Restrictions on religious practice on the rise

Approximately 70% of the world’s population lives in countries with high restrictions on religious beliefs and practices, and those restrictions are growing. The problem was scheduled to be discussed at a meeting at Rome’s Pontifical University “Antonianum” on Tuesday evening.

The meeting discusses The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life report on Rising Restrictions on Religion, which came out last year. The Report not only covered official government restrictions on religion, but also social hostilities to religion.

“We find that more people die at the hands of fellow citizens because of religious issues than at the hands of governments around the world,” said Brian Grim, Senior Researcher and Director of Cross-National Data at the Pew Forum.

“Social hostilities range from harassment of religious believers by other members in society, or groups in society,” he told Vatican Radio “It might fall short of a hate-crime, but we also monitor hate crimes that involve physical abuse and even killing.”

He said the Pew Forum report presents facts and statistics which can be used without resorting to theological or political arguments, and is the most comprehensive document on the issue of restrictions on religious practice.

“We also look beyond individual-level violence to broader categories of religion-related violence,” he explained. “Such as mob violence, sectarian violence when you have people of different religious groups squaring off against each other, and then religious-related terrorism and even up to war that has some religious element involved.”

Listen to the full interview by Charles Collins with Brian Grim: