The World Bank reported this month that the five countries accounting for two-thirds of the world's 1.2 billion extreme poor are India (33% of all extreme poor), China (13%), Nigeria (7%), Bangladesh (6%) and the Democratic Republic of Congo (5%). While each - notably China, India and Nigeria - have growing classes of millionaires and billionaires, they also have the world's largest populations of people living on less than $1.25 per day, the extreme poor. 

Another thing these five countries share in common is that each is beset by religious hostilities significantly higher than the world median. Such hostilities include mob or sectarian violence, religion-related terrorism or conflict, organized attempts to dominate public life with a particular perspective on religion, harassment over attire for religious reasons, and other religion-related intimidation or abuse as measured by the Pew Research Center’s social hostilities involving religion index.

NIGERIA: On April 12, reports indicate that 135 more lives were claimed in ongoing armed attacks attributed to the Islamist Boko Haram group. Sola Tayo, a Nigeria expert at the London-based think tank Chatham House, said that if the attacks spread to the south of the country the effect on the economy would be “catastrophic,” adding that Boko Haram has threatened to strike Lagos, the country’s economic hub, and has more recently threatened to start attacking oil pipelines in the Niger Delta. This month, according to a new valuation, Nigeria is now recognized as Africa's largest economy. But doing business in Nigeria is "not a place for the faint-hearted," according to the Economist.

INDIA: As the general election proceeds this week, the shadow of sectarian violence continues, with troops standing guard to prevent clashes as happened last August in leaving scores of Muslims dead and 50,000 displaced in this Hindu-majority country. The likely prime minister may be Narendra Modi, a Hindu nationalist. Ilan Greenberg observes that Modi presents his platform, however, as singularly devoted to an agenda of economic growth and development. “Toilets not temples” is another of his slogans.

CHINA: Knife-wielding terrorist attacked a train station in Kunming, leaving nearly 30 dead and more than 100 injured. The attackers are suspected of being from minority Uighurs fighting for a separate homeland in northwest China. If the identities of the attackers are confirmed, the attack is a new and worrying escalation, spreading the violence far inland. And China's poverty is located in religious and ethnic regions. Though such minorities make up about 8% of the population, nearly 40% of China's poorest counties (230 of 592) are located in provinces or regions inhabited by ethnic minorities. 

BANGLADESH: Last month, human rights defenders from Bangladesh, gathered in Geneva at a meeting sponsored by the World Council of Churches (WCC), are calling the international community’s attention to the severe persecution of Bangladesh’s religious and ethnic minorities. They identified the rise of religious extremism, fundamentalism and lack of security as some of the major reasons behind human rights violations in the country. 

D.R. CONGO: Up to 50,000 children are at risk of being stigmatized and persecuted as witches due to economic downturns. According to UNICEF Child Protection Officer Eloge Olengabo, “Families who cannot fend for themselves frequently take refuge in the belief that their bad luck is rooted in the witchcraft of their offspring.” 

What can be done?
Such evidence suggests that solving problems of poverty cannot ignore religion and solving problems of religious freedom cannot ignore the problems of poverty. For an initiative aiming to address both, see the new Religious Freedom & Business Foundation's initiative to counter extremist radicalization.

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Current events in China and India highlight the religious challenges besetting the two Asian giants. Police in China's western Xinjiang region are cracking down on Muslims who promote jihad online as part of a nationwide clampdown on the internet. Reuters reports, however, activists claim the move is to quell criticism of harsh government policies. And the Times of India reports that the government has documented 479 incidents of sectarian violence this year alone, which has left 107 dead and 1,647 injured, including 794 Hindus, 703 Muslims and 200 police. Activists claim the situation is far worse than captured by the official statistics.

