Friday Thoughts

Prayer Breakfasts. Our president, the nation's self-proclaimed leading aficionado of religious freedom, decided to address the issue at Thursday's National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, DC. And let me tell you, it was an uplifting, hopeful address and was doubtless equally well received by the politicians, bureaucrats, lobbyists, justices, and other holy folk who came together to ask God to advance their respective ideologies.

President and Mrs. Obama at the National Prayer Breakfast

Okay, let me give the president his due. I was very pleased to hear him mention Pastor Saeed Abedini, an American who has been imprisoned in Iran simply because he is a Christian. I may be wrong, but I believe this is the first time the president has mentioned Pastor Abedini publicly. He also referred to another American, Christian missionary Kenneth Bae, who has been imprisoned by the even more barbaric regime in North Korea. The president stated that “The United States will continue to do everything in our power to secure his release because Kenneth Bae deserves to be free.” Later, speaking of Pastor Abedini, he said, "Today, we call on the Iranian government to release Pastor Abedini.” It was good to hear these comments and promises, regardless of their efficacy. [Note: As I write this I just heard a news report that North Korea has transferred Kenneth Bae from a hospital to a labor camp, where he will serve out his 15-year sentence. Sad news indeed. We await the president's response.]

Pastor Abedini and his family

The president also referred to the blasphemy laws used by Muslim nations to persecute non-Muslims, especially Christians. As one might expect, Mr. Obama's reference was somewhat circumspect and avoided mentioning Islam: "Going forward, we will keep standing for religious freedom around the world.  And that includes, by the way, opposing blasphemy and defamation of religion measures, which are promoted sometimes as an expression of religion, but, in fact, all too often can be used to suppress religious minorities." 

The president drifted off into political correctness a few times, as when he said, "We sometimes see religion twisted in an attempt to justify hatred and persecution against other people just because of who they are, or how they pray or who they love" [my italics]. With this comment, of course, the president accuses those who believe homosexual acts to be sinful of twisting religion and justifying hatred. I guess that makes me and the Catholic Church and most orthodox Christians twisted haters. I've been called worse things.

Kenneth Bae

Political correctness was also obvious in what the president didn't address. His administration's attack on the Catholic Church and others who object to being forced to use health insurance that funds contraception, abortion, and sex-change procedures was conspicuously omitted, as was the fact that our nation has slaughtered 55 million unborn human beings since 1973. 

My problem with prayer breakfasts is that they center less on on prayer and more on poorly veiled political speeches. The president's comments [you can read his entire address here] are not addressed to God but rather to the gathered Washington insiders, and their purpose is less worshipful than political. But I suppose we should be happy they actually get together once a year to talk about God...a far better subject than what they usually talk about.

Persecution of Christians. The Pew Research Center has released its latest findings on global religious persecution, and not surprisingly Christians are the most persecuted of all believers. The persecution of Christians has been reported in a mind-boggling 110 countries. Jews, who make up a tiny percentage of the world's population, experienced persecution in 95 countries. Interestingly, the harassment and persecution of believers increased in every region of the world, except the Americas. Furthermore, the number of nations experiencing religious terrorism and sectarian violence also increased significantly, doubling over the past five years. These trends are less than encouraging.

The Internet as Teacher. There's a lot of trash on the web, actually more than a lot, but there's also some very interesting stuff. You can read virtually all of the world's great literature. You can access the minds of experts in every field. You can work your way through courses offered by some of the world's great universities. You can even read this blog. And you can do much of this absolutely free! It's truly remarkable. Another fascinating online resource is Youtube. Yes, I admit that there are a lot of strange and ridiculous videos on Youtube, but there are also some very useful things. YouTube is eminently practical. For example, if you want to learn how best to re-grout the ceramic tile in your shower, there's a video showing you how. If you want to clean your Mossberg shotgun...yep, there's a video. Even more remarkable, however, Youtube can teach you how to open a bottle of wine using only your shoe! This is something I've been aching to learn for decades, and now, here it is, wonderfully encapsulated into a 49-second video, thanks to Mirabeau Vineyards.



