ENI—LIBYA — “People are respecting us. They accept us. We are free,” said Roman Catholic Bishop Giovanni Martinelli of growing religious freedom in Libya. For three decades, following the 1969 revolution led by Moammar Gadhafi, the tiny Christian community in this overwhelmingly Muslim country faced restrictions and hostility. But a new wave of religious freedom is sweeping the country.
Most worshippers are Africans, mainly illegal migrants, and Asians, and Martinelli now celebrates three services in different languages every Friday, as the Muslims go to their mosques.
PAKISTAN — Bombs and threats continue against Christians in Pakistan, particularly in the troubled North West Frontier Province, which borders Afghanistan.
“These incidents indicate that Christians are included in the targets of the terrorist groups,” the commission said in a statement following a September bomb blast in Bannu, one of the province's main districts.
More than 95 per cent of Pakistan's 165 million population are Muslims. Christians account for more than three million people.
SRI LANKA — Christian groups have joined with non-governmental organizations to warn about the killing of religious leaders and attacks on places of worship during a resurgence of fighting between government and rebel forces in Sri Lanka.
“We call on the government as well as all armed groups to respect places of religious worship as places of refuge and 'zones of peace,'” urged 18 action groups in a statement sent to the UN Human Rights Council which met in Geneva in September.
MIDDLE EAST — The annual U.S. State Department Report on International Religious Freedom reported in September a worsening of conditions in the Middle East.
In Iran, government actions “created a threatening atmosphere” for non-Shiite religious groups, Christians and Jews, the report said.
Conditions for religious freedoms have also worsened in war-torn Iraq, with the ongoing insurgency “significantly” harming the ability of people to practice their faith, the report asserted.
Respect for religious freedom has “declined,” in Egypt the report said, citing a court ruling that reinstated a policy not to provide a legal means for converts from Islam to Christianity to amend their civil records.
Saudi Arabia's religious freedom, the report said, remained “severely restricted.” But it added, “There were positive developments which could lead to important improvements in the future.”
In Eritrea, religious freedom “deteriorated further,” the report said, noting that many hundreds of religious detainees continue to be held without due process.
Afghanistan was criticized for condemnations of conversions from Islam, and censorship that stifled minority religions.
CHINA — The report highlighted the situation in China, which reportedly expelled more than 100 foreign missionaries in the spring of 2007 in what the report said had been described by some non-governmental groups as a “coordinated government campaign” ahead of the 2008 Olympics.
The State Department designated eight nations as “countries of particular concern” for restrictions on religious freedom: China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Myanmar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Uzbekistan.
