Guided Reading Activity 3-2 Africa's Religion and Government Answers

10th annual report dives deeper into the means government restrictions on religion and social hostilities involving religion have inverse, from 2007 to 2017

Over the decade from 2007 to 2017, authorities restrictions on faith – laws, policies and actions by state officials that restrict religious behavior and practices – increased markedly around the world. And social hostilities involving religion – including violence and harassment by individual individuals, organizations or groups – also take risen since 2007, the year Pew Research Middle began tracking the issue.

Indeed, the latest data shows that 52 governments – including some in very populous countries like China, Indonesia and Russian federation – impose either "high" or "very high" levels of restrictions on religion, up from 40 in 2007. And the number of countries where people are experiencing the highest levels of social hostilities involving organized religion has risen from 39 to 56 over the grade of the report.

Authorities restrictions have risen in several dissimilar ways. Laws and policies restricting religious freedom(such as requiring that religious groups register in society to operate) and government favoritism of religious groups(through funding for religious educational activity, property and clergy, for case) have consistently been the most prevalent types of restrictions globally and in each of the 5 regions tracked in the study: Americas, Asia-Pacific, Europe, Heart East-Northward Africa and sub-Saharan Africa. Both types of restrictions take been rise; the global average score in each of these categories increased more than than 20% between 2007 and 2017.

The Regime Restrictions Index is made up of the post-obit categories:

• Government favoritism of religious groups
• Laws and policies restricting religious freedom
• Regime limits on religious activities
• Government harassment of religious groups

For more details on these categories, run into hither.

Levels of regime limits on religious activities andauthorities harassment of religious groups are somewhat lower. But they as well take been rising over the by decade – and in some cases, fifty-fifty more steeply. For example, the average score for government limits on religious activities in Europe (including efforts to restrict proselytizing and male person circumcision) has doubled since 2007, and the average score for government harassment in the Middle East-North Africa region (such equally criminal prosecutions of Ahmadis or other minority sects of Islam) has increased by 72%.¹

The Social Hostilities Alphabetize is fabricated up of the following categories:

• Hostilities related to religious norms
• Interreligious tension and violence
• Religious violence by organized groups
• Individual and social group harassment

For more details on these categories, encounter hither.

The global pattern has non been as consistent when information technology comes to social hostilities involving religion. One category of social hostilities has increased essentially – hostilities related to religious norms (for case, harassment of women for violating religious dress codes) – driving much of the overall rise in social hostilities involving religion. Ii other types of social hostilities,harassment by individuals and social groups(ranging from pocket-sized gangs to mob violence) and religious violence by organized groups(including neo-Nazi groups such as the Nordic Resistance Move and Islamist groups similar Boko Haram), have risen more modestly.

Meanwhile, a fourth category of social hostilities – interreligious tension and violence(for instance, sectarian or communal clashes between Hindus and Muslims in Bharat) – has declined markedly since the baseline year (17%). By ane specific measure, in 2007, 91 countries experienced some level of violence due to tensions between religious groups, but by 2017 that number dropped to 57 countries.ⁱⁱ

These trends advise that, in general, religious restrictions have been ascent around the world for the past decade, but they accept not been doing so evenly across all geographic regions or all kinds of restrictions. The level of restrictions started loftier in the Middle East-Due north Africa region, and is at present highest in that location in all eight categories measured by the study. Merely some of the biggest increasesover the final decade take been in other regions, including Europe – where growing numbers of governments have been placing limits on Muslim women's dress – and sub-Saharan Africa, where some groups have tried to impose their religious norms on others through kidnappings and forced conversions.

This big-picture view of restrictions on faith comes from a decadelong series of studies past Pew Research Heart analyzing the extent to which governments and societies effectually the earth impinge on religious behavior and practices. Researchers annually comb through more than a dozen publicly bachelor, widely cited sources of information, including almanac reports on international religious freedom by the U.S. Land Department and the U.Due south. Commission on International Religious Freedom, as well equally publications by a variety of European and Un bodies and several independent, nongovernmental organizations. (See Methodology for more than details on sources used in the report.) Due to the availability of the source material and the time information technology takes to code, each annual Pew Research Center study looks at events that took place about eighteen months to two years before its publication. For example, this study covers events that occurred in 2017.

The studies are function of the Pew-Templeton Global Religious Futures project, which analyzes religious modify and its touch on on societies around the world. The project is jointly funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts and the John Templeton Foundation.

The previous reports have focused largely on year-over-twelvemonth change, only this 10th report provides an opportunity for a broader expect dorsum at how the situation has changed around the world – and, more specifically, in detail regions and in 198 countries – over the length of the study. Also for the beginning time this year, researchers accept broken down the 2 main, 10-point indexes used in the report – the Government Restrictions Index (GRI) and the Social Hostilities Index (SHI) – into iv categories each.³

The categories can assist give readers a sense of what goes into the broader GRI and SHI scores, and they as well are useful when comparing countries that accept similar overall scores but very different situations inside their borders.

