Bahamas, The
Executive Summary
The constitution states freedom of religion is a fundamental right; individuals may practice freely the religion of their choice or practice no religion at all. The law prohibits discrimination based on religion. Some Rastafarians continued to state the government violated their constitutional right to religious freedom by prohibiting the legal use of marijuana in ceremonial rituals and detaining them for its use. A February preliminary report by the Bahamas National Commission on Marijuana included a recommendation to grant Rastafarians and other religious groups the right to use marijuana for religious purposes. In October, Prime Minister Hubert Minnis announced the government would expunge records of individuals convicted for possession of small amounts of marijuana starting in 2021, although this would require parliament to pass legislation. The government regularly engaged the Bahamas Christian Council (BCC), comprising religious leaders from a wide spectrum of Christian denominations, to discuss societal, political, and economic issues.
There were no reports of significant societal actions affecting religious freedom.
U.S. embassy representatives met regularly with officials from the Office of the Prime Minister and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to discuss promoting tolerance and respect for religious diversity in the country. Embassy representatives also met with the president of the BCC, and representatives of the Muslim, Rastafarian, and Jewish communities to discuss the importance of societal tolerance for religious diversity and inquire about how government policies and practices, including COVID-19 restrictions, affected religious freedom.
Canada
Executive Summary
The constitution guarantees freedom of conscience, religion, thought, belief, opinion, expression, and the right to equal protection and benefit of the law without discrimination based on religion. The government does not require religious groups to register, but some registered groups may receive tax-exempt status. In November, the Quebec Court of Appeal reduced the sentence of a man to 25 years before eligibility for parole after he pled guilty in 2018 to six counts of first-degree murder for the 2017 killing of six worshippers at the Islamic Cultural Centre of Quebec. In November and December, a Quebec court concurrently heard challenges by four groups of plaintiffs, including the National Council of Canadian Muslims, Canadian Civil Liberties Association, the English Montreal School Board, a Quebec teachers union, and individuals to strike down as unconstitutional a provincial law prohibiting certain categories of government employees from wearing religious symbols while exercising their official functions. The law remained in force through year’s end. Provincial governments imposed societal restrictions on assembly, including for all faith groups, to limit the transmission of COVID-19, but some religious communities said provincial orders and additional measures were discriminatory. Quebec authorities imposed a temporary mandatory COVID-19 quarantine on a Hasidic Jewish community in a suburb of Montreal that some members said was discriminatory because it applied only to Jews, although the religious community had initiated the quarantine voluntarily. Some members of Hutterite colonies in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta said they experienced societal discrimination outside their communities due to provincial governments publishing outbreaks of COVID-19 in Hutterite communities. In January, Quebec Education Minister Jean-Francois Roberge announced plans to abolish the province’s ethics and religious culture course, compulsory in all Quebec schools since 2008 and taught from grades 1 to 11, with the exception of Grade 9. In May, Public Schools of Saskatchewan filed an application with the Supreme Court to appeal a March ruling by the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal that the provincial government continue to fund non-Catholic students attending Catholic schools. The public school plaintiffs stated the case had national implications, including for publicly-funded Catholic schools in Alberta and Ontario, and that conflicting judgments from lower courts required clarity from the country’s top court. In August, the Alberta Human Rights Commission ruled again in favor of two Muslim students barred in 2011 from praying at their nondenominational private school after the Supreme Court returned the case to the commission for a new hearing. The school said it would appeal the second finding of discrimination