One can also learn how to open a bottle of beer without a bottle opener, but for some reason it requires over six minutes of instructional video. Perhaps beer drinkers are slower learners.

Persecution Update

The most persecuted religious group in the world is...drum roll...Christians! That's right, Christians are persecuted in a grand total of 131 countries. And here's the real surprise: the most barbarous and severe persecution of Christians is state sponsored or state permitted and occurs in Muslim-majority nations and communist nations. And did you know that upwards of 100,000 Christians are murdered every year simply because of their faith? Can you believe it? I know, I know, such statistics are grossly politically incorrect, but they're also true. If you want to read the specifics, check out the results of the study conducted last year by the Pew Forum.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Now this would seem to be a newsworthy story, don't you think? That's what I find most interesting. 200 million Christians live in those 131 countries in which they are persecuted, but you rarely read about it in the mainstream media. Okay, Newsweek recently ran a cover story on global Christian persecution, but that was an anomaly. In fact, I really can't figure out why Newsweek, a magazine run by a hand-wringing, left-leaning editorial staff, actually published that story...but it did, and God bless them for it. The story, "The War of Christians", was actually written by Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a remarkable woman who is not only a former member of the Dutch parliament and a best-selling author (Infidel), but also a human rights advocate, a survivor of Islamist death threats, and an escapee from a forced marriage in Somalia. Her article, which describes the widespread persecution of Christians particularly in Muslim countries, should be read by all Americans. Let me share just a few of her comments:

"But a fair-minded assessment of recent events and trends leads to the conclusion that the scale and severity of Islamophobia pales in comparison with the bloody Christophobia currently coursing through Muslim-majority nations from one end of the globe to the other."

Speaking of the willingness of many governments to ignore the persecution taking place she wrote,

"This is especially so in countries with growing radical Islamist (Salafist) movements. In those nations, vigilantes often feel they can act with impunity — and government inaction often proves them right. The old idea of the Ottoman Turks — that non-Muslims in Muslim societies deserve protection (albeit as second-class citizens) — has all but vanished from wide swaths of the Islamic world, and increasingly the result is bloodshed and oppression."

Aside from this one story, however, about the only place you'll read of the persecution of Christians is in the religious media and the blogosphere. Indeed, the silence of the secular media is exceeded only by that of the Obama administration. Unbelievably, the State Department's recent International Religious Freedom report does not even mention two of the worst offenders — Egypt and Pakistan — who regularly violate the rights of their Christian citizens in the worst way. Of course this report comes from the same administration that considered returning veterans, pro-lifers, states rights supporters, etc. as potential terrorists more dangerous than the Islamists who attacked us on September 11, 2001.

Of course, many members of the Western media, perhaps a majority, are atheists or, at best, agnostics. Not only don't they believe but they don't understand those who do. The idea of a "culture war" being waged between religious and secular cultures, between a culture of life and a culture of death, is a concept incomprehensible to them. This ignorance of things religious also leads them to discount the importance of religious teaching and values as a root cause of terrorism by Islamist extremists. Despite the evidence to the contrary they continue to believe terrorism is caused by economic disparity and a desire to right perceived historical wrongs. They just can't see religion as much of a motivator. To them religion is an aberration that will ultimately fade away under the bright light of progressive thought.

Burning a Christian Church in Egypt

Although much ignored by the media and Western governments, the global persecution of Christian is still a major story. It's also a growing story, one that will be increasingly difficult to ignore as such persecution expands in both frequency and severity. Some media outlets will no doubt mention it, but always "balanced" with stories about alleged Islamophobia by nasty, right-wing Christians -- you know, all those church ladies in Pittsburgh who regularly gun down and behead Muslim gas station attendants. Okay, maybe I exaggerate a wee bit, but you get the picture.

