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The Spectacle Blog
Religious liberty is on the decline worldview, and Christians and Muslims are the target of much of the religious persecution that exists, according to a new study from the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life.
Because several of the nations with the highest religious restrictions also are among the most populous (such as China and India), about one-third of the world’s population experienced an increase in curtailed religious freedom between 2006 and 2009. In the United States, the level of religious freedom remained largely unchanged during that period.
On specific religions, Pew found:
Over the three-year period studied, incidents of either government or social harassment were reported against Christians in 130 countries (66%) and against Muslims in 117 countries (59%). Buddhists and Hindus – who together account for roughly one-fifth of the world’s population and who are more geographically concentrated than Christians or Muslims – faced harassment in fewer places; harassment was reported against Buddhists in 16 countries (8%) and against Hindus in 27 countries (14%).
In proportion to their numbers, some smaller religious groups faced especially widespread harassment. Although Jews comprise less than 1% of the world’s population, government or social harassment of Jews was reported in 75 countries (38%).
One issue the report doesn’t parse out is that most religious harassment and persecution of Muslims originates with other Muslims (such as Shia versus Sunni or vice versa).
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More Blog Posts by David N. Bass
http://spectator.org/blog/2011/08/17/government-restrictions-on-rel
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Derek Leaberry| 8.17.11 @ 11:26AM
In America, roughly half the citizenry are anti-religious. Many of these call themselves Republican or conservative and at least two write for American Spectator.
Occam's Tool| 8.17.11 @ 2:29PM
The attacks on Muslims are largely from other Muslims. The attacks on Christians are largely from Muslims.
8/16/11 bodycount:
2011.08.16 (Uruzgan, Afghanistan) - Eight innocents are dismantled by a Taliban motorcycle bomb at a market.
2011.08.16 (Kandahar, Afghanistan) - Fundamentalist gunmen muder an 18-year-old teenager as she is getting into her car.
Note the sounds of crickets from the MSM and the Paulbots.
ldtowers| 8.17.11 @ 8:01PM
Being anti-religious is a totally separate concept from religious persecution. In fact places that are the most religious are equally he places most likely to persecute religion.
Alvie| 8.24.11 @ 11:57AM
The great and immediate service of true religion is the establishment of an enduring unity in human experience, this united desire is playing out around the world by people demanding their God given rights. This revolt to some seems like a revolt against religion but it is a revolt against another authoritarian idea. The attainment of levels of morality does not deliver man from the real struggles of living. Man’s physical environment entails the battle for existence; the social surroundings necessitate ethical adjustments; the moral situations require the making of choices in the highest realms of reason; the spiritual experience (having realized God) demands that man find him and sincerely strive to be like him.