NEW YORK (AP) — Government restrictions on religion have increased markedly in many places around the world, not only in authoritarian countries, but also in many of Europe’s democracies, according to a report surveying 198 countries released Monday.
The report by the Pew Research Center, covering developments through 2017, also seeks to document the scope of religion-based harassment and violence. Regarding the world’s two largest religions, it said Christians were harassed in 143 countries and Muslims in 140.
This was Pew’s 10th annual Report on Global Restrictions on Religion. It said 52 governments, impose high levels of restrictions on religion, up from 40 governments in 2007. It said 56 countries in 2017 were experiencing social hostilities involving religion, up from 39 in 2007.
Pew said the Middle East and North Africa, of the five major regions it studied, had the highest level of government restrictions on religion, followed by the Asia-Pacific region. However, it said the biggest increase during the 2007-2017 period was in Europe, where the number of countries placing restrictions on religious dress — including burqas and face veils worn by some Muslim women — rose from five to 20.
In Spain, according to the report, some municipal governors have introduced bans on burqas and face-covering veils and have also restricted public preaching and proselytizing by such groups as the Jehovah’s Witnesses and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Circumcision of boys also has been an issue in Europe. Jewish groups in Germany and Slovenia have complained of government officials interfering in their religious traditions by trying to criminalize circumcision for nonmedical reasons.
Globally, among the 25 most populous countries, those with the highest level of government restrictions were China, Iran, Russia, Egypt and Indonesia, the report said. The lowest levels of restriction were in South Africa, Japan, the Philippines, Brazil and South Korea.
In terms of government harassment of religious groups, Pew said the phenomenon was most pronounced in the Middle East-North Africa region, but two examples from Asia were highlighted.
Religious discrimination and persecution will be the topic of a three-day meeting hosted by the U.S. State Department starting Tuesday in Washington, attended by hundreds of government officials, religious leaders and other participants from all regions of the world.
Previewing the event, Sam Brownback, the U.S. government’s ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom, noted that religions of all sorts are vulnerable to persecution.
“Almost every faith that’s a majority somewhere is a minority somewhere else and often gets persecuted where they’re a minority,” Brownback said at a State Department briefing. “So that’s why a big part of our effort is to get the faiths to come together and to stand for each other.”
“We’re not talking common theology here — nobody agrees on theology,” he added. “We’re talking about a common human right.”
Pew’s annual reports are compiled by researchers who annually comb through numerous sources of information, including annual reports on international religious freedom by the State Department and the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, as well as publications by European, U.N. bodies and nongovernmental organizations.
Written by DAVID CRARY, Associated Press national writer.
Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @STGnews
Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.