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 >
