To share your faith – or change it to another – first check your citizenship.
The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) released a new report on anti-conversion laws around the world. Providing the legal text of 73 separate laws, the compendium notes that one in four countries (46 in total) restricts the right of its population to adopt or propagate a religion.
“The right to convert from one religion or belief to another, or to have no religion or belief at all, is essential to the protection of religious freedom,” said Susie Gelman, Commissioner of the USCIRF. “And in countries with anti-conversion laws, religious minorities tend to be widely targeted for harassment, assault, arrest and imprisonment. »
Gelman, three-term president of the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington, cited the example of Pastor Keshav Acharya: sentenced by Nepal to one year in prison for allegedly trying to convert Hindus to Christianity. But he is not the only example.
Last week in India, 9 Christians were stopped for allegedly evangelizing the poor.
Last summer in Iran, 106 Christians were stopped for their religious beliefs.
Last spring, in Libya, an American Christian was stopped for alleged missionary activity.
The USCIRF report grouped the laws into four categories. First, anti-proselyte laws restrict witness to one’s faith in 29 countries, including Indonesia, Israel and Russia. In Morocco, for example, it is illegal to cause a Muslim to question their religion.
The second category of interfaith marriages is restricted in 25 countries, including Jordan, the Philippines and Singapore. In Qatar, for example, if a woman converts to Islam but her husband does not, a judge can annul their marriage.
Laws on identity documents – the third category – in seven countries restrict an individual’s right to formally convert to another religion, including in Iraq, Malaysia and Turkey. Myanmar, for example, requires converts to submit an application and be subject to questions about the authenticity of the conversion.
And finally, apostasy laws in 7 countries make conversion illegal, including Brunei, Mauritania and Saudi Arabia. In Yemen, for example, the punishment is death.
But such sanctions are contrary to existing human rights standards, USCIRF said. In terms of personal faith, Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights guarantees the ability to have, adopt or change religious beliefs.
Article 19 of both charters guarantees the right to propagate belief.
Evangelism is a particularly important part of the Christian religion, said McKenna Wendt, advocacy manager for International Christian Concern (ICC), hired by USCIRF to produce the compendium. But his concern is interreligious. While any conversation based on faith can land a person in prison, anti-conversion laws significantly curb everyone’s religious practice.
However, given the demographics of the offending countries, Wendt said Christians “bear the brunt” of discriminatory practices. She urged believers to find creative ways to share their faith, boldly support the preaching of the gospel in restrictive countries, and pray for those who are imprisoned for converting to Christianity.
USCIRF maintains a non-exhaustive list list of 2,174 individual victims of all religions who are persecuted for their faith in countries it designates as “countries of particular concern” (17) or places on a “special watch list” (11).
To qualify, nations must engage in or tolerate “serious” violations of religious freedom, offending at least two of three descriptions of “systematic, continuing, and egregious.” Many of the 46 countries with anti-conversion laws do not merit inclusion, in part because they do not actively pursue them.
But that doesn’t eliminate the problem.
“The very existence of these laws in the legal code sets a precedent that minority religious communities are inferior to the country’s majority religion,” Wendt said. “And even if nations refrain from acting accordingly, it incentivizes vigilantes to mete out justice on their own. »
Gelman agrees.
“The mere existence of anti-conversion law in some countries encourages individuals, non-state actors and mobs to discriminate and violently attack religious minorities,” she said. “They create a culture of animosity toward religious minorities that can lead to violence, even when governments do not actively enforce them. »
An illustrative example from Nigeria encompasses both factors. Rhoda Jatau is listed for his imprisonment for blasphemy, after having criticized the mob murder of a student who asked her colleague to remove Islamic material from her online study group.
The two alleged offenses sets off riots against the local Christian community.
The USCIRF casualty list also includes violations committed by terrorist groups designated as “entities of particular concern” (7). It includes Boko Haram in Nigeria, regional Islamic State provinces and other groups in Somalia, Syria and Yemen.
To compile the compendium, USCIRF and ICC relied exclusively on primary sources from legal databases, whether published by the government or by civil society organizations. The report indicates that many anti-conversion laws are not officially published. However, credible information from secondary sources would add 13 more countries to the list, including Afghanistan, Iceland and Tanzania.
Bangladesh, for example, is already included because of its restrictions on interfaith marriage. But last week, a Christian convert from Islam was stopped on false charges related to anti-government activities and blasphemy against Muhammad, filed after he reported a physical attack on his wife and children.
And a separate USCIRF compendium counted 95 countries have blasphemy laws, including Bangladesh. The death penalty is in force in Brunei, Iran, Mauritania, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.
And technically, India is not among the countries listed in the new report because it does not have a domestic anti-conversion law. Instead, the report notes that 12 of India’s 28 states have such restrictions in their local legal codes. Wendt said the laws fit well with the ruling party’s rhetoric that Christians and Muslims are forcibly converting Hindus.
India’s neighbors in South and Central Asia account for 9 of the 46 violating countries, while East Asia and the Pacific region account for 10 more. The Middle East and North Africa has 16. Europe and Eurasia includes 7 countries, while Sub-Saharan Africa has 4.
None are found in the Western Hemisphere.
“Our research aimed to identify all laws around the world that restrict or regulate conversion,” Wendt said, “and these laws affect people of all faiths.”