For instance, France and Qatar have similar overall GRI scores (both are in the "high" category"), but that does not mean that the lived experience of someone in those two countries is similar with respect to government restrictions on religion. French republic scores low in the category of regime favoritism, while Qatar scores much higher (Islam is the official state religion, according to the constitution). And while Qatar scores lower on government harassment of religious groups, French republic has higher scores in this category, which includes enforcing restrictions on religious apparel. France continues to enforce a national ban on full-confront coverings in public, and local authorities also impose various restrictions that mostly affect Muslim women. In 2017, for example, the city of Lorette banned headscarves in a public pool.⁴ Laws regarding women'south religious dress also have boosted French republic'south score in the category of limits on religious activities, merely Qatar scores even higher in this category, in part due to laws that target non-Islamic faiths by restricting public worship, the display of religious symbols and proselytization.⁵

For a full list of how all 198 countries and territories included in the study score in each category, encounter Appendix C. The balance of this overview looks in more detail at the 8 categories of restrictions on faith – four involving regime restrictions and four involving social hostilities by private groups or individuals.

Categories of government restrictions on religion

The Authorities Restrictions Indexmeasures authorities laws, policies and actions that restrict religious beliefs and practices. The GRI comprises 20 measures of restrictions, now grouped into the following categories:^{half dozen}

Government favoritism of religious groups

One of the consistent takeaways from a decade of tracking is the relatively loftier level of government restrictions on religion in the Centre East and North Africa (MENA), which has ranked in a higher place all other regions each year from 2007 to 2017. The new study shows that the Center East has high levels of restrictions beyond all four categories in 2017, only the gap in government favoritism is particularly large: The average state in the MENA region scores nearly twice every bit high on measures of government favoritism as the average country in any other region.

Indeed, 19 of the twenty countries in the Center East (all except Lebanon) favor a religion — 17 have an official country religion, and two have a preferred or favored faith.⁷ In all of these countries except Israel, the favored religion is Islam. Additionally, all countries in the region defer in some way to religious authorities or doctrines on legal issues. For example, in family constabulary cases in Egypt, when spouses have the same religion, courts apply that religious group's canonical (i.e., traditional religious) laws. However, when one spouse is Muslim and the other has a different religion (such equally Coptic Christianity), or if spouses are members of different Christian denominations, courts defer to Islamic family unit law.⁸

Nonetheless, authorities favoritism has barely increased in the Center Eastward over the course of the study, partly because it started at such a high level that at that place was non much room for growth on the scale. In the other four major geographic regions, meanwhile, in that location accept been notable increases in the levels of government favoritism of religious groups.

Some of the largest increases occurred in sub-Saharan Africa. For example, in 2009, Comoros passed a constitutional referendum that declared Islam the country religion.⁹ And, in 2014, a concordat between the island nation of Cabo Verde and the Vatican granted privileges to the Cosmic Church that were not available to other groups. The understanding allowed for "Catholic educational institutions, charitable activities, and pastoral work in military, hospitals, and penal institutions, as well as Catholic teaching in public schools." Information technology also provided tax exemptions for Catholic properties and places of worship.^x

In the Asia-Pacific region, government favoritism of detail religious groups likewise has increased since 2007. In Thailand, a new constitution came into force in 2017 with a provision that elevates the status of Theravada Buddhism by mandating "special promotion" through "didactics, propagation of its principles, and the establishment of measures and mechanisms 'to foreclose the desecration of Buddhism in any form.'"^xi There also has been an increase in Asian governments deferring to religious government, texts and doctrines since 2007. For example, in Turkey, the government passed a law in 2017 giving Muslim religious authorities at the province and district level the authority to register marriages and officiate at weddings on behalf of the country.¹² The government contended that this would make the registration process more efficient, while critics argued that information technology violated principles of secularism in the country's constitution and did not meet the needs of other (not-Muslim) religious groups.¹³

Most countries with the highest scores in regime favoritism as of 2017 (including Afghanistan, Bahrain and Bangladesh) accept Islam as their official state religion.^fourteen This dovetails with an earlier finding that, as of 2015, Islam is the most common country religion around the globe; in 27 of the 43 countries that enshrine an official religion (63%), that organized religion is Islam.

