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posted by on Thursday April 20 2017, @01:08PM   Printer-friendly
from the natural-enemies dept.

Government restrictions on religion and social hostilities involving religion increased in 2015 for the first time in three years, according to Pew Research Center's latest annual study on global restrictions on religion.

The share of countries with "high" or "very high" levels of government restrictions – i.e., laws, policies and actions that restrict religious beliefs and practices – ticked up from 24% in 2014 to 25% in 2015. Meanwhile, the percentage of countries with high or very high levels of social hostilities – i.e., acts of religious hostility by private individuals, organizations or groups in society – increased in 2015, from 23% to 27%. Both of these increases follow two years of declines in the percentage of countries with high levels of restrictions on religion by these measures.

Among the world's 25 most populous countries, Russia, Egypt, India, Pakistan and Nigeria had the highest overall levels of government restrictions and social hostilities involving religion. Egypt had the highest levels of government restrictions in 2015, while Nigeria had the highest levels of social hostilities.

Global Restrictions on Religion Rise Modestly

Does this reflect your personal experience ?


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  • (Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Thursday April 20 2017, @09:47PM (1 child)

    by Grishnakh (2831) on Thursday April 20 2017, @09:47PM (#497082)

    That's a good analysis, but remember that other western countries (mainly western Europe, plus places like Aus/NZ, Japan, and even Hispanic nations in Latin America, etc.) also have very similar medical systems with a lot of sharing between them, but the circumcision thing is mainly American. So why did America get stuck on it, but no one else did?

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  • (Score: 2) by AthanasiusKircher on Thursday April 20 2017, @10:44PM

    by AthanasiusKircher (5291) on Thursday April 20 2017, @10:44PM (#497098) Journal

    It seems to be an English-language thing, likely because most of the doctors promoting the early theories spoke and wrote in English. The UK, Australia, etc. had high rates too. According to this [wikipedia.org], a 2005 poll in Australia had 58% of males saying they were circumcised. (There's a marked decline in circumcision for infants, but traditionally it was much higher.) And there are countries (e.g., South Korea) which have a high rate of circumcision solely due to contact and influence of Americans.

    Apparently the UK had a high rate of circumcision too until the late 1940s, when a combination of a prominent article pointing out the flawed science and the founding of the new National Health Service (which refused to include it in its list of covered services) caused its incidence to drop dramatically. Canada had the same trend, where rates were high until the 1970s or so, and then provinces started dropping coverage for the procedure (unless medically necessary), so its use has been declining there significantly too.

    Basically, it's mostly an English language thing within medicine. And apparently Americans keep doing it because insurance covers it.