We have come to expect religious persecution from communist and other totalitarian states. These governments, run by ideologues or egomaniacal dictators, rightly consider organized religion, and in particular the Catholic Church, as the greatest obstacle to their complete domination of the human spirit. Communists believe Christians are the enemy and have been persecuting us for nearly 100 years. And yet despite the millions of Christian martyrs they have created, the Church still stands strong in their midst. In some places it might be forced into an underground, clandestine existence as it is in China and even more so in North Korea, but it will never be eradicated, for the Spirit will not be denied. But does our government openly chastise or sanction such nations as China or Vietnam for their state-sponsored persecution? Not if it will jeopardize commercial or banking relationships. 

Amazingly -- and  few Western Christians seem to be aware of this -- there are upwards of 100 million Christians in communist China. Most of these Christians — a majority are Roman Catholic — worship in secret house churches and their numbers are growing. This, of course, is a huge embarrassment to a regime that has propagandized and persecuted believers for over 60 years.

But one doesn't have to be a communist to hate and persecute the Church. Even current and budding dictators, like Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe or Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, find themselves driven to attack the Church because it will not remain silent in the face of corruption and murder and their accompanying lies. And guess who these dictators hang out with. Why who else but the Chinese and the Iranians, among others? Despite their vastly different ideologies, they willingly join forces against the common enemy. 

I suppose I'm safe in saying we cannot rely on our government, regardless of the political party in power, to make religious persecution a key element of our nation's foreign policy. It will always take a back seat to the realpolitik of worldly concerns. Just consider the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and its horrendous record of religious persecution, and then picture George Bush walking hand in hand with King Abdullah. Or reflect on Barack Obama bowing deeply to the same king in humble obeisance. It makes you understand why we've heard barely a world of criticism from either man.

Okay, before I get too political, let me offer some details on the persecution of Christians throughout the world. And I only scratch the surface...

Saudi Arabia. Let's begin with Saudi Arabia where the latest incident involved the arrest and strip-search of 29 Christian women and an assault on six Christian men for holding a prayer meeting in a private home. This, of course, is nothing new in a nation where women are treated as chattel. Just imagine their attitude toward Christian women. Read more here.

Sudan and South Sudan. Over the past ten years the Islamic government of Sudan has killed between 300,000 and a million Christians and animists in South Sudan and Darfur. Nobody knows the exact number, but the total is staggering. What more can one say as this Islamic government piles atrocity upon atrocity? Any effort to protect the victims was apparently not in our national interest and so we and our allies did nothing. Even after the creation of the nation of South Sudan, the northern government infiltrates armed groups into the south to engage in a proxy war against the new government.

The persecution of Christians continues in Sudan itself. As the Orwellian titled Ministry of Guidance and Religious Endowment recently stated, “We will take legal procedures against pastors who are involved in preaching or evangelistic activities...We have all legal rights to take them to court.” In case you had any doubts, this warning was aimed specifically at Christians who must also obey the sharia law of the land. Read more here.

Today I took a peek at the Sudanese government's website, and noticed that the nation's 1st Vice President, one Ali Osman Mohamed Taha, directed the nation, in honor of the Prophet Muhammad's birthday, to take on "an attitude of making the celebrations of the Prophet this year full of love, mercifulness, cooperation and solidarity..." I'm sure the people of South Sudan appreciate this sentiment.

Egypt. Mob attacks on Copts continue in Egypt in the aftermath of the nationwide voting in which the radical Islamists won a clear majority. When one considers that Christians make up about 10% of Egypt's population, it's apparent that the extremists have the support of the vast majority of Muslims. The latest incident involved an attack by more than 3,000 Muslims who looted Coptic homes and businesses and then set them on fire. The army, located a little over a mile away, took well over an hour to respond. No one was arrested. Such attacks are becoming increasingly common and causing many Christians to leave the country. Read more here.