On October 17-18, scholars and politicians will convene a roundtable in Trento, Italy, to discuss the differing dynamics of religion-state configurations around the world, including those in India and China.*

China's central control extends not only to its Muslim regions, but to Tibet and into the affairs of virtually every religious group in the country. This includes forbidding cross-national relationships that are routine elsewhere, such as not allowing the Catholic hierarchy to be obedient to Rome. In India, by contrast, different dynamics are at play. Despite allowing religious groups to have substantial control over their own affairs - including having their own personal status laws - India's center is often hard pressed to adequately address religious tensions that erupt into violence.

Here are three important things to understand about the religious situation in each of Asia's two giants.**

1. China is more religious than you might think

It's true, according to Pew Research, that the majority of China's population (52%) is unaffiliated with any particular religion. But this does not mean that they are religiously inactive. For example, belief in God or a higher power is shared by 7% of Chinese unaffiliated adults and 44% of unaffiliated adults say they have worshiped at a graveside or tomb in the past year, according to a 2007 Spiritual Life Study of Chinese Residents survey.

More surprising to some is that nearly 300 million Chinese are affiliated with folk religions. Globally this means that more than seven-in-ten (73%) of the world’s folk religionists live in China.

China not only leads the world in the number of folk religionists, but also in the number of Buddhists. Some 244 million people in China adhere to Buddhism, making China home to half (50%) of the world’s 488 million Buddhists.

Moreover, China's 68 million Christians make China home to the world’s seventh-largest Christian population. China's approximately 25 million Muslims constitute the world's 17th largest Muslim population, right after Saudi Arabia (# 16) and before Yemen (#18).

And China has the world's second largest shares of people who belong to faiths in the “other religion” category (16%), many of whom are adherents of Taoism. The World Religion Database estimates there are more than 8 million Taoists worldwide.

2. Chinese government restrictions on religion predominate 

Although there is wide variation in the implementation of regulations on religion across the country, from mid-2007 until the end of 2011 Pew Research indicates that government restrictions on religion in the country have continued to remain at a very high level.

In China, religion is heavily monitored and regulated by central government agencies, most extensively by the State Administration for Religious Affairs (SARA). Chinese Communist Party (CCP) members, who make up a vast majority of public office holders, are required to be atheists.

The government’s heavy regulation of religion has led to three distinct religious markets: state sanctioned religious organizations, underground (banned) religious groups, and religious groups with “ambiguous legal status.”

The five state-sanctioned “patriotic religious associations” are Buddhist, Taoist, Muslim, Roman Catholic and Protestant. Religious groups belonging to these five associations are the only groups permitted to register with the government and hold worship services. Other religious groups, including Catholics professing loyalty to the Vatican, are not permitted to register as legal entities.

However, even state-sanctioned religious associations face restrictions, including restrictions on printing religious texts.  The government limits distribution of Bibles to government-approved churches, church bookshops and seminaries – preventing individuals from ordering Bibles directly from publishing houses.

Tibetan Buddhists in the country are not free to venerate the Dalai Lama and the government continues to attempt to exert control over Tibetan religious traditions. Through the Management Measures on Reincarnation regulations, the government officially controls the selection of reincarnate lamas and other Tibetan religious leaders.

3. Social hostilities involving religion are on the rise in China

In China, religious and ethnic minority groups, such as Tibetan Buddhists and Uighur Muslims, continue to face social discrimination, tension and violence. A recent Pew Research study note that increasing numbers of Buddhist monks, nuns and laypeople protested government policies toward Tibet by setting themselves on fire. For instance, two Tibetan lay people, ages 60 and 65, were beaten and killed by police in April 2011 at the Kirti monastery, where they stood in protest against the harsh treatment of Tibetan monks. And in February 2013, a former Tibetan Buddhist monk became the 100th person to protest restrictions in Chinese-governed Tibet after he killed himself by self-immolation in Sichuan Province.

Communal tension and violence continued between Han Chinese and Uighur Muslims in the Xinjiang region and between multiple ethnic and religious groups in Tibetan areas (including Han, Hui Muslim, Tibetan Buddhists, and Tibetan Muslims).