Reports continued of anti-Muslim and anti-Semitic incidents, including cases of violence, hate speech, harassment, discrimination, and vandalism. In December, Statistics Canada released hate crime statistics for 2019 showing the number of police-reported religiously motivated hate crimes was 608 incidents, approximately 7 percent lower than in 2018. The B’nai B’rith League Canada for Human Rights recorded 2,207 reports of anti-Semitic incidents in 2019, compared with 2,041 in 2018. On September 18, police charged a male suspect with first-degree murder in the September 12 killing of a congregant in the parking lot of the International Muslim Organization of Toronto mosque in Rexdale, a Toronto neighborhood. Media reports linked the male suspect to white supremacist postings online. Toronto Police Services continued its investigation through December and did not rule out bringing additional hate crime charges. Unidentified individuals damaged statues outside Buddhist temples in Montreal in a series of attacks in February and March, including lion statues symbolizing protection smashed on two different occasions with a sledgehammer at the Quan Am Temple. In January, an unidentified individual pelted the National Holocaust Monument in Ottawa with eggs days after the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Embassy, consulate, and other U.S. government officials raised respect for religious freedom and diversity with the government. Embassy officials discussed strategies to combat religious intolerance through engagement with religious leaders, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and minority religious groups. The embassy sponsored and participated in public programs and events encouraging interfaith dialogue and freedom of religion. It funded two grants to Liberation75, organizations formed to mark the 75th anniversary of the Holocaust, combat anti-Semitism, and promote education and remembrance. In January, the Consul General in Quebec City hosted an event with representatives of One World Strong, an NGO that offers peer-to-peer support to survivors of terrorism, and the survivors of the 2017 attack at a Quebec City mosque. On September 24, the Consul General hosted 11 Catholic, Anglican, Baptist, Muslim, Jewish, and indigenous animist faith leaders at an interfaith breakfast in which they discussed religious freedom and the impact of COVID-19 on their communities. The embassy and consulates amplified activities and policy content from senior Department of State officials in Washington through social media.
Norway
Executive Summary
The constitution prohibits religious discrimination and protects the right to choose, practice, or change one’s faith or life stance (belief in a nonreligious philosophy). It declares the Church of Norway is the country’s established church. The government continued to provide the Church of Norway with exclusive benefits, including funds for salaries and benefits of clergy and staff. The government enacted a new law governing religious life in April that outlines how faith and life stance organizations with at least 50 registered members may apply for state subsidies, which are to be prorated as a percentage of the subsidy received by the Church of Norway based on group membership. A hate crime law punishes some expressions of disrespect for religious beliefs. On June 11, the Oslo District Court sentenced Philip Manshaus to 21 years’ imprisonment for the attack on an Islamic cultural center and the killing of his stepsister in 2019. In March, the Director of Public Prosecutions declined to bring a case to the Supreme Court after a court of appeals acquitted three men of hate speech charges arising from a 2018 incident when they raised a Nazi flag outside the site of a World War II Gestapo headquarters. The government continued to implement an action plan to combat anti-Semitism, particularly hate speech, and released a similar plan to combat anti-Muslim sentiment. The government continued to provide financial support for interreligious dialogue.
A total of 807 hate-motivated crimes were reported during the year, of which 16.7 percent were religiously motivated. This was the first decline following a period of strong increase. Several groups reported that anti-Semitic and anti-Islamic sentiment remained prevalent among extremist groups and that internet hate speech against Jews and Muslims increased during the year. On September 27, Yom Kippur, three members of the Nordic Resistance Movement handed out hate propaganda outside an Oslo synagogue. Stop the Islamization of Norway (SIAN) held a number of rallies during the year in different cities that received widespread media attention.
U.S. embassy officials met with officials from the Ministry of Children and Families to discuss the draft law on faith and life stance communities and public financing for faith and life stance organizations. In addition, embassy officials discussed with officials from the Ministry of Justice and Public Security and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs the government’s efforts to prosecute religiously based hate crimes as well as to promote religious freedom. The Charge d’Affaires hosted religious leaders from the Church of Norway, Roman Catholic Church, Jewish community, and Muslim Dialogue Network (MDN) at an event to promote interfaith dialogue. Embassy representatives continued to meet with individuals from nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and numerous faith and religious minority groups, including Christians, Muslims, Sikhs, Hindus, Jews, Uighur Muslims, and humanists, to discuss issues such as religious freedom and tolerance and the integration of minority groups. The embassy routinely used social media to share messages of religious tolerance and to highlight religious holidays and events.
