THE QUESTION:
What is the world’s worst government in terms of restricting religious liberty?
THE RELIGION GUY’S ANSWER:
China. No contest.
That’s shown in an elaborate Pew Research Center accounting issued this month that covers all categories of official religion restrictions in 198 nations and territories as of 2018. The Communists who rule the world’s largest population expend incredible efforts on their atheistic crusades, and are equal opportunity offenders who attack both faith in general and a variety of specific religions.
Global religious conditions over-all are getting worse, Pew reports. It calculates there are other highly troublesome governments in this descending order of oppression: Iran, Malaysia, Maldives, Syria, Russia, Algeria, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Egypt, Eritrea, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Myanmar, Iraq, Morocco, Singapore, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Turkey, Brunei, Mauritania, Western Sahara and Yemen. (North Korea information is lacking).
Though Pew doesn’t say this, you’ll see most of the worst are Communist, or Muslim or post-Communist and Muslim.
Yet one of the most distressing crackdowns is in Buddhist Myanmar (a.k.a. Burma), with its forced displacement of at least 14,500 Rohingya Muslims. As with China’s mistreatment of Muslims, noted below, ethnic and religious enmity are combined.
Examples of other problems: Uzbekistan put at least 1,500 Muslims in prison on charges of extremism. Tajikistan’s new religion law gives the regime control over appointment of Muslim imams, religious education, and foreign travel, and there’s been a roundup of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Thailand has arrested hundreds of Christian and Muslim refugees fleeing mistreatment in Pakistan and Vietnam. Methodist missionaries were forced out of the Philippines for investigating human rights abuses.
Pew separately lists countries on a “Social Hostilities Index,” referring to serious harassment of religions by private individuals and groups as opposed to governments (though governments often encourage or turn a blind eye to these problems). Here, India has the worst track record. Muslims there face continual dangers, while the official policy against conversions targets Christians, including charges filed against 271 in one region. Other especially troublesome populations are listed in this descending order: Iraq, Syria, Israel, Nigeria, Libya, Egypt, Pakistan, Central African Republic and Sri Lanka.
By contrast, there’s scant government or societal oppression in the democracies of Europe, and even less in North America and South America. Though authoritarian regimes are prominent in the above lists, some such are surprisingly tolerant in official religion policy or have populations with little sectarian strife.
Turning back to China, here are basics from the World Christian Encyclopedia — the 2020 third edition belongs in every library with its statistics and information on every religious group within every country on the planet. This research work says that a “massive anti-religious program” was enforced from China’s atheistic takeover in 1949 through Mao’s manic “Cultural Revolution” of 1966-69, with periodic upheavals since.
On paper, the constitution grants freedom for “normal religious activities,” but, typically for Communism, “normal” is left undefined and China’s arbitrary legal system means official whims rule.
CONTINUE READING: “What is the world’s worst government on religious liberty? (Answer: China),” by Richard Ostling.