Religious freedoms have been on the decline in the last two years, and pressures in this area have been recorded in 81 of the 196 countries surveyed by the international Catholic organization Aid to the Church in Need.
The report, which refers to all religions, was compiled on the basis of data from the period between October 2012 and June 2014, and was published today on the website liberte-religieuse.org.
That organization indicated that religious freedoms in 81 out of 196 surveyed provinces, or in 41 percent of them, are "obstructed" or "in decline".
The report also states that "only six countries have recorded some improvement in the situation in terms of religious freedom, four of which (Cuba, the United Arab Emirates, Iran and Qatar) remain classified as countries with a "high or medium degree of persecution" in terms of religion .
There are 20 countries in the "high intolerance" category, 14 of which "live in a situation of religious persecution linked to Muslim extremism" - in Afghanistan, Central Africa, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Maldives, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.
In another six countries (China, Myanmar, Eritrea, North Korea, Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan), persecutions are linked to "authoritarian regimes", the organization adds.
"Christians remain the most persecuted religious minority, but Muslims also suffer an equally severe level of persecution and discrimination, which is attributed either to other Muslims or to authoritarian regimes," it said.
The data also show that the level of violence, although weak, against Jews in Western Europe has increased, "which has caused an increase in their immigration to Israel."
The report also criticized Western Europe, and France in particular, classifying it as a country with "worrying intolerance" regarding religious freedom.
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