But non allthe countries on this list favor Islam. In Greece, Republic of iceland and the Uk, different Christian denominations are the official state religions. The Greek government recognizes the Orthodox Church as the "prevailing religion" and funds the training of clergy, priests' salaries and religious instruction in schools.^fifteenIceland'southward government provides the official state Evangelical Lutheran Church building with fiscal support and benefits not available to other religious groups.¹⁶And in the UK, the monarch is the supreme governor of the Church of England, and must be a member of that church.¹⁷

At the country level, one of the largest increases since 2007 in the favoritism category occurred in the Pacific island nation of Samoa. In 2011, the Samoan government began to enforce a 2009 pedagogy policy that makes Christian educational activity mandatory in public main schools.¹⁸ And, in 2017, Samoa's parliament amended the constitution to define the country as a Christian nation.^nineteen

For a full list of countries' scores in this and other categories, meet Appendix E.

Authorities laws and policies restricting religious freedom

Questions considered in this category

• Does the constitution, or law that functions in the identify of a constitution (basic law), specifically provide for "freedom of religion" or include linguistic communication used in Commodity eighteen of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Homo Rights?
• Does the constitution or basic law include stipulations that appear to qualify or essentially contradict the concept of "religious freedom"?
• Taken together, how do the constitution/basic law and other national laws and policies affect religious freedom?
• Does the national government have an established organization to regulate or manage religious diplomacy?
• Does any level of regime ask religious groups to register for any reason, including to exist eligible for benefits such equally tax exemption?

Along with favoritism, the wide category of "government laws and policies restricting religious freedom" includes some of the most common types of restrictions identified by the study. These restrictions can range from a constitution's stated delivery to religious freedom (or lack thereof) to the regulation or registration of religious groups.

Again, the Heart E-North Africa region has higher levels of these restrictions than other regions, although after an initial rise from 2007 to 2008, the overall level of authorities laws and policies restricting religious freedom has been relatively stable in the MENA region as a whole. Other regions have seen contempo increases in restrictions in this category – specially sub-Saharan Africa, which experienced a sharp rise in government laws and policies restricting religious liberty between 2014 and 2017.

Rules on government registration of religious groups contributed heavily to the high scores in this category across all regions. Many countries require some form of registration for religious groups to operate, and at least four-in-x countries in the Americas and more than half the countries in sub-Saharan Africa, the Asia-Pacific region and Europe had a registration process in 2017 that, at a minimum, adversely affected the ability of some groups to behave out their religious activities. In the Middle East and North Africa, this was the example in more than than eight-in-x countries.

In some cases, governments recognize only a specific gear up of religious groups and deny registration (and, hence, official recognition) to all others. Elsewhere, bureaucratic hurdles create cumbersome registration processes that disadvantage detail groups. For example, in Eritrea, the government recognizes and registers only iv religious groups — the Eritrean Orthodox Church building, Sunni Islam, the Roman Catholic Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church building of Eritrea — and since 2002 no other groups accept been registered or allowed to perform religious activities and services.²⁰ And in Republic of belarus, where there are extensive bureaucratic and legal requirements to be recognized, minority religious groups, such as Jehovah'south Witnesses and some Baptist groups, remain unregistered and confront difficulties in conveying out religious activities.²¹

The countries with the highest scores in the category of laws and policies restricting religious freedom are spread beyond Asia, the Middle Eastward and sub-Saharan Africa. In China, for example, just certain religious groups are allowed to register with the government and hold worship services. In order to exercise this, they must belong to ane of five land-sponsored "patriotic religious associations" (Buddhist, Taoist, Muslim, Catholic and Protestant). However, there were reports that the Chinese authorities arrested, tortured and physically abused members of both registered and unregistered religious groups.²²

In Saudi arabia, meanwhile, a new counterterrorism law published in November 2017 criminalizes "anyone who challenges, either directly or indirectly, the religion or justice of the Rex or Crown Prince," and prohibits "the promotion of atheistic ideologies in any form," "any attempt to cast incertitude on the fundamentals of Islam" and publications that "contradict the provisions of Islamic police." Indeed, public practice of all not-Muslim religions is illegal in the country, including public worship, proselytization and display of religious symbols. It is likewise illegal for Muslims to convert to another religion.²³

Since 2007, Republic of hungary has experienced a large increment in its score in this category. A new police in 2012 changed the registration process for religious groups and effectively deregistered more than 350 groups, adversely affecting their finances and ability to offer charitable social services.²⁴

Government limits on activities of religious groups and individuals

Questions considered in this category

• Does any level of government interfere with worship or other religious practices?
• Is public preaching by religious groups limited past any level of government?
• Is proselytizing express by whatever level of authorities?
• Is converting from one religion to another limited past any level of regime?
• Is religious literature or broadcasting limited by any level of government?
• Are foreign missionaries allowed to operate?
• Is the wearing of religious symbols, such as scarves or coverings for women and facial hair for men, regulated by police force or past whatever level of government?

