A report by the Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion and Public Life indicates that religious harassment is on the rise across the world. According to the findings, people of faith have been under increasing attack by their government, and social hostilities toward them have escalated as well.

Fox News notes: "The report ... looked at statistics and government data spanning from 2006 to 2009, and use[d] such criteria as government crackdowns on religion and social hostility, including religious[ly]-motivated bias, beatings and murder, to determine which countries were the least tolerant to religion."

The report found that "restrictions on religious beliefs and practices rose between mid-2006 and mid-2009 in 23 of the world’s 198 countries (12%), decreased in 12 countries (6%) and remained essentially unchanged in 163 countries (82%)."

Click here to read the entire article.

Photo of Egyptian Copt holding a Coptic Christian cross: AP Images