More than 60 scholars from the U.S. and abroad representing a variety of disciplines and religions participated in the survey. Nonetheless, India's Muslim minority and smaller Christian minority have come under increasing attack in an atmosphere of inflamed Hindu nationalism, the report states, especially in Gujarat. Persecution has included destruction of churches, rape, and murder, among other things. Since late 1998, the report claims, attacks have increased in number. This fall, for example, a mob in the state of Orissa killed a Roman Catholic and a nun was kidnapped in Bihar, an eastern state.
Contemporary conflict seems to be taking on an increasingly religious nature.
In Indonesia, violence appears to be marked by escalating religious rhetoric and stated religious motivation. In 1999, inter-communal fighting between Muslims and Christians in Ambon resulted in hundreds of deaths. Neither Hamas nor Hezbollah existed 30 years ago, he pointed out. Religious freedom is not a Western phenomenon. In France, for example, the prime minister and the president together issued a decree in 1998 establishing an anti-cult task force possessed of broad investigatory powers.