The good folks at the Becket Fund have returned from a fact-finding mission in Sri Lanka. Here’s a summary of their investigation of religious persecution:

While Americans worry about religious radicalization in the Middle East, most of them don’t know that it’s increasingly happening in South Asia. There has been a recent wave of anti-conversion and anti-blasphemy bills in India, Pakistan, Indonesia, and Sri Lanka. Religious minority groups, particularly Christians, are being attacked, their leaders beaten, their houses of worship burned down. Religious majority groups, which in the various countries include Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists, are becoming ever more militant and radicalized in these areas. Americans understand the dangers that can arise from such situations, no matter where in the world.

Two attorneys from our organization, The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, came back this week from a fact-finding mission in Sri Lanka. The Becket Fund is an international, interfaith, public-interest law firm that has protected the free expression of all religious traditions for a decade. Our lawyers are available for interview, and we also have many photographs from the trip. We have testimonials from clergy members there, and many contacts in the country.

On Tuesday, the Sri Lankan parliament will vote on a bill that would effectively outlaw all conversions in the country. Violence against minority religious groups, mostly Catholics and other Christians, but also including Muslims and Hindus, will almost certainly increase. Buddhism is the majority religion there, and a particularly militant strain predominates. Our lawyers spoke to pastors who have been beaten. They saw churches which have been burned to the ground. World Vision and its local partners have been attacked. Female Christian workers have been sexually assaulted.

Many Americans think of Sri Lanka only when putting on apparel with a “Made in Sri Lanka” tag. They have no idea that religious freedom is readily becoming extinct there. And they have no idea that Christianity, a religion to which the majority of Americans subscribe, is particularly under attack.

Much more here.

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