Key findings about COVID-19 restrictions that affected religious groups around the world in 2020
Our study analyzes 198 countries and territories and is based on policies and events in 2020, the most recent year for which data is available.
Restrictions on religion increased in 2016 for the second straight year. Nationalist parties and organizations played an increasing role in harassment of religious minorities, especially in Europe.
A third of the 198 countries studied had a high or very high level of social hostilities involving religion in 2012. About three-in-ten countries had a high or very high level of government restrictions on religion, roughly the same as in 2011.
Pew Research’s fourth major report on global restrictions on religion finds that the share of countries with high or very high restrictions on religion rose from 37% in 2010 to 40% in 2011. The Middle East and North Africa continued to have the highest levels of restrictions in the year when much of the Arab Spring uprisings occurred, with social hostilities involving religion increasing markedly and government restrictions remaining high.
The Brookings Institution Washington, D.C. U.S. Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr., was first elected to the United States Senate in 1972 at the age of 29 and is currently serving his sixth term. Senator Biden serves on the Foreign Relations Committee and the Judiciary Committee and is recognized as a leading expert on national security […]
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