Publications
The Algeria Religious Freedom Landscape Report provides an analysis of the legal, political, and social conditions that shape religious freedom in the country and the prospects for advancing this right in the future.
The International Protocol On Documenting Violations Of Religious Freedom is a joint publication of Open Doors International (ODI) and the Religious Freedom Institute (RFI). Led by the Middle East divisions of ODI and RFI, the project was crafted with contributors including lawyers, human rights investigators, former diplomats, and religious freedom researchers.
It is designed as a tool for NGOs, lawyers, human rights activists as well as national and international institutions to provide an evidentiary standard and documentation of evidence that would be acceptable in most judicial or advocacy institutions, particularly at the international level.
This case study analyzes the changing religious freedom landscape in Sudan. Previously one of the world’s worst offenders where International Religious Freedom (IRF) is concerned, Sudan has seen substantial shifts on IRF policy under the auspices of the new transitional government.
Questions remain as to how durable and pervasive these shifts will prove, and what, if any, lessons may be drawn from this case.
This working group report emerges from the collaboration of scholars associated with RFI’s Freedom of Religious Institutions in Society (FORIS) Project, including: Paul Marshall, FORIS Scholar and Director of RFI’s South and Southeast Asia Action Team, and Timothy Shah, Architect of the FORIS Project. Stanley Carlson-Thies of the Institutional Religious Freedom Alliance and Kathleen Brady of Emory University, both also FORIS scholars, reviewed and commented on the report. Their collective efforts offer a broad exploration of the grounds on which religious institutions merit robust freedom in their doctrines, internal organization, and presence in society.
This working group report emerges from the collaboration of scholars associated with RFI’s Freedom of Religious Institutions in Society (FORIS) Project: Chad Bauman of Butler University, Thomas Berg of the University of St. Thomas, Robert Hefner of Boston University, Farahnaz Ispahani (a former member of the Pakistani Parliament and RFI Senior Fellow), Byron Johnson of Baylor University, and Timur Kuran of Duke University. The report provides, in condensed form, an introduction to the most salient and cross-cutting themes the authors addressed in their research conducted under FORIS auspices.
This policy report, made possible by funding from the John Templeton Foundation, highlights the various ways Western societies can preserve and promote institutional religious freedom. The last in a series of three reports published this year, it argues that sound institutional religious freedom policy should reflect a broad conception of what counts as religion and, therefore, as a religious institution.
This policy report, made possible by funding from the John Templeton Foundation, highlights the destructive effects of blasphemy laws in the Muslim-majority countries of Egypt, Indonesia, Pakistan, and Turkey, particularly for religious institutions, and provides a policy framework for opposing them.
This policy report, made possible by funding from the John Templeton Foundation, urges U.S. foreign affairs officials to consider how conceptions of religion and the common good vary across countries. U.S. diplomats, policymakers, and advocates for religious liberty will be less effective if they are unaware of these differences across societies or try to engage at the level of policy only without addressing these more fundamental issues.
While governed for centuries by a monarchy that favored Hinduism, Nepal today is a self-declared “secular” republic with a constitution that expressly protects religious freedom. Since the People’s Movement brought an end to the country’s absolute monarch in 1990, Nepal has demonstrated a growing acceptance of international human rights standards, to include those related to religious freedom.
An ethnically and religiously diverse country of more than 210 million people, Pakistan, through its laws and government policies, has followed a trajectory of exclusion and restriction of religious freedom almost from the beginning of its independence from British rule in 1947. What started as a notion of an inclusive democratic home for Muslims and non-Muslims soon devolved into a majoritarian society that has limited the rights of non-Muslims and, in extreme situations, proved hostile to their existence.
Malaysia’s Constitution protects religious freedom; however, the rights and interests of religious minorities are often challenged by “Islamist” political movements. Malaysia is a Muslim-majority country, but there is some ambiguity surrounding the status of Islam. On the one hand, the country is widely regarded by its Muslim population as an officially Islamic state. On the other hand, the Constitution merely grants Islam the status of favored religion. This ambiguity has led to many of the challenges discussed in detail in this report.
