Britain scrambles fighter jets to escort Pakistani passenger plane
According to the report prepared by the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU), Islamic countries of Afghanistan and Pakistan are the places where atheists face some of the worst discrimination, including capital punishment.
In many countries people have to be registered members of some officially recognized religion if they want to receive medical services, drive, attend university or travel abroad. Non-believers are forced to lie.
Non-believers won’t feel much safer in North America or Europe, the report claims.
In seven US states atheists are barred from public office by constitutional provisions. In Arkansas there is “a law that bars an atheist from testifying as a witness at a trial.”
In Canada Catholic schools receive funding from the state, while other religious schools do not.
In Britain children are turned away from local state-funded schools because of their parents’ religious beliefs.
In Poland Dorota Rabczewska, a musician, was fined $1,450 for ‘offending religious feelings’ when she said in a 2012 interview that the Bible is full of “unbelievable tales.”
The report was praised by Heiner Bielefedt, the UN Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Religion or Belief, who reminded that international human rights protections apply as much to atheists and religious skeptics, as they do to other groups.
Voice of Russia, RT
