Previous chapters have shown that violent religious persecution rises as religious liberties fall. Or, stated more positively: when governments ensure religious freedoms for all, there is less violent persecution. Reviewing the empirical data, we have shown that when religious freedom is routinely denied, violent religious persecution and conflict are common. We also found that when a single religious group is dominant and holds access to the temporal power and privileges of the state, the ever-present temptation is to persecute religious competitors openly. Conversely, when religious freedoms are granted to all religions, and power to none, the state (and the culture as a whole) has less authority and incentive to persecute religion; consequently, violent religious persecution and conflict are less likely.

OVERVIEW OF CASE STUDIES

What the summary statistics of previous chapters fail to do, however, is to tell the stories of individual countries. In this chapter and the one that follows, we tell the stories of six countries. The case studies will look at how violent persecution is decreased by granting all individuals and religious groups the freedom to believe or not believe, to speak and worship openly (including proselytizing and converting), and to administer their religious affairs without government and social restrictions. This small sample of countries represents more than 45 percent of the world's population and includes countries that vary widely in their level of religious freedom (see Table 4.1). Some have extensive freedoms; others have relatively few.