Sudan
Executive Summary
The constitutional declaration signed in August 2019 includes several provisions protecting the right to freedom of religious belief and worship “in accordance with the requirements of the law and public order.” Unlike the former constitution, it makes no reference to “sharia” or Islamic religious law as a source of law, although the clause restricting the death penalty permits its imposition as sharia-sanctioned (hudud) punishment of certain crimes. Laws promulgated under the former constitution remained in effect while the civilian-led transitional government (CLTG) worked to amend or abolish those laws and pass new legislation within the framework of the constitutional declaration. In July, the CLTG ratified the Miscellaneous Amendments (Fundamental Rights and Freedoms) Act of 2020 (MAA), repealing the article of law that made apostasy a crime subject to capital punishment and instead criminalizing the act of accusing others of apostasy. The MAA did not repeal the article that criminalizes blasphemy, as some media erroneously reported. In July, the CLTG removed flogging as a punishment for blasphemy. Some criminal laws and practices established by the previous government led by Omar al-Bashir remained in effect, including blasphemy, and were based on that government’s interpretation of a sharia system of jurisprudence, which human rights groups stated did not provide protections for some religious minorities, including minority Muslim groups. The MAA rescinded laws under which authorities could arrest individuals for indecent dress and other reasons deemed injurious of honor, reputation, and public morality. It repealed the law prohibiting non-Muslims from drinking alcohol. In July, the rebel group Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N), active in the Blue Nile and South Kordofan States and led by Abdelaziz al-Hilu, extended and signed a cessation of hostilities. Among other measures, al-Hilu called for the separation of religion and state, with no role for religion in lawmaking. On September 3, Prime Minister (PM) Abdalla Hamdok and al-Hilu signed a declaration of principles that included the separation of religion and state. Media reported that on March 11, the government abolished all government-appointed church committees, which had been imposed under the Bashir government. In October, a judge acquitted Sudanese Church of Christ (SCOC) leadership of trespassing and illegal possession of SCOC properties charges. According to Church clergy, the SCOC dropped its lawsuit against the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Endowments (MRA) ending the long-standing ownership dispute over SCOC headquarters and other Church properties. According to Muslim religious leaders, the CLTG discontinued the practice that had been in place in years past of security forces monitoring imams’ sermons. Members of minority religious groups continued to express concerns regarding the education system, which lacked sufficient non-Muslim teachers to teach courses on Christianity and textbooks that promoted religious diversity.
Media reported several church burnings during the year. According to Radio Dabanga, unknown individuals burned down one SCOC church in Omdurman on February 29 and another in Bout Village, Blue Nile State, on March 9. Individuals attacked one SCOC church in Jabarona near Khartoum four times between December 18, 2019, and January 29. Church leaders there said they also received threats from individuals characterized as Muslim extremists living in the area. They said one threat stated, “If the government gives you permission to build a church here, they’d better be prepared to collect your dead bodies.” Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) reported that on August 14, unknown individuals set fire to a temporary straw church the congregation had built. SCOC members said one suspect was arrested in connection with the incident; however, arsonists who perpetrated the previous incidents remained at large. During the year, some Muslim clerics made anti-Semitic statements in response to reports that the government had begun exploring the normalization of relations with Israel. On February 5, in an interview with Tayba TV, Islamic scholar Abd al-Hayy Yousuf said, “We know that the Jews raise their children on the hatred of Muslims, and on the killing of the Arabs.” On March 1, Imam Abdallah Hassan Jiballah posted a video on the internet in which he said hatred and hostility towards Jews was part of Islam, and, “If there is something [in a treaty] that negates the faith of a Muslim, yet he still normalizes relations with them, this is haram. Such normalization is forbidden by sharia law.”
U.S. officials encouraged respect for religious freedom and the protection of minority religious groups. They urged repeal of apostasy and blasphemy laws. In addition, they highlighted the need for a new and inclusive education curriculum and urged government officials to abstain from the former regime’s practices, which included confiscating and demolishing religious properties. The U.S. embassy maintained close contact with religious leaders, faith-based groups, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). Embassy representatives monitored the state of religious freedom in the country and stressed the importance of religious tolerance among the various religious groups.
On December 2, in accordance with the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998, as amended, the Secretary of State removed Sudan from the Special Watch List, determining that it no longer engaged in or tolerated “severe violations of religious freedom.” Sudan had previously been designated as a Country of Particular Concern from 1999 to 2018 and was moved to the Special Watch List in 2019.