An organization called the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF)  monitors freedom of religion in  countries around the world.  They then make recommendations to the U.S. State Department that action be taken against these countries although in fact generally little or no action is taken.  There is no discrimination by Religion in their reports - Christian, Hindu or Muslim discrimination are all equally monitored for atrocities or lesser problems.

Countries identified with a problem are then listed as

• Countries of particular concern - these are countries that a major offenders in their curbing of religious freedom.
• Watch list countries - these countries are at less than the desirable level of freedom.

A report is issued annually in May and the 2009 report is available here.

The following list was taken from that report although India has been added based on a follow-up release issued in August.

It's fairly clear that Muslim countries are the most common offender - in fact I don't think any Muslim country is missing from the list!  I'm surprised that Somalia is only on the watch list but I'm pleased to see Afghanistan, Egypt, Indonesia and Turkey on the watch list.  This shows that it is possible for Muslim countries to be more moderate than others - like Sudan and Saudi Arabia - who claim that their extreme behaviour is required to comply with Islamic teachings.

Although USCIRF does not spell it out, it is obvious to me that people in the Countries of Particular Concern have no freedom of religion. And people in the watch list countries have limits to their freedom of religion.

Of course, freedom of religion is but a first step to freedom from religion which is when there will be true individual freedom for everyone.

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