Source: ET

Globally, acts of religious hostility hit a six-year high in 2012 with Muslims and Jews suffering most hostility. PHOTO: FILE

A report placed Pakistan at the top of a list of 198 countries most suffering from social hostilities involving religion, by the end of 2012.

The Pew Research Center’s report issued two indices, based on statistics from the years 2007-2012:

1) The Government Restrictions Index (GRI), which measures government laws, policies and actions that restrict religious beliefs and practices.

2) The Social Hostilities Index (SHI), which measures acts of religious hostility by private individuals, organisations or groups in society.

The results show that “Pakistan had the highest level of social hostilities involving religion, and Egypt had the highest level of government restrictions on religion.”

Neighbours Afghanistan and India were also up there with Pakistan in the SHI index.

Worldwide, except for the Americas, “the share of countries with a high or very high level of social hostilities involving religion reached a six-year peak in 2012,” while ”the share of countries with a high or very high level of government restrictions on religion stayed roughly the same in the latest year studied.”

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