(CP) Members of spiritual teams confronted harassment from authorities officers or social teams in a file variety of nations and territories, as a brand new Pew Analysis Heart evaluation discovered that acts of hostility towards Christians are on the rise.
The discharge of Pew's report, “Authorities Restrictions on Faith Remained at Highest Degree Globally in 2022,” is the fifteenth time it has performed analysis analyzing authorities restrictions and social hostility towards faith in 198 nations and territories.
The analysis revealed that in 2022 “harassment of spiritual teams by governments or social actors occurred in 192 of the world's 198 nations and territories”. This represented “a rise of two nations from 2021 and a brand new excessive for the examine”.
“Governments persecuted individuals for his or her spiritual beliefs and practices in 186 nations in 2022, up from 183 in 2021,” the report mentioned. “Social teams or non-public people harassed individuals due to their faith in 164 nations, the identical quantity as in 2021. Governments and/or social actors persecuted spiritual teams in 192 nations, together with 158 nations the place each governments and social teams or non-public people have been coping with harassment.”
As was the case in each a part of the examine, Christians in most nations skilled harassment, reaching a file excessive of 166 in 2022.
One instance cited within the report was the arrest of a person whose son introduced Bibles and different Christian literature throughout the border into Mauritania from Senegal.
One other instance is the chief of the Syrian Catholic Church in Bartella, a traditionally Christian city in Nineveh province rebuilt after the defeat of Islamic State, who mentioned the militias “tried to 'seize and occupy Christian properties' in an try to expel Christians and alter the spiritual make-up of the city.”
The examine recognized property injury, assault, detention, displacement and killing as examples of bodily harassment by spiritual teams. He highlighted how at the very least one bodily harassment of a non secular group occurred in 145 out of 198 nations, a rise from the 137 measured in 2021.
Governments used bodily power in opposition to spiritual teams in 111 nations, whereas social teams or non-public people have been decided to have engaged in such harassment in the identical variety of nations.
The commonest type of bodily harassment directed at spiritual teams was injury to property, which occurred in 61% of nations. Detention occurred in slightly below half (47%) of nations, whereas the proportion of nations the place bodily assaults, displacement and killings occurred have been measured at 45%, 26% and 25%, respectively.
In keeping with an in depth appendix accompanying the report, the one nations with no authorities persecution of spiritual teams in 2022 have been Cape Verde, Fiji, Grenada, Macau, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, New Zealand, Portugal. , San Marino, Senegal and Suriname. The USA was listed as considered one of 110 nations the place there was widespread intimidation of spiritual teams “by any degree of presidency”.
Spiritual teams within the US have been topic to property injury and bodily assaults, with no displacement, killings or detentions recorded. One other antagonistic expertise confronted by spiritual teams within the US includes organized teams utilizing “violence or coercion to attempt to dominate public life with their view of faith, together with stopping some spiritual teams from working within the nation.”
Muslims confronted some degree of harassment in 148 nations in 2022, additionally a file since Pew started conducting this analysis.
After reaching a file of 94 nations in 2020, the variety of nations the place Jews skilled harassment decreased for the second consecutive 12 months, reaching 90 in 2022.
The variety of nations the place Hindus have been harassed additionally rose to a file 26 in 2022. Members of folks religions skilled harassment in 49 nations, one other file. The variety of nations the place harassment was directed in opposition to Buddhists fell to 25 in 2022, after reaching a file excessive of 28 in 2021.
Harassment directed at members of “different religions” was measured in 68 nations in 2022, equaling the earlier file set in 2019. The religiously unaffiliated have been focused for harassment in 32 nations, one other file excessive.
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