Another form of persecution in Egypt and elsewhere in the Islamic world involves the kidnapping of young Christian girls and their subsequent forcible conversion and marriage to Muslims. The Egyptian courts recently decided in favor of the kidnappers of a 16-year-old Coptic girl and ordered her held in a state-run home until she is 18 when she can legally convert to Islam. Her family is understandably distraught, and the Christian community is worried that such decisions will lead only to more kidnappings. Read more here.

Palestinians. Wherever the Palestinians run things, whether in the West Bank (bad) or in Gaza (horrendous), Christians are treated horribly. I find this especially interesting since this persecution comes from a people that loves to depict itself, erroneously, as the object of decades of persecution by the Jews. In reality, the Palestinians have become the "useful idiots" of those neighboring Islamic nations intent on the destruction of Israel. These same nations could have solved the Palestinian "problem" years ago but it benefits their agenda to keep these people in refugee camps and the squalor of Gaza. As a result, the Christian population is quickly disappearing. In 1948 Christians made up 10% of the Palestinian territories; today they make up 1%. Read more here.

Interestingly, the only growing Christian population in the entire Middle East is in the one country in which Islam does not prevail, Israel. This tells us a lot about the fate of Christianity in that part of the world. The only Middle Eastern country where religious freedom, tolerance and democratic values exist is the Jewish state.

St. Theresa Catholic Church destroyed in Nigeria

Nigeria. Here we have a Muslim-majority nation with a large (40%) Christian population. For years the two religions have coexisted side by side. But peace with Christians is unacceptable to the Islamist extremists who demand the imposition of sharia law and are willing to kill anyone, Christian or Muslim, who resists them. The primary terrorist group, Boko Haram, is apparently receiving aid from al-Qaida and has been responsible for the murder of hundreds of Christians and the destruction of dozens of churches in just the past few months. Read more here.

Yousef Nadarkhani

Apostasy. In most Islamic nations converts to Christianity are considered apostates. Sharia law is explicit about the punishment for apostasy: death. Iranian Christian Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani remains in prison because he refuses to acknowledged publicly that prophet Muhammad is a messenger sent by God. To do so would be a rejection of his Christian beliefs and so he continues to resist bravely even though facing potential execution. And although several of the most prominent cases are in Iran, the imprisonment and execution of Christian converts from Islam occurs throughout the Muslim world. Converts living  in Kenya have even been tracked from their countries of origin — e.g., Ethiopia and Uganda — by those intent on killing them. In Kuwait a royal prince who converted to Christianity has stated that as an apostate he will likely be targeted. And recently two converts to Christianity who believed they would be safe after moving to Norway were recently stabbed on the street by masked men shouting "Infidels!" Read more here.

Indonesia. In this nation, often praised as the most open and tolerant of Muslim nations, attacks on Christians and their churches have more than doubled in the past year. Christians are not only being attacked in their churches by mobs of Muslim extremists, but these same mobs are seeking out and disrupting prayer meetings held in the homes of Christians. Read more here.

Just last month at the Vatican, Father Federico Lombardi, the director of the Holy See's press office stated:

“Among the most serious concerns, the increase in Islamic extremism merits special attention. Persons and organizations dedicated to extremist Islamic ideology perpetrate terrible acts of violence in many places throughout the world: the Boko Haram sect in Nigeria is but one example. Then there is the climate of insecurity that unfortunately in some countries accompanies the so-called “Arab spring”--a climate that drives many Christians to flee and even to emigrate...Such sufferings are a part of the Christian journey. Nor ought we be amazed. Jesus said so in the Sermon on the Mount: ‘Blessed are they that are persecuted for righteousness’ sake,’ is the last of the Beatitudes; its promise is reward in heaven.” 

Father Lombardi is right: we will be persecuted. As Christians we should know that we can't count on our governments to help us. Our only source of help is the Lord, and our best weapon is prayer. 

Watch out, Israel!