Bangladesh has high restrictions on religious freedom at the governmental level, and extremely high levels of religious freedom violations on the societal level. While the country’s constitution contains robust provisions for religious freedom and the state provides religious freedom in education and family law, Islam is enshrined in the Constitution in ways that are used to discriminate against non-Muslim minorities. Moreover, Islamist militants carry out extensive violence, most significantly against Hindus, but also against “deviant” Muslims, Buddhists, Christians, activist NGOs, and secular activists.
Despite boasting legal protections for religious freedom, Sri Lanka displays significant social intolerance and religiously motivated violence. While the government does not systemically persecute religious minorities, it is not entirely free from blame either. Historically, ethnic conflict and tensions have made it difficult for independent Sri Lanka to become a peaceful, multi-religious, and multi-ethnic country.
In Burma, religion has long been intertwined with nationality, ethnicity, identity and, as a result, politics. This is true for the military and Burmese political parties, but it is also the case for many of the ethnic nationalities. The Burma Religious Freedom Landscape Report delves into each of these factors and provides an account of the social hostility and legal restrictions that pose grave challenges to religious freedom in this country. While unequivocal about the challenges, the report also outlines strengths and opportunities for advancing religious freedom in Burma today.
While the Indonesia Religious Freedom Landscape Report is unsparing in its analysis of Indonesia’s shortcomings and of the complex array of forces that threaten its traditions of religious pluralism and tolerance, it places this analysis within a wider framework that examines “strengths” and “opportunities” as well as “threats” and “weaknesses.”
This guidance note supports efforts by the United Kingdom, Department for International Development (DFID) and Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), as well as the United States Department of State, to consider the situation of religious minorities in crisis and conflict settings through a Wilton Park conference, convened in November 2018.
Despite over twenty years of international religious freedom policy actions, there has never been a comprehensive survey of these initiatives. Surveying the Landscape of International Religious Freedom Policy provides a survey of the policy, advocacy, and programming activities of 18 countries and 5 multilateral bodies that seek to advance religious freedom.
The report, based on a trip to Iraq’s Nineveh Plains in December 2018, outlines the dire conditions in northern Iraq for Christians, Yazidis, and other religious minorities. The report underscores the profound security and economic challenges religious minorities face in Sinjar and the Nineveh Plains and points to a looming threat to both Iraqi and American security.
The American Charter is a contemporary restatement of the principles of freedom of religion and conscience. The American Charter is a statement of first principles outlining and affirming America’s long-standing commitment to robust protections for freedom of religion and conscience.
This monograph explores the situation of blasphemy laws and its impact on non-Muslims from the perspective of Islamic law. While Pakistan’s blasphemy law and its punishments purport to be based on consensus of Islamic scholars, the reality is that this has not been a fixed consensus opinion. From both an Islamic law and a policy perspective the relevant question to be considered is whether enforcing the blasphemy law on non-Muslims promotes the common good.
On August 25, 2017, a wave of violence was unleashed against Muslim Rohingya in Rakhine State, Burma. Thousands were killed in brutal fashion and more than 700,000 were displaced. In this report, the Religious Freedom Institute (RFI) considers the facts of what happened in August 2017 and the broader context of religious freedom violations in Burma. The report also puts forward concrete recommendations on what is to be done.
This report conveys the findings of Under Caesar’s Sword, the world’s first systematic global investigation into the responses of Christian communities to persecution. It includes country-by-country analysis, major global patterns, and recommendations for action.
Despite increased attention to religion in U.S. foreign policy in recent years, global levels of religious persecution, violent religious extremism, and religion-related conflict remain dangerously high. U.S. International Religious Freedom (IRF) policy could be far more effective in addressing these threats to minorities, to regional stability, and to American national security. The Trump administration and Congress have an extraordinary opportunity, at low cost, to forge a successful U.S. IRF policy.