There has been a bigger increase in authorities limits on religious activities – such as restrictions on religious dress, public or private worship or religious literature – in Europe than in any other region during the course of the study.²⁵

A growing number of European countries have placed restrictions on religious wearing apparel, with regulations that tin can range from prohibitions on wearing religious symbols or clothing in photographs for official documents or in public service jobs to national bans on religious wearing apparel in public places. In 2007, five countries were reported to accept such restrictions in Europe, but by 2017, that number had increased to twenty countries. In Bosnia-Herzegovina, for example, employees of judicial institutions are prohibited from wearing "religious insignia" at work, including headscarves.²⁶ And in France, a ban on total-confront coverings was implemented in 2011; the ban prohibits Muslim women from wearing the burqa or niqab in public.²⁷

The number of European governments that interfered in worship or other religious practices besides has been on the rising since 2007. In Moldova, for example, several local councils in 2012 banned Muslim worship in public.²⁸ And that same year in the U.k., the high court constitute that a Scientologist's allegation of discrimination was not valid after the Church of Scientology was barred from holding legal wedlock ceremonies because it was not "a identify of meeting for religious worship."²⁹ Meanwhile, in Germany and Slovenia, Muslim and Jewish groups protested authorities interference in circumcision of boys. In Federal republic of germany, a district courtroom ruling in Cologne in 2012 criminalized male circumcision for nonmedical reasons, classifying information technology every bit assail. Following complaints, the federal government introduced a new law subsequently in the year to address the concerns of both Muslims and Jews by allowing the do for religious reasons.³⁰ And in Slovenia, Muslim and Jewish groups accused the Slovenian ombudswoman for homo rights – a government figure – of religious discrimination after she called kid circumcision a criminal offense.³¹

Authorities limits on religious activities also have increased markedly in the Americas, where the number of countries where governments interfered with worship rose from sixteen in 2007 to 28 in 2017. In Canada, for case, the Supreme Court denied constitutional protection to a territory of spiritual significance to the indigenous Ktunaxa Nation in 2017. The Ktunaxa Nation had in 2012 sought a judicial review of a decision to approve the construction of a ski resort on land that was central to their religion, claiming it would impinge on their religious practices and violate their religious freedom.³²

In other regions, too, regime limits on religious activities accept risen over the course of the study. This includes the Middle East-North Africa region. For instance, limits on public preaching take increased notably since 2007, when 13 countries were reported to have such restrictions. In 2017, 18 out of 20 countries in the region reportedly express public preaching. These types of restrictions are not limited to minority faiths. In Jordan, for example, the regime monitored sermons at mosques and required preachers to abstain from talking most politics to avoid social and political unrest and to counter extremist views. The Jordanian authorities began distributing themes and recommended texts for sermons to imams at mosques in 2017, and those who did not follow the recommendations were field of study to fines and preaching bans.³³

Additionally, in sub-Saharan Africa, the regime has increasingly regulated the wearing of religious article of clothing. In 2015, four countries — Cameroon, Chad, the Republic of Congo and Niger — banned Islamic veils for women in response to terror attacks within their borders.³⁴

Among the countries with the highest levels of limits on faith, myriad policies restricting religious activities are enforced. In the Maldives, for example, it is a criminal offense to promote a faith other than Islam, punishable by up to five years in jail.³⁵ And in Laos, religious groups must go permission from the government in order to gather, hold religious services, build houses of worship and establish new congregations.³⁶

Restrictions in this category also are mutual across Central Asia. As of 2017, the authorities in Turkmenistan connected to deny visas to foreigners if they were suspected of intending to practice missionary work; the regime besides prevented the importation of religious literature.³⁷ Similarly, in Uzbekistan, a government agency continued to cake the importation of both Christian and Islamic literature.³⁸ And a Kazakh police force states that production, publication and broadcasting of religious literature is allowed only after approval from the government.³⁹

Espana has experienced some of the largest increases in its score for government limits on religious activities since 2007. In 2010, several cities in Catalonia introduced bans on the burqa and niqab (full-body and head coverings) also equally face up-covering veils in public buildings. Additionally, the land's largest opposition party also proposed a ban on the niqab in all public places, though information technology was ultimately rejected.^xl And, in more recent years, religious groups such as Latter-day Saints (sometimes called Mormons) and Jehovah's Witnesses have faced restrictions on public preaching and proselytizing from local governments in Spain.⁴¹

Authorities harassment of religious groups

Questions considered in this category

• Was there harassment or intimidation of religious groups by any level of authorities?
• Did the national government display hostility involving concrete violence toward minority or non-canonical religious groups?
• Were there instances when the national authorities did not intervene in cases of [social] discrimination or abuses against religious groups?
• Did the national government denounce 1 or more than religious groups by characterizing them every bit unsafe "cults" or "sects"?
• Does whatsoever level of government formally ban whatsoever religious group?
• Were in that location instances when the national regime attempted to eliminate an entire religious group's presence in the country?
• Did whatever level of authorities use force toward religious groups that resulted in individuals being killed, physically driveling, imprisoned, detained or displaced from their homes, or having their personal or religious backdrop damaged or destroyed?