1. Virtually everyone in India is religious

Statistically speaking fewer than 0.1% of Indians report that they have no religion, according to a Pew Research analysis. Over 973 million Hindus live in India, comprising more than nine-in-ten (94%) of the world’s Hindus.    
Although Muslims are a minority in India (14% of the total population), India nonetheless has one of the largest Muslim populations in the world (in raw numbers).
Although each accounting for less than 1% of the country’s total population, India is also home to one of the largest Buddhist and Folk religionist populations outside of China. Over 9 million Buddhists and nearly six million adherents of folk religions live in India.
India has the largest share (47%) of all members of other religions, including millions of Sikhs and Jains – amounting to over 27 million people.

2. Social hostilities involving religion are prevalent in India

From mid-2007 until the end of 2011, religious hostilities in the country have continued to remain at a very high level, according to an ongoing study by the Pew Research Center.

As noted above, communal violence occurs somewhat regularly in the country. The U.S. State Department's 2012 international religious freedom report for India noted that many incidents were linked to politics, conversion, retaliation or economic competition for scarce resources among religious communities. In November 2012 the Indian government reported 560 cases of communal violence between January and October of that year. In Uttar Pradesh alone, there were over 100 communal clashes during the year, leaving 34 dead.

According to the State Department, the BJP, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), and other affiliated Hindu nationalist organizations (collectively known as the Sangh Parivar) publicly claimed to respect and tolerate other religious groups; however, the RSS opposed conversions from Hinduism and expressed the view that all citizens, regardless of their religious affiliation, should adhere to Hindu cultural values, which they claimed were the country’s values.

Conversion remains a contentious issue. For example, conversion of Hindus or members of lower castes to Christianity sometimes contributed to religion-related social hostilities. Hindu nationalist organizations alleged that Christian missionaries lured Hindus into conversions through various educational and healthcare incentives. While Christians contend that Hindus converted of their own free will and that Hindu groups’ attempts to “reconvert” new Christians to Hinduism were accompanied by offers of financial compensation.

3. Government restrictions on religion in India are often a local affair

In comparison with central government controls of religion in China, India’s government restrictions on religion are often locally driven. The central government of India offers some legal protections for minority religious groups, however such freedoms are often perceived as a threat to social and cultural unity at the local level. Because of the strength of local restrictions on religion in India, Pew Research studies characterize overall restrictions as high.

Although the BJP, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and other Hindu nationalist organizations oppose conversions from Hinduism and assert that all citizens, regardless of their religious affiliation, should adhere to Hindu cultural values, which they see as the country’s values.

The National Commission for Minorities Act recognizes five religious communities – Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Parsis (Zoroastrians) and Buddhists – as minority communities. The law provides that the government will protect these religious minority groups and encourage conditions to promote their individual identities.

There are also different state laws that are only applicable to certain religious communities, known as personal laws. The government allows significant autonomy to personal status law boards in crafting these laws. Hindu, Christian, Parsi (Zoroastrian) and Islamic laws are legally recognized. Local authorities reportedly used part of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) to restrict minority religious groups. For example, one provision prohibits “promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion…and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony.” While, another provision prohibits “deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs.” Local authorities typically alleged that information in pamphlets or discussions at gatherings were injuring the religious sentiments of members of the majority religious group.

There are “anti-conversion” laws in five of the 28 states, state governments enforce existing “anti-conversion” laws, as protective measures to prevent individuals from being induced to change their faith.

Despite the National Commission for Minorities Act, some local police and enforcement agencies reportedly have failed to respond effectively to communal violence, including attacks against religious minorities. For instance, last October, Hindu nationalists reportedly attacked a group of Christians attending a baptism ceremony in Khantapada, Odisha. Following the alleged attack, local police officers arrested 20 of the Christian parishioners, instead of the attackers.

