© Ann Hermes/TCSMA young boy sits next to Coptic Christian graffiti in an alley as Muslim women pass by on June 25, 2013 in Abu Qurqas, Egypt. Violence erupted in the village of Abu Qurqas located in the Minya province, after dispute between local Coptic Christians and Muslims broke out in April 2011, resulting in fatalities and the burning of several homes.
Global religious hostilities, including government restrictions on how individuals can practice their faith and conflicts between communities of different faiths, reached a six-year high in 2012, according
to the Pew Research Center.
One-third of the 198 countries and territories included in the study, released this week, had a high level of religious restrictions, with an even greater share affected by religiously-based social hostilities that included verbal abuse, overt hate crimes, and murder.
"This is the first time that this study has found that
social hostilities involving religion affect a larger share of the world's population than government restriction on religious freedom," says Brian Grim, the principal investigator for all five studies.
But even as observers pointed to greater global migration and integration with people of different faiths as a root cause, they also suggested such mingling could ultimately help ease religious tensions.
Religious harassment has been present in 185 countries since Pew first began to quantify religious freedom in 2007. Christians have faced the most widespread harassment, with Muslims running a close second. Overall levels of religious hostility have heightened in every region of the globe except for the Americas.
Indeed, many theologians say that independent research over the past several years has also suggested that "intolerance is on the march," something they attribute to political instability and greater interconnectivity.
Comment: The elite should feel nervous. In times of catastrophe and societal collapse the population turns against its leaders.