Not simply are there higher levels of authorities harassment of religious groups in the Middle East-North Africa region compared with other regions, only MENA also has experienced the biggest increase in this category since the baseline year. This category measures types of harassment ranging from violence and intimidation to verbal denunciations of religious groups and formal bans on certain groups.

An increasing number of governments in MENA take reportedly used strength against religious groups (including detention and forced deportation) since 2007. In People's democratic republic of algeria, for case, more than 280 Ahmadis were prosecuted due to their religious beliefs in 2017.⁴² And in the same year in Saudi arabia, authorities began to demolish a 400-yr-old Shiite bulk neighborhood and displaced thousands of people in what the government described every bit counterterrorism efforts.⁴³

The Asia-Pacific region also stands out as relatively high in this category. For example, in 2017 alone, harassment or intimidation of religious groups past governments was reported in 86% of countries in the region.⁴⁴ This measure out includes long-term, ongoing harassment of religious minorities in some countries, which continued in 2017. For example, in China, hundreds of thousands of Uighur Muslims reportedly were sent to "reeducation camps."⁴⁵ Religion-related harassment in Burma (Myanmar) too has received global attending in recent years. In 2017, there were numerous reports of large-calibration abuses against the Rohingya, a Muslim ethnic minority in the state. The armed forces reportedly carried out extrajudicial killings, rapes, torture, beatings, arbitrary arrests and detentions, and restrictions on religious practice, which contributed to large-scale displacement. There likewise were reports that Rohingya were denied citizenship.⁴⁶

Harassment also increased in Europe and Americas since the baseline year of the written report, particularly between 2014 and 2016. For example, in 2015, religious groups in 38 out of 45 countries (84%) in Europe experienced at least limited levels of harassment, compared with 32 countries (71%) the previous twelvemonth. Some incidents of authorities harassment — which tin include derogatory statements and intimidation by public officials — were in response to record numbers of migrants inbound Europe in 2015. For example, in the Netherlands, opposition parliamentarian Geert Wilders campaigned against the "Islamization of the Due west," and in September 2015 led a protest against a "tsunami of refugees from Islamic countries who threaten our women and our civilization."⁴⁷

In the Americas, the sharpest increment in the government harassment category occurred between 2015 and 2016. That twelvemonth, there was at to the lowest degree express harassment in 32 countries, compared with 28 countries in 2015. In Republic of cuba, for instance, members of religious groups advocating for greater religious and political liberty reportedly were threatened by the regime.⁴⁸

Harassment of religious groups is particularly high in Iran, where authorities have labeled Baha'is every bit "heretical" and "filthy," and Russian federation, where police have raided religious minorities' homes and places of worship.⁴⁹ In Indonesia, local governments continued efforts to forcefulness conversions of Ahmadi Muslims past requiring them to sign forms renouncing their behavior earlier they could register marriages or participate in the hajj pilgrimage.⁵⁰

When it comes to increases since 2007 in this category, Bahrain stands out. Anti-government protests that began in 2011 took on a sectarian dimension, with the Sunni government targeting generally Shiite opposition protesters and religious leaders. In 2016, the government carried out a security operation in a predominantly Shiite hamlet where protesters were demonstrating in support of the country's nearly senior Shiite cleric, whose citizenship had been revoked. Authorities cut off admission to the hamlet, used live ammunition to clear the area and killed v civilians, injured many others, and arrested nearly 300 people.⁵¹

Categories of social hostilities involving religion

The Social Hostilities Indexmeasures acts of religious hostility by individual individuals, organizations or groups in social club. The SHI includes thirteen measures of social hostilities, grouped into the following categories:

Hostilities related to religious norms

Questions considered in this category

• Did individuals or groups utilize violence or the threat of violence, including so-chosen accolade killings, to try to enforce religious norms?
• Were individuals assaulted or displaced from their homes in retaliation for religious activities, including preaching and other forms of religious expression, considered offensive or threatening to the majority faith?
• Were women harassed for violating religious dress codes?
• Were there incidents of hostility over proselytizing?
• Were at that place incidents of hostility over conversions from one organized religion to some other?

Social hostilities involving religion have been consistently loftier in the Heart Due east-N Africa region compared with other regions throughout the length of the written report. This is true across all four subcategories of social hostilities.

