Pledge Now to be on "World Watch" Current World Population: 6,707,969,493 Current Christian Population in the World: 2,234,771,790

There is a price for being identified with Jesus. Along with the great treasures, Paul mentions the suffering that Christians must face. (Romans 8:17) What kinds of suffering are we to endure? For first-century believers, there was economic and social persecution, and some even faced death. We too must pay a price for following Jesus. In many parts of today's world, Christians face pressures just as severe as those faced by Christ's first followers. Even in countries where Christianity is tolerated or encouraged, Christians must not become complacent. To live as Jesus did - serving others, giving up one's own rights, resisting pressures to conform to the world - always exacts a price. Nothing we suffer, however, can compare to the great price that Jesus paid to save us.

State-Sponsored Challenges to Religious Freedom

All people are guided by certain core beliefs, and for the vast majority of the world's population those beliefs are drawn from religious convictions. Accordingly, it is fair to say that religious freedom is cherished by most as a foundational human right, and restrictions on faith and practice are an affront to human dignity.

The right to religious freedom can be abused in many ways, both blatant and subtle. It can be helpful to recognize that abuses of, or restrictions on, religious freedom can take various forms, as suggested by the five broad categories discussed below. First, the most severe abuses take place in certain totalitarian and authoritarian regimes that seek to control religious thought and expression. Such regimes regard some groups as enemies of the state because of the perceived threatening nature of their religious beliefs or their allegiance to a source of authority other than the state. Some governments use security concerns, such as religion-based terrorism, as a pretext to repress peaceful religious practice. This report distinguishes between groups of religious believers who express legitimate political grievances and those who misuse religion to advocate violence against other religious groups or the state.

Second, serious abuses occur in contexts of state hostility toward minority or non-approved religious groups. While not exerting full control over these groups, some governments intimidate and harass religious minorities and tolerate societal abuses against them. In severe cases, governments may demand that minority adherents renounce their faith or force them to relocate or even flee the country. This report notes the interconnectedness of religious identity and ethnicity, especially in cases where a government dominated by a majority ethno-religious group suppressed the religious expression of minority groups. Also detailed in this report are instances where governments were hostile to a minority religious group because of the group's real or perceived political ideology or affiliation.


A third category of abuse stems from a state's failure to address forces of intolerance against certain religious groups. In these countries, laws may discourage religious discrimination or persecution, but officials fail to prevent attacks, harassment, or other harmful acts against certain individuals or religious groups. Protecting religious freedom requires more than having good laws and policies in place. Governments have the responsibility to work actively at all levels to prevent abuses, bring abusers to justice, provide redress to victims when appropriate, and proactively foster an environment of respect and tolerance for all people.

Fourth, abuses occur when governments have enacted discriminatory legislation or taken concrete action to favor majority religions. These circumstances often result from historical dominance by a majority religious group and can result in institutionalized bias against new or historic minority religious communities. This report notes instances where government endorsement of a particular interpretation of the majority religion resulted in restrictions even on adherents of the majority faith.

A fifth category involves the practice of discriminating against certain religions by identifying them as dangerous "cults" or "sects." This type of restriction sometimes occurs even in countries where religious freedom is otherwise respected.

Multilateral, Regional, and Global Challenges to Religious Freedom There is a wide spectrum of efforts to undermine the right to religious freedom, including some that extend to multilateral forums. For instance, over the past decade, the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), an intergovernmental organization comprised of 57 states with majority or significant Muslim populations, has worked through the United Nations system to weaken religious freedom protections. For instance, the OIC, speaking through the Pakistani delegation at the December 2007 U.N. Human Rights Council session, declared that the bloc does not recognize the right of individuals to freely change their religion. Several OIC delegations publicly aligned themselves with this position, and the OIC prevented consensus on an important religious freedom-related resolution.

A problematic long term endeavor of the OIC has been the advancement of the concept of "defamation of religions" into U.N. resolutions and reports. Originally phrased in 1999 as "defamation of Islam," the OIC broadened the title to encompass respect for all religions, but Islam remains the only specifically mentioned faith in the resolutions passed on this topic at the U.N. Human Rights Council and General Assembly. Despite a pretense of protecting religious practice and promoting tolerance, the flawed concept attempts to limit freedom of religion and restrict the rights of all individuals to disagree with or criticize religion, in particular Islam. This concept is also being used by some governments to justify actions that selectively curtail civil dissent, that halt criticism of political structures, and that restrict the religious speech of minority faith communities, dissenting members of the majority faith, and persons of no religious faith. The introduction of the defamation concept in effect seeks to export the blasphemy laws found in many OIC countries to the international level. While the United States discourages actions that are offensive to particular religious traditions, including Islam, the "defamation of religions" concept is inconsistent with the freedoms of religion and expression and the OIC's approach will weaken religious freedom protections, including protections for minority Muslim populations.

The forcible return of individuals from another country to face persecution or abuse in their home country in retribution for their religious activism is also of grave concern to the United States. During the reporting period, the Government of China reportedly sought the forcible return of several Muslims living abroad, including from Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, some of whom had reportedly protested restrictions on the Hajj and encouraged other Muslims to pray and fast during Ramadan.

