On August 16, a group of Islamic extremists burned down 21 churches and almost 100 houses in Pakistan, which left many displaced and afraid. The organization, Aid to the Church in Need, highlights the western world's role in ending religious persecution.
JOHN PONTIFEX
Editorial Committee, Religious Freedom Report
What we're seeing in the Religious Freedom Report is that in many parts of the world, violence is on the increase. And the West is increasingly, what we call, muted in its response.
So, this is actually part of the problem—that acts of religious intolerance or worse are not being called out.
The West needs to be clear in its commitment to religious freedom.
The biannual Religious Freedom Report, which was presented in June, challenges the West to make concrete efforts to stop religious intolerance. But at the same time, Pontifex says it also faces its own kind of freedom violations in the form of censoring people who hold traditional beliefs.
JOHN PONTIFEX
Editorial Committee, Religious Freedom Report
I think that those who hold traditional beliefs, such as those relating to pro-life, and the right to bring up your child in accordance with your individual religious beliefs, those who believe very sincerely in a whole range of traditional values, who do run the risk of being closed down or being silenced in the public space, because those views are somehow seen as abhorrent.
Pontifex argues that those who hold these traditional views can find themselves discriminated against and facing legal actions.
JOHN PONTIFEX
Editorial Committee, Religious Freedom Report
This is, unfortunately, very likely to be a sign of things to come, increasing problems in this area. And the report highlights individual cases where those who've simply acted in accordance with their faith have indeed been harassed or indeed charged, in accordance with new legislation, which has emerged as a result of ideological demands or cancel culture, and does represent a threat to religious freedom in the full sense of the word.
Aid to the Church in Need has been actively monitoring the presence of persecution in 28 countries where 51% of the world's population lives. In the last two years, the situations in nearly half of these countries have worsened.
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