Even as social and fiscal policy around the globe continues to be influenced more and more by science-based conclusions rather than religious beliefs, it remains important to recognize trends in religious movements. Although the Secular Policy Institute advocates for strict separation of church and state, freedom of religion is a fundamental aspect of free speech – a value critical to a just and fair government. SPI closely follows global trends on religious freedom in order to assist coalition members in countries that might be lagging behind in this area.
One of the best ways to track and understand this information is through the valuable data provided by the Pew Research Center for Religion and Public Life. Once a year, Pew publishes data on social hostilities regarding religion, and government restrictions on religion. Pew compares this yearÔÇÖs data to previous years, drawing conclusions about global and national trends, as well as providing helpful graphs and hard numbers. One of most shocking things about the PRC’s findings are that such a relatively small number of oppressive governments impact such a large majority of the world’s population.
Discover which countries are improving, which are getting worse, and prepare to be surprised by just how many members of the global population live in countries that are perennially notorious for oppressing freedom of religion.
Read more at pewforum.org