God versus Gov

According to a recent study conducted by the Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion & Public Life^[1], seventy percent of the people in the world live in countries where there are heavy religious restrictions or hostilities.

Such restrictions or hostilities come from:

• The country’s governments via direct actions, policies and laws;
• Private individuals, organizations and social groups; or
• Both

Of the twenty-five most populous countries in the world, the following Asian countries land in different groups in terms of the weight and source of such religious restrictions and hostilities.

• India, Pakistan, and Indonesia have both very high or high government restrictions and very high social hostilities.
• China and Vietnam have very high or high government restrictions but low or moderate social hostilities.
• The Philippines enjoys low government restrictions but suffers from high social hostilities.
• Myanmar has very high government restrictions and high social hostilities.
• Thailand has both moderate government restrictions and social hostilities.
• Japan has the least restrictions or hostilities from both government and private sources.

According to the study, the brunt of restrictions falls on religious minorities.  Here’s an overview of the religious majorities and minorities in each of those countries.^[2]

Peace on earth, good will toward men!

^[1] pewresearch.org
^[2] cia.gov