“Pew Research Center” has published a detailed report on what it described as “religion-based violence” across the five continents. The report highlighted the Middle East and North Africa region as having the highest local violence index, with an increase from 3.5 in 2020 to 3.6 in 2021.
Asia and the Pacific region followed with an average score increase from 1.8 to 1.9 between 2020 and 2021, while the African continent, particularly the Sahel region and Nigeria, ranked third with an increase from 1.2 to 1.3 during the same period.
The report mentioned that Afghanistan witnessed an increase in attacks carried out by the terrorist organization ISIS, targeting both the Taliban movement and Shia minorities.
In October 2021, suicide bombers targeted a Shia mosque in Kunduz province, resulting in the martyrdom of dozens of Shia Hazara followers. This was followed by a separate attack on the largest Shia mosque in Kandahar province in the same month, where 47 people were martyred and around 70 others were injured.
The deliberate targeting of followers of the Ahlul Bayt (peace be upon them) in this region of the world was also highlighted by Pew Research Center. The Shia Hazara community in Pakistan was also a victim of terrorist attacks by ISIS and the Pakistani Taliban, who also targeted other religious minorities such as Hindus and Ahmadi Muslims in Pakistan throughout the year.
In the Middle East and North Africa region, Syria experienced the highest levels of local violence in 2021, marking the tenth year of conflict in the country. Syrian opposition groups supported by Turkey targeted religious and ethnic minorities in areas under their control, leading the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom to describe these crimes as “acts of religious and ethnic cleansing.”
