Tim Daniels
(ZENIT News / Atlanta, Georgia, 01.12.2022).- During the time of the pandemic, especially in 2020, almost one quarter of the world’s countries used force to impede religious practice. This fact was revealed in a Report of the Pew Research Center and is equivalent, more precisely, to 23% of countries worldwide, including the United States.
The use of force to hinder religious liberty in protests and gatherings of people implied arrests and detentions as well as physical aggressions, confiscations, break-ins and even murders. All this was due to the implementation of restrictions for meetings and gatherings, including those of a religious nature.
Although the Report, entitled “How COVID-19 Restrictions Affected Religious Groups Worldwide in 2020,” shows the countries with “very high” governmental restrictions, which went from 23 in 2019 to 19 in 2020, the countries with high restrictions increased from 34 in 2019 to 38 in 2020.
The most used common type of violative force against religious liberty was detentions.
