ICC Note:
A recent study has show that there are more incidents of religiously motivated violence in countries that lack religious diversity. Both Somalia and Afghanistan are among the least religiously diverse countries in the world and top the list for countries with the most religiously motivated incidents of violence. Across the Muslim world, Christians living in Muslim majority countries face daily persecution. Take a moment to pray for them today. 
4/6/2014 World (The Nation) – Pakistan, Afghanistan, India, Somalia, and Israel — countries with less religious diversity — top the list of countries with the most conflicts motivated by faith, according to a new American survey.
Faith-based violence include “armed conflict or terrorism, mob or sectarian violence, harassment over attire for religious reasons, or other religion-related intimidation or abuse,” according to a Pew Research Center report on the countries with the most and least religious diversity.
In terms of religious diversity, Afghanistan and Somalia are among the 10 least-diverse countries in the world, and Pakistan was also given a rating of “low” diversity. Israel and India are both considered only moderately diverse.
In Southeast Asia and the Middle East, Pakistan, which has large Christian and Hindu minority populations, scores 0.8 on PEW Research’s Global Religious Diversity Index that determines diversity on the basis of percentage of each country’s population that belongs to eight major religious groups.
Also, among Muslim countries Pakistan has far greater religious diversity than some large countries including Iran, Turkey and several Central Asian states. Pakistan’s population includes 96.4 per cent Muslims, 1.9 per cent Hindus, 1.6 per cent Christians, while other religious groups account for less than 0.1 per cent.
Among the countries with least religiously diverse populations are the Vatican City, Morocco, and Tokelau that all score 0 on the scale. Pakistan’s neighbour Afghanistan is also among the least religiously diverse states.
Almost all the Arab and Middle East countries including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates comparatively have more religiously diverse populations and score better on the scale from 0 to 10. Bangladesh and India have also more religious diversity but do not score high on the index.
According to the survey, the Asia-Pacific region, home to Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, and non-religious people, is the most diverse part of the world.
…
[Full Story]