Christian persecuted church agencies, Release International and Open Doors, are casting serious doubts on the accuracy of the latest All Party Parliamentary Group for Freedom of Religion and Belief’s study of global restrictions on religion.
The 12th annual (2019) Pew Report maintains that, globally, social hostilities related to religion declined and the number of countries with terrorist activity related to religion also reduced for a fifth consecutive year, although government restrictions remained at the highest levels.
The Report examined 198 countries and territories, before the Covid-19 pandemic struck. It shows that 43 countries (22%) had ‘high’ or ‘very high’ levels of social hostilities. That is down from 53 countries (27%) in 2018, and from a peak of 65 countries (33%) in 2012. These figures have fluctuated since the study began in 2007, but the number of countries with at least ‘high’ levels of social hostilities related to religion is now the lowest since 2009.