But social hostilities in MENA have been relatively stable between 2007 and 2017. Meanwhile, the largest incrementin the category of social hostilities related to religious norms – and, in fact, in any category – occurred in Europe.

In 2007, just iv European countries were reported to have individuals or groups who used violence, or threat of violence, to effort to forcefulness others to accept their own religious practices and beliefs; past 2017, information technology had risen to fifteen countries. For instance, in the Britain in 2016, a Sunni Muslim homo killed an Ahmadi Muslim shopkeeper considering he had "disrespected the Prophet Muhammad."⁵² And in Ukraine in 2015, separatists held 4 Jehovah's Witnesses at gunpoint, subjected them to beatings and mock executions and forced them to confess Orthodox Christianity equally the simply true religion.⁵³

There too was an increase in assaults on individuals for religious expression considered offensive or threatening to the majority organized religion. In 2007, six European countries were reported to have such hostilities; by 2017, that number had climbed to 25 (out of a total of 45 countries in Europe). In Kingdom of belgium, a rabbi reported in 2016 that stones were thrown at him and a friend considering he was "visibly Jewish."⁵⁴ The previous yr, a young Jewish man wearing a yarmulke was assaulted past 2 men. And in a separate incident, a Muslim woman was attacked by two women who took off her veil and verbally abused her for existence Muslim.⁵⁵

In sub-Saharan Africa, hostilities related to religious norms likewise have risen since the baseline year of the study. In 2007, incidents of violence used to enforce religious norms were reported in viii countries, while in 2017, 31 out of 48 countries in the region experienced this type of hostility. In Burkina Faso, for example, armed men entered classrooms in multiple schools and threatened to kill teachers if they did not teach the Quran to their students.⁵⁶ Killings of people accused of witchcraft also occurred throughout the region. In 2017, in that location were reports of attacks on people accused of practicing witchcraft in 5 countries — Angola, Central African Commonwealth, Lesotho, Liberia and S Africa.

Since 2007, there also has been an increment in hostilities over conversions in the region. In 2007, five countries in sub-Saharan Africa experienced such hostilities; by 2017, that number doubled, to 10 countries. In Djibouti, for case, Christian groups reported that Christian converts faced bigotry in employment and instruction.⁵⁷ And in Nigeria, girls abducted by the terrorist group Boko Haram were subjected to forced religious conversion and other abuses.⁵⁸

There has been a substantial increase in the Americas' score in this category over the course of this study, but the score started from a very depression base of operations in 2007 and remains substantially lower than all other regions' scores.

Several Western European countries rank among those with the highest scores in the category of social hostilities related to religious norms. In Germany, for case, one sociologist estimated that there were thousands of conversions to Christianity – more than during all of the previous l years – linked to the ascension number of refugees. Religious groups reportedly "used refugees' fear of deportation to promote conversions and incentivized them by offer accelerated baptism, complimentary lunch and transportation costs," according to a radio program cited by the U.S. State Department's annual report on religious liberty.⁵⁹ In France, Jehovah'due south Witnesses faced violence when proselytizing door to door or engaging in other missionary activity.^sixty And in Russian federation, following a Supreme Courtroom ban on Jehovah's Witnesses in 2017, several threats and attacks on the group were reported. The Russian Orthodox Church supported the ban, maxim it would combat the "spread of cultist ideas, which have nothing in common with Christian religion."⁶¹

Elsewhere, the Taliban in Afghanistan killed or threatened Sunni clerics for preaching messages the Taliban considered un-Islamic, and in 2015, some Algerians promised "retribution" confronting women who went out uncovered, threatening to publish pictures of unveiled women on the net or to attack them by pouring acrid on their faces.⁶² In Israel, drivers who operated cars near ultra-Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods on the Sabbath reported incidents of harassment, including name-calling and spitting, by ultra-Orthodox residents.⁶³

Germany and Uganda had some of the largest increases in social hostilities related to religious norms. In Uganda, for case, Christians were beaten and three were killed for religious reasons in Muslim-bulk areas in 2015. The aforementioned year, 3 children were kidnapped because of their begetter's conversion from Islam to Christianity.⁶⁴ And in 2016, several incidents of violence confronting converts were reported, including a woman whose husband strangled her to decease for leaving Islam.⁶⁵

Interreligious tension and violence

Questions considered in this category

• Were in that location acts of sectarian or communal violence between religious groups?
• Did violence outcome from tensions between religious groups?
• Did religious groups attempt to prevent other religious groups from being able to operate?

Interreligious tension and violence involves acts of sectarian or communal violence betweenreligious groups. Such tensions can carry over from year to yr, and are not necessarily reciprocal.⁶⁶

Interreligious tension and violence was the most common type of social hostility in the early years of the report. But unlike all other categories of both government restrictions and social hostilities involving religion, interreligious tension and violence has declined since 2007 globally and in virtually regions (except sub-Saharan Africa), and by 2017, the average country's score was higher in the religious norms category than in this one.

