NEW YORK-
Pakistan has been replaced by India and Israel for the highest level of social hostilities involving religion, according to the Pew Research Center’s latest annual study on global restrictions on religion.
Ranked at the top for social hostilities in Pew Research Center’s last report, Pakistan has now come down to number two, followed by Palestinian Territories, and Nigeria.
The report is based on two indexes (the Government Restrictions Index and the Social Hostilities Index) used to gauge the extent to which governments and societies around the world impinge on religious beliefs and practices.
Pakistan was ranked among the top countries out of the world’s 25 most populous countries in the highest overall levels of restrictions. Topping the list was Burma (Myanmar), followed by Egypt, Indonesia, Pakistan and Russia, where; the report adds, both the government and society at large impose numerous limits on religious beliefs and practices.
Worldwide, social hostilities involving religion declined somewhat in 2013 after reaching a six-year peak the previous year, but roughly a quarter of the world’s countries are still grappling with high levels of religious hostilities within their borders.
Twenty-seven percent of all nations witnessed such hostile acts as vandalism of religious property and desecration of sacred texts to violent assaults resulting in death and injury — compared to 33 percent in 2012.
That said, “the share of countries with high or very high government restrictions on religion stayed roughly the same” at 27 percent, it said.
The report points out that more than three-quarters of the world’s people – 77% – live in nations where religious restrictions of some kind (related to either government or social groups) are either high or very high.
This reflects the fact that some of the countries with high restrictions on religion are among the world’s most populous.
Notably, China has very high government restrictions on religion, and India saw a very high level of social hostilities involving religion within its borders in 2013. Both countries are home to more than a billion people.
The report added that as in previous years, Christians and Muslims – who together make up more than half of the global population – faced harassment in the largest number of countries.
Christians were harassed, either by government or social groups, in 102 of the 198 countries included in the study (52%), while Muslims were harassed in 99 countries (50%).In recent years, there has been a marked increase in the number of countries where Jews were harassed.
In 2013, harassment of Jews, either by government or social groups, was found in 77 countries (39%) – a seven-year high, the report said.Jews are much more likely to be harassed by individuals or groups in society than by governments. In Europe, for example, Jews were harassed by individuals or social groups in 34 of the region’s 45 countries (76%).
The new report is the sixth in a series of Pew Research reports based on two indexes (the Government Restrictions Index and the Social Hostilities Index) used to gauge the extent to which governments and societies around the world impinge on religious beliefs and practices.
