The 2010 International Religious Freedom Report has revealed that Christian churches and schools no longer exist in Afghanistan.
The report, which is published annually by the U.S. State Department, states that the last remaining church was demolished in March 2010 and that only “[Private] chapels and churches for the international community of various faiths are located on several military bases…and at the Italian embassy.”
Religious freedom has been steadily eroding in Afghanistan, a country that is almost entirely made up of Muslims, while those in the nation’s minority Christian population have become the targets of rising societal ostracism and persecution. According to the State Department, most Afghan Christians are afraid to “state their beliefs or gather openly to worship.” Former Muslims who converted to Christianity are especially at risk of losing their marriages, extended family, and even their jobs.
While the report claims that the lack of public, non-Muslim religious centers and places of worship are the result of the government’s limited financial resources, Afghanistan’s new constitution has also become a source of ambiguity — and some controversy — on the issue of personal religious freedom. The post-Taliban constitution, which was drafted in 2004, declares that “followers of other religions are free to exercise their faith and perform their religious rites within the limits of the provisions of the law,” while also stating that Islam is the “religion of the state” and that “no law can be contrary to the beliefs and provisions of…Islam.”