* The meeting is hosted by the Institute for International Political Studies (ISPI), the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Autonomous Province of Trento.
** Angelina Theodorou provided valuable assistance with this analysis.

As the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) takes up the issue of religious harassment and persecution in its 24 Sept. meeting in Warsaw, dozens are dead and scores injured as members of the Somalia-based Islamist group al-Shabaab attacked an upscale shopping mall in Kenya's capital, Nairobi.

And the following incidents occurred just in the past week:
•  Sectarian riots 127 km northwest of India's capital New Delhi killed at least 31 people and forced hundreds to flee from their homes in a sign of rising tension between Hindus and Muslims. Mehrana, a 6-year-old girl injured in the sectarian clashes (pictured), gets treatment at a district hospital in Muzaffarnagar.

Here are 6 findings from the Pew Research Center about harassment of religious groups as the OSCE and others grapple with this issue (see point 6 for details on Europe).

1. As the incidents from last week mentioned above show, harassment and intimidation by governments or social groups take many forms, including physical assaults, arrests and detentions, the desecration of holy sites and discrimination against religious groups in employment, education and housing. Harassment and intimidation also include such things as verbal assaults on members of one religious group by other groups or individuals.

2. Overall, across the five years of the Pew Research study, religious groups were harassed in a total of 185 countries at one time or another. Adherents of the world’s two largest religious groups, Christians and Muslims – who together comprise more than half of the global population – were harassed in the largest number of countries, 145 and 129 respectively. Jews, who comprise less than 1% of the world’s population, experienced harassment in a total of 90 countries, while members of other world faiths were harassed in a total of 75 countries.

3. Harassment or intimidation of specific religious groups occurred in 160 countries in 2011, the same number as in the year ending in mid-2010, according to the Pew Research study. In 2011, government or social harassment of Muslims was reported in 101 countries; the previous high was 96 countries in the first year of the study. Jews were harassed in 69 countries in 2011, about the same as the year before (68 countries, which was the previous high). As noted above, harassment of Christians continued to be reported in the largest number of countries (105), although this represented a decrease from the previous year (111).

4. In 2011, some religious groups were more likely to be harassed by governments, while others were more likely to be harassed by individuals or groups in society. Jews, for instance, experienced social harassment in many more countries (63) than they faced government harassment (28), according to the Pew Research study. Similarly, followers of folk and traditional faiths faced social harassment in four times the number of countries (21) as they faced government harassment (5). By contrast, members of other world faiths, such as Sikhs and Baha’is, were harassed by some level of government in about twice as many countries (39) as they were by groups or individuals in society (18).

5. Government or societal initiatives to reduce religious restrictions or hostilities were reported in 150 of 198 countries, or 76% of all the countries and territories studied. The most common types of initiatives, in descending order of prevalence, were: interfaith dialogue; efforts to combat or redress religious discrimination; educational and training initiatives; and land- or property-related initiatives. For examples of each type, see the full Pew Research analysis.

6. In Europe, Muslims and Christians faced harassment by government officials or policies in the largest share of countries in 2011 (49% and 36% respectively), while Jews and Muslims faced harassment by individuals or groups in society in the largest share of countries (69% and 64% respectively).

For instance, the European Court of Human Rights recently found that British law does not adequately protect an employee’s right to display religious symbols in the workplace – such as wearing a cross. In France, a Rabbi and several Jewish school children were gunned down in a brazen act of terror. In Russia, the Mayor of Moscow has limited the number of mosques to four despite a growing Muslim population, which numbers more than 1 million due to migration. This means – per mosque – hundreds of thousands of people would have to squeeze into spaces meant only for hundreds.

Finally, although it is much more common for Jews to be harassed by individuals and groups in society, there has been a fivefold increase in the number of countries where government harassment occurred. Government harassment of Jews occurred in 22% of European countries in 2011, up from 4% in 2007.

For a discussion of global social hostilities involving religion and government restrictions on religion with Europe's place in relation to other regions, see my TEDx Talk.

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