Religious persecution increasing, Pew Research Center report finds

[Patiently waiting for Truth]

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/nov/11/religious-persecution-increasing-pew-research-cent/      The Washington Times - Wednesday, November 11, 2020

Governments have been cracking down on religious expression more than any other time in recent memory, says a new report on global religious persecution.

The Pew Research Center’s tracking of government restrictions on religion noted a 50% increase in 2018 since the survey’s inauguration in 2007, according to the report published Tuesday.

From outright bans on public worship by Christians and Jews in Qatar to an Australian judge’s refusal to allow a Muslim defendant’s wife to wear a veil in court, the survey documents a year of growing aggression among the world’s governments in disrupting citizens’ religious practices.

The survey singles out countries in the Asia-Pacific and North Africa/Middle East, where several nations receive “high” or “very high” persecution ratings.

Officials in the Philippines forced three United Methodist Church missionaries to leave the country. Authorities in Thailand arrested six Buddhist monks. And Israeli police injured an Ethiopian Christian while removing him from a church.

Meanwhile, the Egyptian government continues to restrict access for Shiite Muslims to a tomb of the Prophet Muhammad’s son, revered by the Sunni majority. The report also cites Myanmar’s displacement of 14,500 Rohingya Muslims and Tajikistan’s increasing control over religious education travel and its continued refusal to recognize Jehovah’s Witnesses.

The report also flags persecution of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia, which has confiscated up to $90 million in property from the group.

Separate report -

https://www.christianpost.com/news/govt-restrictions-on-religion-worldwide-set-record-high.html

 

The most recent data available is from 2018 through a study that rates 198 countries and territories by the levels of government restrictions on religion and also the levels of social hostilities toward religion in those countries. All the studies over the last decade-plus have been based on the same 10-point index. 

“In 2018, the global median level of government restrictions on religion — that is, laws, policies and actions by officials that impinge on religious beliefs and practices — continued to climb, reaching an all-time high since Pew Research Center began tracking these trends in 2007,” the authors of the new report wrote. 

The study’s government restrictions index (GRI) measures laws, policies and actions that restrict religious beliefs and practices. The GRI features 20 measures of restrictions that include anything from efforts by governments to ban particular faiths to prohibiting conversion and providing preferential treatment to one or more religious groups. 

Pew researchers combed through more than 12 publicly available and widely cited sources of information, such as the U.S. State Department’s annual reports on international religious freedom as well as annual reports from the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. Also, researchers referred to reports from several European and United Nations bodies. They also combed through reports from “several independent, nongovernmental organizations.”

 

The authors contend that the increase in government restrictions globally reflects a variety of events and trends, including a rise from 2017 to 2018 in the number of governments using force to coerce religious groups. Uses of force include things like detentions and physical abuse. 

Pew found that 28% of countries (56) have “high or very high” government restrictions on religion. 

I think @Arauna has been talking about this for a long time.

Whilst not being good for many people, it would seem to be a move forward for God's purpose. Could one call it encouragement ? 

 

[Space Merchant]

What you have read into is simply the surface... Unknown to you is that there are graver acts of persecution going on that some people are unaware of, in some cases, in bloody fashion, especially during this pandemic. This results in men, women and children, who are unfortunate in these situations, suffer badly mentally and or physically.

That said, keep a wild beast in captivity long enough to the point it goes mad, it will do far more damage to anyone or anything in it's surroundings.