Religious minorities most vulnerable to suffer persecution - report

An annual report released by the U.S. State Department revealed that the most likely targets suffering religious persecution around the world happen to be religious minorities.

The "2015 Annual Report on International Freedom (IRF)" released last Wednesday revealed that almost a quarter of the countries across the globe restricts religious freedom among their people.

"Around the world, governments continued to tighten their regulatory grip on religious groups, and particularly on minority religious groups and religions which are viewed as not traditional to that specific country," said the report.

The report also blamed these countries impartial exercise of "chilling, sometimes deadly effect" of blasphemy and apostasy laws.

"Such laws conflict with and undermine universally recognized human rights," says the report.

The report especially cited predominantly Islamic countries such as Pakistan, Sudan, Saudi Arabia and Mauritania, where those convicted could die through death penalty or extrajudicial killings.

The mass atrocities carried out by the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS or Daesh) militia and Boko Haram, two of the most destructive terrorist groups last year, also contributed to the abuses on religious freedom.

ISIS continues its jihad or religious war and vowed to kill all apostates in the name of Allah while Boko Haram's new leader, Abu Musab al-Barnawi, threatened to kill all Christians in Nigeria and to burn down their churches.

Members of the European Parliament (MEP) Peter van Dalen and Dennis de Jong for the European Parliament Intergroup on Freedom of Religion or Belief and Religious Tolerance (FoRB&RT) also blamed ISIS for the religious persecution of Christians and religious minorities.

They revealed an alarming rate of religious persecution worldwide through a report, "Annual Report on the State of Freedom of Religion or Belief in the World 2015-2016," released June 30.

"Our beliefs are at the core of our human dignity – tragically, however, today not everyone enjoys the freedom to hold and manifest their beliefs," said Van Dalen. "Freedoms of religion or belief must be higher on the EU's agenda."