Limits on proselytization and the ability to choose one's faith remained a concern. Governments, often seeking to protect the beliefs, traditions, and ideology of the majority or dominant religion, took steps to restrict the rights of individuals to proselytize and to change their religion. Some countries, such as Malaysia, Greece, and Israel, continued to enforce laws that curb peaceful proselytizing activities. Other countries either passed or introduced anti-conversion laws. Six of 28 states in India have passed anti-conversion laws; the sixth did so during the reporting period. In Sri Lanka a national level anti-conversion bill introduced in 2004 remained under consideration. Although these laws do not explicitly ban conversions, they infringe upon the individual's right to convert and favor the majority religions. Some Muslim majority countries, such as Egypt, Malaysia, and Saudi Arabia, continued to accord a right to proselytize only to Muslims and/or to enforce harsh apostasy laws against those who chose to convert to another faith. Actions taken by these governments are inconsistent with the right to freedom of religion, which protects an individual's right to convert, to communicate his or her religious viewpoints, and to receive communication of religious ideas.

In contrast to their traditional respect for religious freedom, Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, and Tajikistan introduced problematic legislative changes to current religion laws that would place significant limits on this right. In Kazakhstan, the Parliament introduced new draft amendments to the laws governing religion that would, among other things, establish more restrictive registration procedures, prohibit smaller groups from preaching or teaching outside of the group, restrict publication of religious literature, and require local government authorization for the construction of a religious facility. In the Kyrgyz Republic, a draft religion law under active consideration in the Parliament would increase from 10 to 200 the number of members required for official registration of a religious organization, eliminate alternative military service for all but priests and religious laymen, ban proselytizing, and prohibit the conversion of Kyrgyz citizens to a different faith. Lastly, a draft religion law under consideration in Tajikistan would regulate the registration and legal status of religious groups and associations, restrict religious education and literature, and limit other aspects of religious expression.

Some governments increased efforts to promote tolerance, dialogue, and an environment conducive to coexistence between religions during the reporting period. In October 2007 the Jordanian Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought led efforts which resulted in the issuing, on October 13, 2007, of an open letter calling for interfaith dialogue to be based on love of God and neighbor. The document, "A Common Word Between Us and You," was issued by 138 Muslim leaders, clerics, and scholars and addressed to Christians worldwide. The Institute collected signatures for the Common Word document representing all eight schools of Islamic thought. The document was finalized at a conference hosted by the Institute under the patronage of King Abdullah in September 2007. The conference brought together representatives from 40 Islamic and non-Islamic countries. On June 4-6, 2008, the Government of Saudi Arabia, along with the Muslim World League (MWL), organized an intrafaith conference in Mecca. The goal of the conference was to promote unity among various Islamic sects. Former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani as well as Saudi Grand Mufti Abdulaziz Al al-Sheik attended. As a follow up, King Abdullah, along with King Juan Carlos I of Spain, hosted an interfaith conference in Madrid that included prominent religious figures from Islam, Christianity, and Judaism.

The remainder of this Executive Summary consists of two parts. Part I summarizes, on a country-by-country basis, actions the U.S. Government has taken to advance international religious freedom in the nations designated "Countries of Particular Concern" (CPCs) for particularly severe violations of religious freedom. Part II provides a summary of conditions in a number of countries where religious freedom is of significant interest, including in Countries of Particular Concern. For each country, this section notes the legal situation and relevant policies and gives examples of particular government abuses or positive steps governments have taken to promote or protect religious freedom. In most cases, these countries exhibit one or more of the forms of abuse outlined above.

PART I: U.S. ACTIONS IN COUNTRIES OF PARTICULAR CONCERN

The International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 (IRF Act) requires an annual review of the status of religious freedom worldwide and the designation of countries that have "engaged in or tolerated particularly severe violations of religious freedom" during the reporting period as "Countries of Particular Concern" (CPCs). Following the designation, a period of negotiation may ensue, in which the United States seeks to work with a designated country to bring about change. Subsequently, depending upon the results of these discussions, one or more actions are chosen by the Secretary of State, pursuant to the IRF Act. Options for CPC actions include application of sanctions or negotiation of a bilateral agreement. The Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom and his office take actions to promote religious freedom in each CPC throughout the year. This section highlights actions by other U.S. Government officials to promote religious freedom and to encourage the governments to take positive steps to improve conditions for religious believers. Currently, the countries that have been designated as CPCs are: Burma, China, North Korea, Iran, Sudan, Eritrea, Saudi Arabia, and Uzbekistan. Further details on U.S. actions in nations designated as CPCs and in other countries may be found in each individual country report.

PART II: COUNTRY-SPECIFIC CONDITIONS OF INTERNATIONAL RELIGIOUS FREEDOM

This section provides a summary of conditions in a number of countries where religious freedom is of significant interest. For each country, this section notes the legal situation and relevant policies and gives examples of particular government abuses or positive steps governments have taken in the reporting period to promote or protect religious freedom.




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