Just a few decades ago, most Jews, probably even a significant majority, proudly claimed the left as their political home. But then something happened. Many Jews, particularly those among the intellectual left, began to realize that the extreme left was changing. Following the lead of the Soviet Union, leftists in the West turned away from Israel and toward the authoritarian Arab states that had emerged during the Cold War. For many of these new Arab leaders, who had willingly supported Hitler's Third Reich during World War II, allying themselves with the Soviet Union was no great leap. After all, one murderous totalitarian is as good as another, and it mattered little who supplied the money and arms they needed to stay in power and destroy Israel. And so jumping on the anti-Israel, anti-Semitic bandwagon also proved to be an easy transition for many on the left in both Europe and the US. This change in the political landscape caused many Jews to ask, "Just who are our friends, anyway?"

One current example of someone who is no friend of Israel is George Soros (left), perhaps the biggest bank-roller of leftist causes in America; also an early supporter of our current president. In an op-ed piece in today's Washington Post, Soros places the blame for the uprisings in Egypt on...who else? Israel. Oh, yes, and on Israel's supporters among the religious right. He also praises the Muslim Brotherhood's "cooperation" with Egyptian presidential hopeful Mohamed ElBaradei, a man who has no love for the West. Lest we forget, the Muslim Brotherhood, formed in Egypt back in the 1920s, is the ideological godfather of such noted charitable organizations as Hamas, Hezbollah and, of course, our favorite, al-Qaeda. Soros says he "cannot help but share in the enthusiasm that is sweeping across the Middle East" and has pledged that his foundations will "contribute what they can." And so, when the Muslim Brotherhood reaches out, seemingly from nowhere, and takes the reins of power in Egypt, I'd suggest we follow the money all the way back to George Soros' pocket. I might also note that Soros has been a big supporter of  pro-abortion groups that claim to be Catholic, groups such as, Catholics for Choice, Catholics United, and Catholics in Alliance. These groups' aims include trying to make our president seem pro-life even though he has consistently supported unlimited abortions throughout pregnancy for any reason.

Protests in Cairo turn violent

Just so you know where the Muslim Brotherhood stands, Muhammad Ghannem, one of its leading members in Egypt, stated this week that the Suez Canal should be closed immediately, the gas line to Israel should be shut down, and the Egyptian "people should be prepared for war against Israel." And, of course, they would impose Sharia law throughout the land. (See the news report here.) That's quite a platform on which to run in any upcoming elections. And given the sympathies of most Egyptians, I suspect the Brotherhood just might come out on top. In a recent public opinion poll, published in December by the respected Pew Research Center, Egyptians responded as follows:

• They preferred Islamists to modernizers 59% to 27%
• 82% believe adulterers should be stoned to death
• 77% believe thieves should have a hand amputated
• 84% believe Muslim apostates should be executed
• 95% believe it's good that Islam plays a large roll in politics
• 54% believe in gender segregation in the workplace
• 59% believe democracy is preferable to other political systems
• 54% believe that suicide bombings can be justified, even if only rarely

On the surface at least the Egyptian people seem to be more in tune with the Muslim Brotherhood than with those who hope for the flowering of an Egyptian version of Western-style democracy. And that 59% who favor democracy? It probably included the Muslim Brotherhood and their followers since elections would probably be the easiest way for them to take control. Should they come to power in Egypt, the Middle East will have become an even more dangerous place. This, of course, is a worse-case scenario for Israel, but one I am sure they are preparing for. I wonder how prepared we are.

Muslim support for the punishments of Sharia Law

These poll numbers, especially when viewed in their entirety and compared with the results in other Muslim nations, show us something else that is very disturbing. It would seem that Islam, and not democracy, is the most prominent influence among the populations of these nations, and its influence is growing. Most disturbing, however, is the kind of Islam, a fundamentalist, warlike, authoritarian Islam, not the Islam of peace that we hear proclaimed so often in the media. It is actually the Islam one encounters far too often in the Qur'an. I have read two different translations of the Qur'an during the past three or four years and found much incitement to war and killing and little encouragement of peace. And the Jews? They were despised from the beginning, as were the Christians. If you want an intelligent guide to the Qur'an, read Robert Spencer's detailed commentary: Qur'an Commentary. You might also want to read Brigitte Gabriel's comments on the teachings of the Qur'an.


