Islamic countries have the worst religious freedom records, reports Pew Research Center

A disturbing dimension to the Pew study report, at least for those very concerned about issues of religious freedom, was the report on countries with apostasy and blasphemy laws, because while those who promote these laws claim that the laws are meant to protect religion, in practice the laws are used to victimize ethnic-religious minorities with what are considered unorthodox or heretical beliefs.

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | US Desk
Source/Credit: God Discussion | Analysis
By John Thomas Didymus | August 12, 2011

A recently released Pew Research Center study has found that out of 10 countries with the worst grades for government violations of religious freedom, 7 of them are Islamic states. The same Pew Research Center study has also shown that 8 of the 10 worst cases of public hostility to minority religious groups are Islamic states.

According to the Pew Research Center Publications report, countries with a Muslim majority return the worst grades in a range of measures indicative of government restrictions on religion. The study released on Tuesday also said that about one-third of the world's population live in countries were government restriction and social hostility to minority religious groups increased significantly between mid-2006 and mid-2009.


Out of the the 10 countries with the worst scores in religious freedom were countries which are members of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation: Egypt, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan, Maldives, Malaysia. Other countries listed for government violations of religious freedom included China, Burma and Eritrea.

Countries which made the top list for social hostility to religious groups were also mostly Islamic states and countries with an Islamic majority, and  included Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Somalia, Indonesia, Nigeria, Bangladesh and Egypt. Non-Islamic states who made the list in this category included India and Israel, which have Hindu and Jewish majorities respectively.

The list of countries with worst record on state interference in religious practice was also dominated by Islamic states and states with Islamic majority and included states whose governments prohibit worship or religious practices of one or more religious groups as a general policy: Brunei, Chad, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Malaysia, Maldives, Mauritania, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Syria, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

The list for 29 states top on the list of countries where conversion from one religion to the other is restricted as a matter of state policy was also dominated by 25 Islamic states: Afghanistan, Algeria, Bangladesh, Comoros, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Jordan, Kuwait, Libya, Malaysia, Maldives, Mauritania, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tajikistan, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan and Yemen.

A disturbing dimension to the Pew study report, at least for those very concerned about issues of religious freedom, was the report on countries with apostasy and blasphemy laws, because while those who promote these laws claim that the laws are meant to protect religion, in practice the laws are used to victimize ethnic-religious minorities with what are considered unorthodox or heretical beliefs. 21 Muslim sates were prominent in this category of states:Afghanistan, Algeria, Bahrain, Brunei, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Maldives, Morocco, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Tajikistan, Turkey, Western Sahara and Yemen.

According to the Pew report:

Eight-in-ten countries in the Middle East-North Africa region have laws against blasphemy, apostasy or defamation of religion, the highest share of any region…These penalties are enforced in 60 percent of the countries in the region. In Europe, nearly four-in-ten countries (38 per cent) have such laws and nearly a third (31 per cent) actively enforces them

European states surprisingly listed as having laws which enforce penalties for criticism of religion included:

Austria, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland,Italy, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

The report noted that North Korea did not appear in its report, even though it is recognized as a problem country, because of the difficulty in obtaining accurate information. According to the Pew publication:

The sources clearly indicate that the government of North Korea is among the most repressive in the world with respect to religion as well as other civil liberties…But because North Korean society is effectively closed to outsiders, the sources are unable to provide the kind of specific and timely information that the Pew Forum coded in this quantitative study.

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