Report: Almost Every Country In The World Imposed Restrictions On Religion In 2021

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by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News)—A new report by the Pew Research Center shows that in 2021, the governments of almost all the world’s countries imposed restrictions on religion, including Christianity. The findings were published in Pew’s 14th annual report on countries that restrict the religious expression of some groups while granting benefits to others.

According to the report published on March 5, “government restrictions on religion – laws, policies and actions by state officials that limit religious beliefs and practices – reached a new peak globally” in 2021. The report cited violations by governments across the world from Europe to Africa and the Middle East.

“Religious groups faced harassment by governments in 183 countries in 2021, the largest number since the study began. Governments interfered in worship in 163 countries, down slightly from 164 in 2020 but still close to the all-time high,” Pew said in the report. “Fifty-five countries (28% of the total) had “high” or “very high” levels of government restrictions in 2021, down slightly from 57 countries (29%), a level reached in 2020, 2019, and 2012,” Pew said.

Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, practitioners of folk religions, and adherents of other small groups were harassed by more governments in 2021 than they had been in 2020, the report said. Muslims and Jews faced harassment from fewer governments in 2021 than they had in 2021, but still faced high levels of persecution.

The report found that various governments at various times had inflicted not only property damage, including raids and evictions but also killings, physical violence, detention, and displacement of religious groups.

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