Yes, it's always the Jews. How will the Christian world, or what's left of it, respond to this escalating threat to our "elder bothers" in faith?

Muslims and al Qaeda

Although Mark Twain borrowed the phrase, I believe it was Benjamin Disraeli who first said, "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damn lies, and statistics." I found this to be generally true when in graduate school I took a course in probability and statistics. Toward the end of the quarter our professor gave us an interesting assignment. Providing us with a large amount of data about some subject that I can no longer recall, he instructed us to manipulate and present the data in two ways that would support completely contrary conclusions. What amazed me at the time was how easy the task actually was. Success was obviously not determined by the data itself, but by how one presented the data -- what was included, what was omitted, and what words one used when presenting the conclusions. It was my introduction to what we now call "spin."

I begin with this anecdote because one can certainly come to different conclusions based on some recent polling conducted by the Pew Research Center. The survey in question was conducted this past spring by Pew's Global Attitudes Project and sought to determine, among other things, Muslim attitudes towards Hamas, Hezbollah, and al Qaeda -- all considered terrorist organizations by the U.S. and most western nations. Muslims in seven nations -- Jordan, Lebanon, Nigeria, Indonesia, Egypt, Pakistan and Turkey -- were surveyed. While the survey addressed a range of issues, the results that most interested me were the Muslim public's attitudes towards these three terrorist groups. I've included a Pew graphic below.

Pew reports in its conclusions that,

"While views of Hamas and Hezbollah are mixed, al Qaeda -- as well as its leader, Osama bin Laden -- receives overwhelmingly negative ratings in nearly all countries where the question was asked. More than nine-in-ten (94%) Muslims in Lebanon express negative opinions of al Qaeda, as do majorities of Muslims in Turkey (74%), Egypt (72%), Jordan (62%) and Indonesia (56%). Only in Nigeria do Muslims express positive views of al Qaeda; 49% have a favorable view and just 34% have an unfavorable view of bin Laden's organization."

This may sound like good news until one does the math by applying the percentages of those who view al Qaeda favorably to the overall Muslim population figures for these countries. As it turns out, in just these seven nations something like 130 million Muslims view al Qaeda favorably. (For more on this, see the commentary by Brian Fairchild at Pajamas Media.) Yes, those who look kindly on al Qaeda may be in the minority, but they still represent a lot of people. And if history tells us anything it's that a small number of dedicated and ruthless people can lead successful revolutions despite the opposition or apathy of a large majority.

I thought these survey results were particularly interesting given al Qaeda's recent statement that one of its goals in Iraq is the destruction of all things Christian, including presumably Christians themselves. It's disturbing to think that so many Muslims would agree with such sentiments.

To view the survey results as presented by Pew, click here: Muslim Public Divided.

Pray for peace and conversion.

Refutation of the Pew Forum Poll on Religion

A few days ago -- specifically, on September 30 -- I included a post discussing a poll taken by the Pew Forum in which they questioned people to determine their knowledge of things religious. At the time I had read only a brief Washington Post article on the poll and really hadn't examined the results very closely. Since then I've discovered that the results are really not all that horrible, certainly not as bad as I had previously thought.

And so I had planned to post a brief refutation of some of the conclusions, but then this morning a friend sent me a link to an article on the American Thinker's website that pretty much says it all...thus saving me a lot of effort. (The article's author, Tom Trinko, also writes a lot better than I.)  I'm still not very pleased with some of the poll's more obvious conclusions, but Mr. Trinko makes a number of valid points that take a bit of the sting out of the results.

You can read his article here: Flawed Pew Poll.

How 'bout them ignorant irreligious Americans...

