The Geography of Religious Freedom

Abstract

In 2007 the Hudson Institute"™s Center for Religious Freedom classified the level of religious freedom in 101 countries and territories. The index focuses on "œthe denial to anyone of rights of a particular reason, those connected with practicing one"™s religion, and the denial of rights for a particular reason, because of the religious beliefs of those who are persecuted and/or those who persecute." Using the categories of "œfree," "œpartly free," and "œunfree," we first map these data to analyze the geography of religious freedom in different parts of the world. Religious freedom is generally greatest in North America and Western Europe, and least in North Africa and Asia. We further analyze these data in terms of the dominant religion in each country. The Muslim world had one of the smallest proportions of countries with high levels of religious freedom. Of the 35 countries dominated by Islam only Mali and Senegal were classified as "œfree." The Catholic world included 23 countries with 19 being classified as "œfree." Considering all 49 Christian countries whether Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox or mixed, 36 were classified as "œfree." Countries dominated by Buddhism and related religions were divided with half being "œfree" and half being either "œpartly free" or "œunfree." There are six countries classified as "œmixed Muslim/Christian" such as Cameroon, Eritrea and Lebanon, with all six being classified as "œpartly free" or "œunfree."