This news story is a travesty. The finding that is highlighted and 
sensationalized is cherry picked from within the bowels of the original Pew 
report. That finding is not even mentioned in the executive summary. The title 
is completely misleading. 

Here is the link to the executive summary of the original Pew Report. 

http://pewforum.org/docs/?DocID=491

Here is the pertinent excerpt:

QUOTE
Some restrictions result from government actions, policies and laws. Others 
result from hostile acts by private individuals, organizations and social 
groups. The highest overall levels of restrictions are found in countries such 
as Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Iran, where both the government and society at 
large impose numerous limits on religious beliefs and practices. But government 
policies and social hostilities do not always move in tandem. Vietnam and 
China, for instance, have high government restrictions on religion but are in 
the moderate or low range when it comes to social hostilities. Nigeria and 
Bangladesh follow the opposite pattern: high in social hostilities but moderate 
in terms of government actions.
UNQUOTE

Please note that "the highest overall levels of restrictions are found in 
countries such as Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Iran", not India. Please note that 
this quote, although provided by Times of India, was not cherry picked for 
display on Goanet. The quote picked was one that showed India in the worst 
possible light.

India figures very high only in the social hostilities index, which is obvious 
because this index is skewed by hundreds of deaths due to war, military action, 
and religious extremist, left-wing extremist and terrorist violence in places 
like the Northeast and Kashmir, as indicated in the Pew methodology. The data 
were taken from only two time periods - July 1, 2006, through June 30, 2007, 
and July 1, 2007, through June 30, 2008.

There are 19 countries above India as far as state-sponsored religious 
restrictions are concerned, the most important measure of religious 
discrimination in any country. The only country that figures in the very high 
category in both government restrictions and social hostility index is Saudi 
Arabia. The title of the Times of India news story and in its text thoroughly 
misleads readers in this regard. The excerpts in the post appended below does 
worse.

India figures high only when you count the 25 most populous countries because 
of its very high social hostilities index and its population.

Cheers,

Santosh


--- On Tue, 12/22/09, Marshall Mendonza <mmendonz...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Excerpts:
>
> For 
> India<http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/On-religious-discrimination-India-next-only-to-Iraq-US-thinktank/articleshow/5363193.cms>,
> international recognition of its free and pluralistic
> society has always
> been hard to come by and while things are changing,
>
> they are clearly changing slowly. A study carried out by
> Washington-based
> Pew Research Centre, the highly respected US thinktank,
> said India is next
> only to Iraq when it comes to social hostility and
> religious discrimination
> perpetrated by individuals and groups.
>
> The study titled `Global Restrictions on Religion' took
> into account the
> situation in as many as 198 countries, North Korea being
> the only notable
> exception, to derive the conclusion. India was just below
> Iraq and well
> above countries like Saudi
> Arabia<http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/On-religious-discrimination-India-next-only-to-Iraq-US-thinktank/articleshow/5363193.cms>and
> Afghanistan when it came to social hostility in the
> country. Pakistan
> is
> at the third place right below India.
>
>
>
> http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/On-religious-discrimination-India-next-only-to-Iraq-US-thinktank/articleshow/5363193.cms
>


      

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