Religious freedom shrinking worldwide
New Pew study says a third the world's population has suffered more restrictions since 2006.
Looks like the screaming was wrong. On both sides.
A decade back, the religious right said secularists would sacrifice freedom of religion to a tyrannical, God-denying state.
Meanwhile, secularists were warning that "fundamentalists" would seize power and suffocate freedom of speech, even thought.
What’s actually happened, according to a new Pew study, is that governments and social movements are combining to limit religious freedom worldwide.
The new study of 198 countries, by the Pew Forum on Religious and Public Life, says that nearly a third of the global population -- more than 2.2 billion people -- saw their religious liberties shrink in three years.
Whether from official strictures or "social hostilities," the circle of religious freedom shrank between mid-2006 and mid-2009, says the report, "Rising Restrictions on Religion."
Worse, freedoms didn’t expand in any of the 25 most populous countries, and shrank in eight of them.
Here are some other highlights.
The Middle East had the largest proportion of countries where religious freedom shrank by government action. Europe saw the most restrictions from social hostilities.
However, social hostilities rose in a wide variety of countries -- including China, Nigeria, Russia and Vietnam.
Egypt and Indonesia were among the top 10 countries in both categories -- government restrictions and social hostilities involving religion.
Violence and abuse related to religion rose 51 percent, to 101 countries.
Christians and Muslims suffered the most harassment, either social or governmental. But Sikhs, Bahais, Zoroastrians and Rastafarians also suffered -- and Jews fell victim in 75 countries.
A paradox: Restrictions have grown in many countries that have laws against blasphemy and religious defamation. "While such laws are sometimes promoted as a way to protect religion, in practice they often serve to punish religious minorities whose beliefs are deemed unorthodox or heretical."
Interestingly, despite anti-Islamic blogs and scattered protests against the building of mosques, the Pew report found no "substantial changes" in religious freedom in the United States.
Worse yet, there’s little hope for change. Most nations that already limited religious freedoms became more restrictive, while nearly half of the countries that lifted some restrictions had already had few.
"This suggests that there may be a gradual polarization taking place," the report says.
Check out the online version of the Pew report. It has separate breakdowns on government and social restrictions of religion, plus a graphic on the 25 most populous nations. You can also download the whole report as a .pdf document.
James D. Davis
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