In the Asia-Pacific, Europe and Eye Eastward-North Africa regions, the specific measure of tensions that involved numerous cases of physical violence between religious groups dropped in recent years in at least some countries. In Armenia, for instance, no fierce attacks confronting Jehovah's Witnesses were reported in 2017, unlike in 2012, when Jehovah's Witnesses faced an attack from supporters of the Armenian Apostolic Church.⁶⁷ And in Tunisia, there were no reported attacks in 2017 past Salafists – who follow fundamentalist interpretations of Sunni Islam – on Sufi and Shiite Muslims, equally had been reported in previous years. (This may be in office due to Salafists existence closely monitored and restricted by the government afterward the deadly Bardo Museum attacks in 2015.⁶⁸)

Still, in 2017, more than half of countries in sub-Saharan Africa and the Asia-Pacific region, and more than eight-in-ten countries in the Center Eastward-North Africa region, experienced some kind of communal tension betwixt religious groups.

Communal violence has long been mutual in India, which continued to score high in this category in 2017. Co-ordinate to media reports, a dispute betwixt ii Hindu and Muslim high schoolhouse students in Gujarat escalated into a mob assail on the village'southward Muslim residents; homes and vehicles were assault fire and about 50 homes were ransacked past the mob.⁶⁹

There also were tensions between Christians and Muslims in Nigeria – the near populous country in Africa, and one that is well-nigh evenly divided between the two religious groups. For example, Muslim herders carried out retaliatory attacks confronting Christian farmers after herders said they did not receive justice when the farmers killed members of the herding community and stole their cattle.⁷⁰

In Republic of iraq, there was Sunni-Shiite fighting following the liberation of certain areas from ISIS rule. There were reports that later the metropolis of Tal Distant was freed from ISIS in 2017, Shiite militias arrested, kidnapped and killed Sunnis.⁷¹

Despite a modest reject in overall interreligious tensions since 2007, there were still some notable increases in this category, particularly in Syrian arab republic and Ukraine. Syria has been experiencing a civil war since 2011 that has had a big sectarian component, with violence betwixt religious groups reported throughout the conflict.⁷² And in Ukraine, tensions between the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP) and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Kyiv Patriarchate (UOC-KP) along with the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC) have persisted. In 2017, UGCC followers and a priest took control of a UOC-MP church, assaulted members and chosen UOC-MP parishioners "Moscow's pigs." UOC-MP leaders also claimed that the UOC-KP connected to seize churches belonging to the UOC-MP.⁷³

Religious violence by organized groups

Religious violence by organized groups includes the deportment of faith-related terrorist groups, religion-related conflict, and the apply of strength by organized groups to boss public life with their perspective on faith. Since 2007, the largest increases in this category of social hostilities have occurred in Europe and the Middle East-N Africa region.

Equally in all other categories of authorities restrictions and social hostilities involving organized religion, the Middle East and North Africa has seen the highest levels of religious violence by organized groups. Over the years, the actions of religion-related terrorist groups take increased especially sharply in this region. In 2007, iv countries in this study were recorded as having more than than 50 injuries or deaths from organized religion-related terrorism incidents. By 2017, that figure climbed to 11 of the 20 countries in the region. These include deadly attacks in Egypt in 2017, when armed gunmen conveying the ISIS flag attacked a Sufi mosque in northern Sinai, leaving 311 expressionless. And on Palm Sunday, suicide bombings at two Coptic churches in the country – which ISIS claimed responsibility for – left 45 people expressionless.⁷⁴

In Europe, meanwhile, organized groups have increasingly used strength or coercion in an attempt to boss public life with their perspective on religion. In the baseline year of the study, this type of hostility was reported at the local, regional or national level in a total of 21 European countries. Past 2017, that figure had risen to 33 countries.For example, in Finland, the Nordic Resistance Movement, a neo-Nazi grouping, published anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim material and organized small-scale-scale training camps and rallies. They published content on their website asserting that Jews had brought Muslims to Europe and that "Finns must become informed virtually racial violence against white persons and diseases spread by Muslim immigrants," according to the U.S. State Department's annual report on religious freedom.⁷⁵ The group also organized multiple antireligious activities in Sweden in 2017. In September, roughly 500 supporters of the group marched through the city of Gothenburg on the Jewish holiday Yom Kippur, clashing with law and thousands of counterdemonstrators.⁷⁶

Many of the countries with loftier levels of religious violence by organized groups accept active Islamist militant groups inside their borders. This includes ISIS and other groups in Syria, al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula in Republic of yemen, al-Shabaab in Somalia, the Taliban in Afghanistan and Hamas in the Palestinian territories.

