Religious Freedom

Many Muslim-majority countries in North Africa and West Asia do not offer adequate protection of religious freedom to Christian minorities. Their constitutional commitments to freedom of religion often do not meet the standards of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. When Islam is defined as the state religion, conversion of Muslims is prohibited, and public practice of other religions is limited, there is no true religious freedom. This lack of legal protection gives tacit permission to non-government actors to persecute and discriminate against Christians. Religious diversity in the region is under especially serious threat since the rise of Daesh (ISIS) in Syria and Iraq in 2014.