In 2006, Brian Grim and Roger Finke noted that religion was largely absent from international quantitative studies, partly due to a lack of high-quality data. Today, this gap has narrowed significantly, with many sophisticated Freedom of Religion or Belief (FoRB) datasets now available. Despite this progress, two main challenges persist. First, many FoRB datasets fail to capture violations of certain dimensions of religious freedom simply because they don’t account for them in their variables. Second, state and non-state actors are increasingly adept at concealing these violations, making them harder to detect.
These limitations inspired the Center for the Study of Law and Religion, Canopy Forum, and the International Institute for Religious Freedom to launch the “Masking Religious Freedom Violations” essay series and symposium. Our goal is to highlight overlooked forms of religious discrimination, address data collection gaps, and propose better policy responses. Additionally, we aim to explore new frameworks to understand the complexities of religious discrimination.
In this essay, I begin by introducing some of the multiple dimensions of religious freedom. I then introduce the concept of masking religious freedom violations. Next, I present evidence of masking religious freedom violations from my research in Latin America. I also explore two conceptual lenses that could provide solutions: human security and political economy. Finally, I call for improved frameworks and language to better capture the full spectrum of religious discrimination.
