing in only 23 of the world’s 198 nations, and that many of those countries are among the world’s most populous and fastest-growing in population, affecting a higher percentage of the world’s residents. By contrast, 12 nations were judged to have eased restrictions on religion. But the Pew report suggested that those countries “already scored low” in previous studies, while nations imposing greater restrictions “already had high or very high levels of restrictions or hostilities.” No changes were reported in 163 countries.
During a three-year period, between mid-2006 and mid-2009, the study examined a total of 33 measures phrased as questions about government restrictions such as laws, policies and actions, and social hostilities such as acts of religious hostility by private individuals, organizations and social groups. The study used 18 widely cited, publicly available sources of information, including reports by the United Nations, the U.S. State Department, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. Pew said the sources “were combed only for factual information on specific policies and actions,” not for commentary or opinions. “Only about 1 percent of the world’s population lives in countries where government restrictions or social hostilities declined,” the report said. Of the world’s 25 most populous countries, the United States was one of 17 in which neither government-imposed religious restrictions or social hostilities rose substantially. In none of those 17 did restrictions or hostilities measurably decrease.
WASHINGTON (CNS)