Yesterday evening I stumbled across an article on the Washington Post's website about a new survey taken by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. I haven't yet had time to examine the survey itself in any depth, so I can't speak to the accuracy of the Post's coverage, but based on the article it's apparent that a lot of Americans don't have a clue when it comes to things religious. The Pew Forum surveyed 3,412 people which is really a pretty large sample, so the results are fairly accurate, certainly within a few percentage points.

What were the results? Well, here are a few of the nuggets the Post writer mined from the survey:

• Half of the Protestants surveyed didn't know that Martin Luther inspired the Reformation
• Nearly half (45%) of the Catholics surveyed were unaware the Church taught that the Eucharist was really the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ and not merely symbolic
• 40% of Jews apparently didn't realize that Maimonides, the great medieval rabbi and teacher, was Jewish

More telling, at least for us Catholics, are the scores achieved by various religious groups. The survey consisted  of 32 questions and overall the respondents got about half of them correct. But who did best...or worst? Here are the results:

• Atheists and agnostics: 21
• Jews and Mormons (strange bedfellows indeed) : 20
• Protestants: 16
• Catholics: 15

Based on a quick -- very quick -- look at the survey results published on the Pew website (click here to view the results), there are plenty of surprises, most of them unpleasant. And the fault lies with the clergy; that is, with the bishops, the priests, and, yes, with us deacons. I'm not too terribly concerned that most Catholics don't realize that the Dalai Lama is a Buddhist, but when such a large percentage are completely ignorant of the very nature of the Eucharist -- "the source and summit of the Christian life" -- I think we have a serious problem. It would seem we've got a lot of work to do.

Pray for your clergy.

Religious Restrictions and Persecution: World Report Card

The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life has conducted a study of religious persecution throughout the world, examining the attitudes and policies toward religion of virtually every nation. The results of the study are presented in the form of a score assigned to each country, as well as geographical or cultural areas. Nations were ranked based on their restrictions on religion, ranging from very high to high to moderate to low. The results are fascinating, even if there aren't too many surprises. Three different PDF documents are available for download:

1. Full report (72-pages - 8 MB)
2. Summary of Results (17 pages)
3. Results by Country (48 pages)

The report's results are based on the answers to 20 questions that address both government and societal restrictions on religion. Separating the attitudes of a nation's government and its society is actually very helpful. For example, in China government restrictions are very high, but societal restrictions are quite low. Nigeria is exactly the opposite, with benign government policies but societal hostility.

The report does not attempt to judge the appropriateness of particular restrictions imposed by governments. For example, the US policy that removes the tax-exempt status of religious organizations if they endorse political candidates is considered a restriction on religious liberty. In the same way a nation with a policy of supporting religious schools of one faith, but not of others, is also a restriction.

According to the report, a significant majority of governments (86%) subsidize religious groups, and almost 75% discriminate while doing so. Many countries prohibit or severely restrict missionaries or any form of proselytizing, and nearly 70% of governments engage in some form of harassment of disfavored religious groups. Almost half of all governments actually use physical coercion.

A total of 64 nations were ranked high or very high. This represents about 1/3 of the nations surveyed but nearly 70% of the world's population. (It seems that the most populous countries are also those with the worst policies toward religion.) When those nations with moderately restrictive policies are included, we find that 86% of the world's population face moderate to severe restrictions on practicing their religion. (See the below chart)

As you might imagine, the Middle East and North Africa regions have "the highest government and social restrictions on religion." It would seem that Islamic nations, particularly those that have instituted Sharia Law, are not very tolerant of those who belong to other faiths. No surprise there.

At the other end of the spectrum, with the fewest restrictions, are the Americas. Of course, there are some exceptions in the region, Cuba being the most obvious. (Just for comparison it's interesting to note that the score for the Americas is one-fifth that of the Middle East and North Africa.) The United States, Brazil, the UK, Italy, Japan, and South Africa are the least restrictive (most free).

There's a lot more fascinating information in the report, which I recommend reading for yourself.


Blessings...