One girl recounts how she and her friend were given to a IS man 40 years their senior as a “gift.” They were lucky to escape, but only after being starved and beaten.

Hundreds, perhaps thousands, are not so lucky, and remain captives of IS with reports of rape and sexual abuse of detained women and children.

The group that calls itself the Islamic State (IS) has carried out ethnic cleansing on a historic scale in northern Iraq, according to a recent report by Amnesty International. According to the report, ethnic and religious minorities – Assyrian Christians, Turkmen Shi’a, Shabak Shi’a, Yezidis, Kakai and Sabean Mandaeans – are under threat of death if they do not convert to Islam. There have been allegations that many of the women and girls who have been abducted by IS fighters, notably girls in their teens and early 20s, have been subjected to rape or sexual abuse, forced to marry fighters, or sold into sexual slavery.

At the same time, a handful of women from the West are reported to have freely moved to IS-controlled areas (see secret video of an IS-controlled street). Their stories add to the claims of legitimacy by the IS leaders. On the video, one French woman caught on video talking to her mother in France, explains, “I don’t want to come back, Mama, because I’m happy here. Everything you see on TV is fake, I swear to you, it’s not true. Do you understand? They exaggerate everything on TV.”

A new analysis of data by the Weekly Number shows that the denial of religious freedom contributes to gender inequality throughout the world. Extremist ideologies such as IS represent the complete loss of religious freedom, and when respect for a diversity of religious beliefs and practices disappears, gender inequality is often a result.

Religious minorities are especially vulnerable when the right to freedom of religion or belief, as recognized by the UN Declaration of Human Rights, is not protected. IS justifies its rampant disregard for life by citing ideological superiority. Hiding behind this claim, IS justifies ethnic cleansing by killing Yazidi men and boys, and calling the women and girls “pagans,” selling them into slavery if they refuse to convert.

Any solutions will need to address issues such as religious freedom, because religious freedom is not only tied to gender equality but also to more stable economies. Religious intolerance affects women’s ability to engage in and contribute to the economy. 

IS demonstrates the extreme instability that accompanies absolute religious intolerance. An already destabilized region is made even more so, leaving ancient minority faiths displaced and on the verge of being wiped out. 

PRESS RELEASE: The coupling of religious freedom & business provides solutions to the world's pressing socio-economic problems. Weekly Number author and Religious Freedom & Business Foundation President Brian Grim is discussing these solutions at major events across the world:

• Istanbul, Helsinki, London, Bristol, Oxford, Milan, Dubai, Brisbane, Sydney
• Washington, Boston, Provo, Miami

Stay up to date with the Foundation's Blog & Newsletter.

Religious hostilities are sweeping the globe, despite efforts by governments, religious groups and non-governmental organizations to hold them back.

According to the Pew Research Center, religious hostilities reached a six-year high in 2012, with a third (33%) of countries in the high category, up from 20% just six years earlier. 

The Islamic world is disproportionately affected. More than one-in-two (57%) Muslim-majority countries have high religious hostilities, more than double that of other countries (25%), as shown in the chart to the left. 

Although religious hostilities affect countries throughout the world experience, Muslim-majority countries consistently have higher levels of a range of religious hostilities than other countries and by wide margins. For instance, Muslim-majority countries are more than three times more likely than other countries to have religion-related war, terror or sectarian violence, as shown in the chart below.

These religious hostilities disrupt markets, trade and development in numerous parts of the Islamic World. This leads the talented young as well as risk-averse investors to look elsewhere for opportunity, compounding socio-economic conditions that contribute to the hostilities. 

By contrast, research indicates that economic competitiveness is stronger in countries where religious freedom is respected by governments and societies. 

Causes & Solutions
The typical government response to religious hostilities is to tighten restrictions on religion. But, contrary to common perceptions, a solid body of empirical and historical research shows that piling on additional restrictions does not ensure peace and stability, but rather can fuel additional grievances. Indeed, research shows that the price of denying religious freedoms is far higher than protecting them. 

Specifically, as social hostilities involving religion rise, government restrictions on religion rise, leading to more violence, setting up a religious violence cycle that become difficult to break, with direct adverse effects on business, foreign investment and world economies. Two examples help demonstrate how religious restrictions and hostilities are bad for business: 

(1) Blasphemy Laws. Pakistan’s speech-restricting blasphemy laws often sow discord rather than the purported aim of promoting peace, as two high ranking government officials were recently assassinated for merely questioning the laws. These laws also have a direct negative impact on businesses. There are “recorded instances of business or personal rivals accusing each other of blasphemy to extract revenge for a past grievance. The blasphemy laws in Pakistan have not only been used in cases where individuals have been accused of specific blasphemies, they have also been used to ban websites like Facebook, YouTube, and Wikipedia because of content that would be considered sacrilegious” (Tarin and Uddin 2013, p. 19). 

(2) Egypt: Religious Violence Cycle & the Economy. The religious violence cycle is playing out today in Egypt in the back-and-forth social and political struggle between the supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood and the coalition opposing them. Of course, this struggle directly impacts the important tourist industry, but it also drives away foreign investment. And this has adverse effects on foreign economies. 

To end the cycle of religious violence and its negative impact, observers of post-Mubarak Egypt concluded that all factions in society – including Islamists – must feel that their voices are heard and that “special attention should be paid to the economy …” (Shaikh and Ghanem 2013, p. 2). 

Also, as the role of women is debated within Islam and between Muslims in Egypt and countries ranging from Morocco and Iraq to Pakistan and Indonesia, religious restrictions on women also impact economic outcomes as the future health of economies is related to the economic opportunities afforded women. Furthermore, not only do religious restrictions have adverse effects on the economy, but a poor economy can reinforce religious intolerance, adding to the religious violence cycle. And perhaps most telling, as Egypt’s religion-related tensions have grown, Egypt’s young entrepreneurs desire to move outside the country rather put their hopes in their home.

