Religious Freedom in the World

by Paul A. Marshall

Overview

Religious Freedom in the World profiles 101 countries and territories, which between them contain more than 95 percent of the world's population, and uses a clearly comprehensible numeric scale to rank the level of religious freedom found in each. It also provides separately derived measures of government regulation of religion, government favoritism of religion, and social regulation of religion. The countries have been selected so that the survey represents each continent, major religion, and geographic area; covers countries with large populations; describes particularly egregious violators of religious freedom; and adequately illustrates variations within regions. The survey is not a catalog of the rights of 'religious people.' The persecution of all people of any or no religion should be equally as offensive in our eyes as that of believers in any particular religion. Furthermore, since most people in the world profess to be believers of one kind or another, then such a survey would necessarily include most of the world's human rights violations of whatever kind. Rather, the focus is on the denial to anyone of rights of a particular kind, 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. Finally, in line with most human rights treaties, this survey covers freedom of 'religion or belief.' There are beliefs that, functionally, take the place of explicitly religious beliefs, and these, too, should be protected. Atheists and agnostics may also suffer loss of freedom of 'religion or belief' and, in turn, may deny such freedom to others.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780742562134
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	12/13/2007
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	516
Product dimensions:	7.08(w) x 10.08(h) x 1.05(d)

About the Author

Paul A. Marshall is a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute's Center for Religious Freedom. He is the author and editor of over twenty books on religion and politics, especially religious freedom, including Radical Islam's Rules: the Worldwide Spread of Extreme Sharia Law (Rowman & Littlefield, 2005) and God and the Constitution: Christianity and American Politics (Rowman & Littlefield, 2002).

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 The Range of Religious Freedom
Chapter 2 Secular and Religious, Church and State
Chapter 3 Religious Freedom and National Security
Chapter 4 Christians of the Middle East: A Story of Accelerating Erosion
Chapter 5 European Trends
Chapter 6 Trends in the Balkans and South East Europe
Chapter 7 The Former Soviet Union
Chapter 8 God's Economy: Religious Freedom and Socio-Economic Wellbeing
Chapter 9 Free to Choose: Economics and Religion
Chapter 10 Country Profiles
Chapter 11 Appendix I: The Nature of Religious Freedom
Chapter 12 Appendix II: Numbers and Statistics in Profiles
Chapter 13 Appendix III: Criteria for Profiles of Religious Freedom
Chapter 14 Appendix IV: Checklist of Elements of Religious Freedom Score
Chapter 15 Appendix V: Grim and Finke (2006) International Religious Indexes Questionnaire
Chapter 16 Appendix VI: Country Religious Freedom Scores
Chapter 17 Appendix VII: GRI, GFI, and SRI Scores
Chapter 18 Appendix VIII: Methodological Note: Nature and Correlation of Indices
Chapter 19 Appendix IX: Dimensions of Restricted Religious Freedom

Editorial Reviews

The profiles are succinct and readable; they deal well with well-known minorities (Shi'a in Iraq) and those studied less often (Muslims in Ireland). Highly recommended. All levels.

Choice Reviews - 8/1/08

The profiles are succinct and readable; they deal well with well-known minorities (Shi'a in Iraq) and those studied less often (Muslims in Ireland). Highly recommended. All levels.
— 8/1/08

Choice