Restrictions on religion around the world continued to climb in 2016, reported a 138page document by the Washington-based Pew Research Center into global restrictions on religion in 2016, in July.
2016 is the most recent year for which data was available for the 198 countries and territories surveyed.
The report (Pew) ranked the places according to their levels of government restrictions on religion and social hostilities involving religion. 83 countries (42%) had high or very high levels of overall restrictions on religion – up from 80 (40%) in 2015, and 58 (29%) in 2007. The increase was the second in a row.
Divided into the two categories of government restrictions and social hostilities, the report found that the proportion of countries with ‘high’ or ‘very high’ levels of government restrictions – which it counted as ‘laws, policies and actions by officials that restrict religious beliefs and practices’ – rose from 25% in 2015 to 28% in 2016. China, where President Xi Jinping’s government has said it wants to ‘Sinicise’ religion, was found to have the highest ranking in this category, followed by Iran, Indonesia, Russia and Egypt.
While the proportion of countries with ‘high’ or ‘very high’ levels of social hostilities involving religion remained stable in 2016, levels were highest in India, where Hindu nationalists have shown increasing aggression towards Christians, Muslims and other minorities under Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
