Freedom of Worship Is on the Decline in Many Countries

State restrictions on freedom of worship are concentrated in the Middle East and North Africa, the origin of the Abrahamic faiths. In that region, 95% of governments engage in harassment and the use of force against religious groups, with Egypt's policies the sternest of all. However, European countries, including some of the continent's secular liberal democracies, can be intolerant as well. Pew found more than 200 cases of government constraints on religious groups not only in Russia, which forbids some forms of public religious practice, but also in France, which maintains a ban on face-coverings in public spaces.