Global Religious Restrictions Increased in 2015: Pew Report
The level of global restrictions on religion increased in 2015, according to a recent report from the Pew Research Center's Religion & Public Life.
An analysis published Tuesday by Pew regarding their annual "Global Restrictions on Religion" report found that restrictions against religion increased modestly in 2015, reversing a two-year trend of decreased restriction.
"The share of countries with 'high' or 'very high' levels of government restrictions – i.e., laws, policies and actions that restrict religious beliefs and practices – ticked up from 24% in 2014 to 25% in 2015," noted Pew.
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"Meanwhile, the percentage of countries with high or very high levels of social hostilities – i.e., acts of religious hostility by private individuals, organizations or groups in society – increased in 2015, from 23% to 27%."
Pew also noted that the 2015 rise in social hostility to religion stemmed from "a number of factors, including increases in mob violence related to religion, individuals being assaulted or displaced due to their faith, and incidents where violence was used to enforce religious norms."
"In Europe, for instance, there were 17 countries where incidents of religion-related mob violence were reported in 2015, up from nine the previous year," continued Pew.
"And sub-Saharan Africa saw a spread in violence used to enforce religious norms, such as the targeting of people with albinism for rituals by witch doctors. This type of hostility was reported in 25 countries in sub-Saharan Africa in 2015, up from nine countries in 2014."
In recent years, many groups have noted a rise in religious intolerance in places like the Middle East and Southeast Asia.
A 2011 "Restrictions on Religion" report from Pew found that one-third of the world's population experienced an increase in restriction on religious practice from 2006-2009.
"Restrictions on religious beliefs and practices rose between mid-2006 and mid-2009 in 23 of the world's 198 countries (12%), decreased in 12 countries (6%) and remained essentially unchanged in 163 countries (82%)," noted Pew in 2011.
"Because several countries with increasing restrictions on religion are very populous, however, the increases affected a much larger share of people than of states. More than 2.2 billion people ... live in countries where either government restrictions on religion or social hostilities involving religion rose substantially over the three-year period studied."
Pew's analysis on the 2015 statistics on religious restriction and intolerance comes a couple days after Islamic terrorists attacked a Coptic Church in Egypt, killing over 40 people.
