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Destroyed churches in Nigeria.

Uyghurs trapped in mass internment in China.

Acts of violence by terrorist organizations in Burkina Faso, displacing hundreds of thousands.

In 62 countries around the world the freedom to practice one's religion is not unrestricted.

This is what the current report by “Church in Need” says, which was presented in Rome on Tuesday afternoon.

More than five billion people live in the 62 countries.

The report divides the countries into orange states such as Syria, Thailand and Mauritania, in which discrimination, hate crime and religiously motivated violence prevail, and red states, in which there is additional persecution, such as India, Nigeria and Iran.

There are also countries that are under surveillance, such as Russia and Chile.

These are not included in the 62 affected states.

The foundation covers the situation of all religions as well as that of atheists, and analyzes the extent to which the human right to religious freedom is respected.

The main reasons for threats, persecution or even discrimination are usually due to authoritarian governments, Islamic extremism and ethno-religious nationalism.

The map shows the 62 countries where freedom of religion is restricted.

Source: Infographic / WORLD

Terrorist organizations are advancing in the Sahel region

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Religious freedom is violated in 42 percent of all African countries.

Countries such as Chad, Mali and Cameroon were not even listed as orange or red in the last report from 2018 and are now all three in the red category.

The number of people killed by armed groups in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Mali and Chad from January to mid-April 2021 has more than doubled compared to the same period in the previous year.

765,000 people were displaced by terrorist groups in Burkina Faso in February 2020.

IS and al-Qaeda are also joining forces with local armed militias in sub-Saharan Africa.

The network runs from Mali to Mozambique and further over the Comoros in the Indian Ocean to the Philippines in the South China Sea.

In China and Myanmar, more than 30 million Muslims are facing severe persecution, according to the report.

More than a million mostly Muslim Uyghurs in China's Xinjiang Province are affected by mass internment and re-education programs.

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Other religions are also threatened in China.

"Church in Need" cites reports that "over 200 facial recognition cameras were installed in churches and Buddhist temples in a county in Jiangxi Province" in late 2020.

Churches that oppose this will be closed.

Even with the so-called social credit system, which currently does not yet exist uniformly, frequent attending church services can be rated as bad behavior.

This, in turn, can mean that someone can no longer purchase train or plane tickets.

Corona has made the situation worse

Terrorist groups and jihadists used the shift in attention at the beginning of the corona pandemic to carry out more violent attacks and consolidate territorial conquests.

Terror groups such as al-Qaeda, IS and Boko Haram described Corona in numerous internet-based propaganda publications as God's punishment for the “decadent West” in order to recruit new members.

Jihadists are also promised a safe place in paradise and immunity to the virus.

According to the report, people of certain religions were blamed for the pandemic in some countries.

Christians were accused in Egypt, Turkey, Niger and China, among others.

Muslim minorities were hit in India and Jews were accused of conspiracy theories on the Internet.

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Sexual violence against women is also an issue in the report.

“Church in Need” refers to a study by the human rights organization “Movement for Solidarity and Peace”, according to which up to 1,000 Christian and Hindu girls and young women between the ages of 12 and 25 are kidnapped by Muslim men in Pakistan every year.

Crimes against girls and women through kidnapping, rape and forced conversions to another religion are being committed in more and more countries around the world.

Often these violations go unpunished.

Christianity is the most popular religion in the world

The foundation does not provide exact figures on how many people are being persecuted or threatened worldwide.

According to the "OpenDoors" organization, Christians are the most persecuted religious group in the world.

In their current World Persecution Index, more than 340 million Christians face high or extreme levels of persecution and discrimination.

The report on worldwide religious freedom from “Church in Need” appears for the 15th time.

As a rule, this has been published every two years since 1999.

It documents individual incidents, includes 196 countries on 800 pages and can be viewed online.

A total of 30 people worked on the report.

“Church in Need” is a pastoral aid organization that claims to be financed purely from donations.