Analysis of Pew Forum data.
A new study by the Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion & Public Life notes that countries with laws against apostasy (abandoning one’s faith, including by converting to another religion) also tend to have higher higher social hostilities involving religion.
On average - as measured by the Pew Forum's Social Hostilities Index (SHI) - social hostilities involving religion are more than twice as high in the 20 countries with laws penalizing apostasy (4.6) as countries without such laws (1.9).
In 2011, a total of 20 countries across the globe prohibited apostasy. Such measures were in effect in more than half the countries in the Middle East-North Africa region (11 of 20, or 55%) as well as in five of the 50 countries in the Asia-Pacific region (10%) and four of the 48 countries in sub-Saharan Africa (8%). Laws against apostasy were not present in any country in Europe or the Americas.
See below for a list of countries with laws penalizing apostasy.
On average - as measured by the Pew Forum's Social Hostilities Index (SHI) - social hostilities involving religion are more than twice as high in the 20 countries with laws penalizing apostasy (4.6) as countries without such laws (1.9).
In 2011, a total of 20 countries across the globe prohibited apostasy. Such measures were in effect in more than half the countries in the Middle East-North Africa region (11 of 20, or 55%) as well as in five of the 50 countries in the Asia-Pacific region (10%) and four of the 48 countries in sub-Saharan Africa (8%). Laws against apostasy were not present in any country in Europe or the Americas.
See below for a list of countries with laws penalizing apostasy.
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