Pew: Government Restrictions on Religion Reached New Peak in 2021

​Pew Research Center’s 14th annual study analyzing global restrictions on religion drew some disturbing conclusions, finding that state-sponsored harassment of religious groups reached an all-time high in 2021.
 
According to the study, governments across 183 countries (out of a total of 198) engaged in some degree of hostile acts or restrictive policies toward religious groups. The report splits its analysis into two categories – government restrictions on religion, and social hostilities toward religious minorities. While social hostility ticked down somewhat, the Government Restrictions Index (GRI) rose to 3.0 on a 10-point scale. While low on the overall scale, it reflects a jump up from 2.8 in 2020 – with heightened persecution in given regions raising the average global score.
 
As Pew documents, government harassment was reported in each of the 20 countries in the Middle East-North Africa region, as well as in “43 of 45 countries in Europe (96 percent), 33 of 35 countries in the Americas (94 percent), 44 of 48 countries in sub-Saharan Africa (92 percent), and 43 of 50 countries in the Asia-Pacific region (86 percent).” The United States was rated as respecting religious practices overall but had instances in which religious freedom was not respected in practice.
 
In the Netherlands, Party for Freedom leader Geert Wilders (a perennial favorite for such reports) called for countrywide “de-Islamization.” There have been proposals for “a series of measures including closing all mosques and Islamic schools, banning the Quran, and barring all asylum seekers and immigrants from Muslim-majority countries.”
 
In Nicaragua, the president called Catholic clergy members “terrorists in cassocks” for supporting the country’s pro-democracy movement. In the Maldives, non-Muslims are outright prohibited from building places of worship or practicing their faith publicly.
 
Two of the biggest offenders are Pakistan and Turkmenistan, the latter of which openly sanctions government harassment of some religious people. In one instance, Turkmenistan police detained groups of Muslim men and forced them to shave their beards and drink alcohol to prove that they weren’t “extremists.”
 
Despite the fact that religious intolerance seems to be getting worse, it’s not all bad news – at least, not entirely so. Per the report, Sudan saw a large decrease in its GRI score, due largely to government reforms that decriminalized apostasy and “indecent dress.”
 
Still, Pew’s report is a wakeup call – and a reminder that respecting religious freedom is an ideal to which not all aspire. Protecting the ability of people to worship freely requires ongoing vigilance and, most of all, compassion.
 
In the United States, 94 percent of Americans believe religious freedom is a fundamental human right. Even here, the study found that the United States had “moderate” restrictions on religious freedom. We need to guard our American exceptionalism, which already is sometimes the result of a bright spot looking even brighter in contrast to surrounding darkness.