Nigeria is among the countries with the largest reported increases in religious violence past organized groups since 2007. The Islamist militant group Boko Haram became increasingly agile in the country, "committing abuses such as mass killings, kidnappings, sexual assault, forced conversion and forced conscription," according to the U.S. State Section's annual report on religious freedom. In a especially loftier-profile example in 2014, the group kidnapped more than than 200 schoolgirls – who were more often than not Christian – from a school in Chibok in Borno country.⁷⁷

Individual and social grouping harassment

Social harassment of religious groups is a wide category that ranges from deportment by individuals to mob violence.⁷⁸ Harassment also can include discrimination or publishing of articles or cartoons that are derogatory toward a certain group. This category also includes belongings damage, detentions or abductions, displacement, physical assail and deaths of members of religious groups acquired past individual individuals or social groups.

The Middle Due east and North Africa again has almost always had the highest levels of hostilities in this category (sub-Saharan Africa had the highest level in 2010). The Americas, meanwhile, has the lowest levels of all the regions, just besides has experienced the largest increasein this type of hostility since 2007. In Brazil, there were pockets of anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim sentiment in 2017 besides equally incidents targeting Afro-Brazilian religions. In the land of Sao Paulo, arsonists burned downwardly an Afro-Brazilian temple in September, i of viii attacks against Afro-Brazilian targets in the state in that month.⁷⁹

In that location was a considerable uptick in this category in 2012 in the Middle East and North Africa in the aftermath of the Arab Spring uprisings in late 2010 and 2011. The increase was particularly pronounced in Syria, where there was a rise in people being targeted due to their faith, exacerbated by government efforts to quell what had started as anti-regime protests. Every bit the conflict worsened and the authorities increasingly targeted Sunni Muslims, revenge attacks by Sunnis against Alawites — who were seen as supporting the regime — also escalated.⁸⁰

Some of the countries with the highest levels of individual and social group harassment in 2017 experienced incidents of mob violence, including Bangladesh – where in November 2017 a mob of approximately twenty,000 in Rangpur set fire to and vandalized approximately 30 homes belonging to the local Hindu minority community subsequently a Facebook mail service demeaned the Prophet Muhammad.⁸¹ In Pakistan, at that place were several incidents of mob attacks in response to accusations of blasphemy.⁸²

The U.S. too ranked among the highest-scoring countries in this category in 2017, in function because of the "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, where white supremacists were protesting the removal of a Confederate statue from a park. Protesters expressed anti-Semitic and racist sentiments, displaying swastika flags and chanting "Jews will not replace us!"⁸³

Central African Republic experienced a particularly large increase in its score in this category. In the midst of a violent conflict between Christian and Muslim militia forces, there take been widespread killings and deportation of people. Muslims have been unduly displaced – approximately lxxx percent have been forced to flee the country.⁸⁴

Overall restrictions in 2017

Overall, government restrictions on faith and social hostilities involving faith remained adequately stable in 2017, compared with the previous year. This marks the first time at that place was footling change globally after two consecutive years of increases on overall restrictions carried out either by governments or by private groups and individuals.

In 2017, most a quarter of the 198 countries studied (26%) experienced "high" or "very high" levels of government restrictions — that is, laws, policies and actions by government officials that restrict religious behavior and practices — falling from 28% in 2016. This decrease follows two years of increases in the percentage of countries with loftier levels of restrictions on religion by these measures (encounter here).

The share of countries with "high" or "very loftier" levels of social hostilitiesinvolving faith — that is, acts of religious hostility past private individuals, organizations or groups in lodge — ticked up from 27% in 2016 to 28% in 2017. This is the largest percentage of countries to have high or very high levels of social hostilities since 2013, but falls well below the 10-year height of 33% in 2012.

In 2017, 83 countries (42%) experienced high or very high levels of overall restrictionson organized religion, from authorities actions or hostile acts by private individuals, organizations and social groups. This figure has remained at the same level since 2016 following two years of increases and is merely beneath the 10-year tiptop of 43% in 2012. Every bit in previous years, near countries go on to accept low to moderate levels of overall religious restrictions in 2017.

Looking separately at global median scores can provide another understanding of how religious restrictions are changing. The global median score on the Government Restrictions Index remained the aforementioned at 2.8 from 2016 to 2017 afterwards three years of increases. And the global median score on the Social Hostilities Index increased slightly from 1.viii to ii.1 in 2017.

The rest of this report looks more closely at the changes in 2017, the about contempo year for which data is available.

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Source: https://www.pewforum.org/2019/07/15/a-closer-look-at-how-religious-restrictions-have-risen-around-the-world/

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