–   “In God we trust, all others bring data.” - W. Edwards Deming
–   “We are drowning in information and starving for knowledge.” - Rutherford D. Roger

In the following paragraphs, I’ll apply these two provocative quotes, both from the preface of The Elements of Statistical Learning, to freedom of religion or belief with Deming’s goal for statistical data squarely in view: providing “a rational basis for action.”

Data
Growing Religion. The past decade has seen the largest social science effort to collect and analyze data on international religious demography resulting in a series of scholarly publications, including the World Religion Database (Brill), The World’s Religions in Figures (Wiley-Blackwell), The Global Religious Landscape (Pew Research) and, the just-released, Yearbook of International Religious Demography (Brill).

This body of research points to one thing – religion is growing and will continue to grow globally, with about 9-in-10 people projected to be affiliated with religion in 2030 compared with 8-in-10 in 1970, as shown in the chart. This growth is projected to occur despite trends toward disaffiliation in the global north, where population growth is stagnating. By contrast, populations are growing in the more religious global south.

Growing Restrictions on Freedom of Religion or Belief. In recent years, Pew Research has measured restrictions on religious freedom based on methods I developed with my Penn State colleague, Roger Finke. The results of these studies show that there has been a dramatic rise in the level of religious restrictions and hostilities. For instance, in 2007, fewer than 30% of countries had high restrictions on freedom of religion or belief, but by 2012, this figure increased to 43%. And because several of these countries are very populous, 76% of the world’s people – that’s 5.3 billion people – live with high government restrictions on religion and/or high social hostilities involving religion.

These data are clear – they point to a global religious freedom crisis that will become even more acute as the world becomes more religious and as global mobility mixes people and their beliefs at an unprecedented rate.

Knowledge
The data on religious freedom provide more than just information – they provide knowledge. Specifically, analysis of the data reveal two very important empirical relationships:

–   The combined effects of government and social restrictions on religious freedom lead to violent religious persecution and conflict.
–   The respect of freedom of religion or belief leads to peace and prosperity.

These relationships were first expounded in The Price of Freedom Denied: Religious Persecution & Conflict in the 20th Century (Cambridge University Press, 2011). The book convincingly demonstrated the restriction of freedom of religion or belief most directly leads to religious violence and persecution, not other factors such as Huntington’s civilization divides.

Peace and stability are particularly important for business because where stability exists, there are more opportunities to invest and conduct normal and predictable business operations, especially in emerging and new markets.

A recent study, “Is Religious Freedom Good for Business? A Conceptual and Empirical Analysis,” further investigated the relationship of religious freedom and business, and found religious freedom to be one of only three factors significantly associated with global economic growth, looking at 173 countries in 2011 and controlling for two-dozen different financial, social, and regulatory influences.

As the world navigates away from years of poor economic performance, freedom of religion or belief may be an unrecognized asset to economic recovery and growth, according to this new study. The study examines and finds a positive relationship between religious freedom and ten of the twelve pillars of global competitiveness, as measured by the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Index.

The new study observes that religious hostilities and restrictions create climates that can drive away local and foreign investment, undermine sustainable development, and disrupt huge sectors of economies. Perhaps most significant for future economic growth, the study notes that young entrepreneurs are pushed to take their talents elsewhere due to the instability associated with high and rising religious restrictions and hostilities – the very places where entrepreneurship is needed to bring economic possibilities to growing and restless populations.

Acting on Data and Knowledge

Based on these trends and empirical relationships, it is therefore in the interest of policy makers throughout the world to respect and protect freedom of religion or belief (FoRB), because FoRB promotes peace and stability, respects diversity, guards the rights of minorities and women, and creates environments where economic competitiveness flourishes and sustainable development is possible. It is also in the interests of businesses to protect religious freedom within their companies and communities. Indeed, businesses are at the crossroads of culture, creativity and commerce, and therefore can and should be among the most FoRB-Friendly institutions on earth. 

Less than half of all workers report that their companies have the following key policies related to religious freedom and diversity: 1) flexible work hours to permit religious observance or prayer (44%); 2) materials explaining the company's policy on religious discrimination (42%); 3) a policy to allow employees to "swap holidays" (21%); and 4) programs to teach employees about religious diversity (14%).

These findings are from a recent Tanenbaum survey, "What American Workers Really Think about Religion."

The survey notes that when it comes to addressing religion in the workplace, different religious groups have different needs for accommodation. For instance, a non-Christian may care more about the right to display a religious object or the right to pray during the day, while a Christian will be more concerned about attending service on Sunday. 

The survey found that the most commonly experienced or witnessed forms of religious non-accommodation are being required to work on Sabbath observances or religious holidays (24%) and attending company-sponsored events that did not include kosher, halal or vegetarian options (13%). 


Nearly half of non-Christian workers (49%) report experiencing or witnessing religious non-accommodation at work. White evangelical workers (48%) are equally as likely to report experiencing or witnessing religious non-accommodation at work. And two-in-five (40%) atheists also report experiencing or witnessing religious non-accommodation.

ABOUT THE SURVEY
Tanenbaum’s 2013 Survey of American Workers and Religion was conducted by Public Religion Research LLC among a random sample of 2,024 American adults (age 18 and up) who are currently employed in a part-time or full-time position and who are part of GfK’s Knowledge Panel. Interviews were conducted online in both English and Spanish between March 19 and April 1, 2013. The margin of sampling error is +/- 2.8 percentage points at the 95% level of confidence.

Tanenbaum is a secular, non-sectarian nonprofit that promotes mutual respect with practical programs that bridge religious difference and combat prejudice in schools, workplaces, health care settings and areas of armed conflict.